SH in Disadvantaged Communities - Recently Updated Pages

Recent news, upcoming events

dmccall — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:34:19 CDT

This page lists news and upcoming events related to the central role of schools in disadvantaged communities.

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Final Reports from the WHO Commission on Social Determinants
Early Child Development
- Final report of the Early Child Development Knowledge Network [pdf 7.63Mb]
- Evidence Report: Total Environment Assessment Model for Early Child Development [pdf 7.94Mb]
Globalisation
- Final report of the Globalisation Knowledge Network [pdf 5.04Mb]
Health Systems
- Final report of the Health Systems Knowledge Networks [pdf 1.19Mb]
Urban Settings
- Final report of the Urban Settings Knowledge Network [pdf 4.62Mb]
- Synopsis of the final report [pdf 12.77Mb]
Employment Conditions
- Final report of the Employment Conditions Knowledge Network [pdf 1.30Mb]
Women and Gender Equity
- Final report of the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network [pdf 753kb]
Measurement and Evidence
- Final report of the Measurement and Evidence Knowledge Network [pdf 618kb]
- Guide to constructing the evidence base on Social Determinants of Health [pdf 1.38Mb]
Social Exclusion
- Final report of the Social Exclusion Knowledge Network [pdf 1.15Mb]
Background papers and additional documents
- Background papers and additional documents

Comprehensive, coordinated school health programs in the context of disadvantaged communities

dmccall — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:50:58 CDT

This page lists a variety of programs, resources, and research that reflect a need for a comprehensiveapproach to school health programs in disadvantaged communities.

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Linking School and Community Efforts to Alleviate Disadvantage
School-based and school-linked efforts to alleviate disadvantage should be placed within the context of community and societal efforts. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Health Policy Institute (www.unnaturalcauses.org) has identified twelve braod strategies that can be used as a context for school policies programs and services. A summary of thiose 12 strategies and several US organizations are listed in the document attached to this page.

Special issue of the Canadian Journal of Public Health on Disparities
Topics in this CIHR funded issue include health literacy, aboriginal health and the delivery of health care services.

RESEARCH

Draft paper - for input:
Several comprehensive approaches have been developed for schoolsto better support students indisadvantaged communities, including:
Healthy Schools, Community Schools, Safe Schools, and Effective Schools. The paper attached below is a draft attempt to group the issues, provide examples of successful programs and approaches, and explore the potential to tie it all together. This paper was drafted by Doug McCall, Canadian Association of School Health, with the hope that there will be input and feedback from others working in the area.

Examples of COMPREHENSIVE APPROACHES to alleviating disadvantage

Community Schools - US
From the Coalition for Community Schools website
A community school is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Its integrated focus on academics, health and social services, youth and community development and community engagement leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier communities. Schools become centers of the community and are open to everyone – all day, every day, evenings and weekends.Using public schools as hubs, community schools bring together many partners to offer a range of supports and opportunities to children, youth, families and communities. Partners work to achieve these results:

Children are ready to learn when they enter school and every day thereafter. All students learn and achieve to high standards.
Young people are well prepared for adult roles in the workplace, as parents and as citizens.
Families and neighborhoods are safe, supportive and engaged.
Parents and community members are involved with the school and their own life-long learning.

Community Schools - Canada
In Canada, the Saskatchewan Community Schools Association provides links to information through its newsletters and other resources. There are over 100 designated Community Schools in Sasketchewan. The current copy of their newsletter, with an overview of the lobbying efforts of the organization with government, and the commitment of staff, parents, and partners involved, is available by emailing Delphine Melchert, President at: DMelchert@srsd119.ca.

Healthy Schools - UK
From the website,
The National Healthy Schools Program takes a whole school approach to physical and emotional well-being, and focuses on four core themes:

Personal, Social & Health Education
Healthy Eating
Physical Activity
Emotional Health & Wellbeing

The whole school approach involves working with children and young people, parents, school staff and the whole school community to provide a solid foundation from which developments and improvement are embedded in a systematic way. These processes contribute to the physical and emotional development of all members of the school community.

96% of schools in the United Kingdom have joined the program, 56% have achieved healthy school status, and the program is currently conducting a multi-year evaluation.

Intervention in Disadvantaged Schools - Quebec
New Approaches, New Solutions: fostering success for Secondary Students in Disadvantaged Areas, is a government program of intervention adopted in over 200 schools in Quebec. Click here to learn more about the project, and itsgoals to partner with local and regional communities, provide better support to parents and schools, and guarantee equal opportunties for students.

Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction - Hamilton, Ontario
The HRPR is a community-wide effort to tackle the problem of poverty in Hamilton and promote prosperity for all Hamiltonians. A number of different aspects of the HRPR have been written about. See the separate page on the Hamilton initiative that is attached to this page.

Educational, Planning, Policy & Training Resources on Comprehensive Approaches

Crossing Sectors- Experiences in Intersectorial Action
(Public Health Agency of Canada, 2007)
The paper provides an overview of approaches to intersectoral action at the global, sub-regional, national, sub-national, and community levels.

Community Schools

Gay_S. — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:56:39 CDT

Greetings from People for Education in Ontario

We're very pleased to join this community of practice! People for Education is an independent parent-led organization. For the last 12 years, we've been working to improve public education in Ontario's English, Catholic and French schools by doing research, providing clear, accessible information to the public, and by engaging people to become actively involved in education issues in their own community. To see more of we do, you can visit our website at www.peopleforeducation.com

In May/08, we released our Annual Report on Ontario Schools saying that across North America, education communities are coming to realize that schools are the ideal place to offer programs, supports, services and education that families, children and youth need. And it can be part of the solution to declining enrolment; we are looking for innovative ways to fill empty space in our schools to keep them viable. In our report, we asked for provincial leadership and policy that would provide structure and support for community schools, so that schools are integrated into municipal planning and services for children, youth and families are integrated across provincial Ministries. If you'd like to read the report, just click on this link to download a copy: http://www.peopleforeducation.com/reportonschools08

In Ontario, our organization is advocating for community schools in all communities. We were pleased that the Minister of Education stated recently that she has three current priorities: Equity, Poverty, and Declining Enrolment and she was hopeful that integration of services would help to address each of them. So we are hopeful!

We are planning to send two representatives to the CASE annual conference in Regina this fall. We look forward to meeting many of you then!

Greetings from Delphine Melchert – President of the Saskatchewan Community Schools Association

Hello to everyone who attended the April 20/21 Symposium on Disadvantaged Communities. I am so sorry that I was unable to attend. I was really looking forward to meeting everyone from across the Country with a mutual interest in healthy outcomes for communities. The SCSA is an organization representing 100 community schools across Saskatchewan. We have been in existence for 27 years and have seen the movement grow from a few designated schools to 100 just a few years ago. Community schools are funded through the Ministry of Education. We have just moved into the First Nations and Metis unit at the Ministry. Our funding is sent to school divisions under a dedicated funding line and goes directly to designated community schools to support the community school program that included the following:
- hiring of a community school coordinator for each designated community school
- hiring of educational associates (minimum of 2 per school)
- a universal healthy snack component for each school
- funds for the parent councils (now called school community councils)
- discretionary funds for operational/support for extra programming components

Each community school has a pre-kindergarten program with a teacher and early childhood assistant. This program has been so successful that the Ministry has expanded fully funded pre-k programs to a number of non-community schools and has just announced a further expansion in this new budget year.

A few years ago the Govt. commissioned a study called the “role of the school” study. The resulting “role of the school” report recommended that all schools in SK become SchoolsPlus adopting the same principles as community schools (the principles of community education) and work at increasing partnerships with parents/community members/groups/agencies, etc. as a means of increasing healthy/academic outcomes for students and their families.

CACE Update
We are also a member in the Canadian Association for Community Education. CACE is undergoing some renewal and will be holding an AGM and planning meetings as a pre-conference to our provincial Community Schools conference in Regina this fall. The CACE meetings will be on OCT 22 – the provincial conference in the 23 and 24th. These meetings will set the course for the future of this important organization. CACE represents all groups/organiazations/individuals/govts/ who share an interest in community education. We sponsor an annual conference, bring people together around issues/interests of our members and are associated with community education international organizations. Please see the conference announcement below.

Thank you so much for your interest in community education and I look forward to seeing everyone in Regina this fall.

About this Community of Practice

dmccall — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:42:46 CDT

The Canadian Association for School Health has been working with number of organizations in supporting school health (e.g. Canadian School Health NGO Network; School Health Research Network; Canadian School Health Knowledge Network). As part of the networking activity, we are developing mini-networks on particular issues, including Schools in Disadvantaged Communities. This Community of Practice presents an opportunity to support knowledge exchange, foster coordination and collaboration on a variety of projects of interest to its participants by bring together national non-government organizations, researchers, local agency practitioners (e.g. school district and health authority professionals) and others as interested. There are several opportunities that are being planned to support the exchange of evidence-informed practices, resources and research. Practical activities geared to helping support effective practice include:

School Health Webinars: These are 60 minute, web/phone based seminars presented by a blend of research experts and practitioners. Each session is very topic specific (e.g. The Cool Factor, Engaging Aboriginal Students through Hip Hop and Traditional Culture). More about the webinars program can be seen at: http://www.safehealthyschools.org/webinars/introduction.htm.

Schools in Disadvantaged Communities Symposium (April 21/08 in Ottawa-Gatineau): this day-long focus on a comprehensive approach to this issue is being planned in conjunction with the 4th annual National School Health Conference. For updated information on this symposium and the National School Health Conference that follows it see www.safehealthyschools.org/shconferences.

Wiki toolbox: this virtual filing cabinet presents an opportunity to continue to update/broadcastresearch, policy, program and practiceunderway in Canada and internationally on this issue. Contribution to this wikiis encouraged.

The Community of Practice meets via teleconference approximately 4 times per year. Minutes and items of intereste for each of these calls are attached below. For more information, contact Gillian Corless at gcorless@cash-aces.ca.

The Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction: Leadership and Lessons 2005-2007

dmccall — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:53:00 CDT

This page introduces the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction.

We have attached a report on our efforts to reduce poverty in Hamiltion. This document, aimed at other organizations contemplating a comprehensive community change initiative, is about leadership and lessons—a response to the most common questions we field about the development of this initiative. We begin with a bit of history and context, but move quickly to the role of HRPR leaders and early champions. We then turn to lessons learned, even at this relatively early stage of the HRPR’s work. We highlight key insights throughout, and where we can, we reference other documents that contain more detail about various aspects of the HRPR. At the end, we list some of the books and resources that HRPR leaders have found useful and inspiring.

School Ethos

gcorless — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:24:20 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

School health policies

gcorless — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:12:31 CST

Postings listed here should present examples of policies directed at improving the health and well-being of disadvantaged students.
If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

US

From CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning:
Research shows thatSocial and Emotional Learning programming drives academic learning, and it also drives social outcomes such as
positive peer relationships, caring and empathy, and social engagement. Social and emotional instruction also leads to reductions
in problem behavior such as drug use, violence, and delinquency. Attending to the social and emotional learning of children is a hugely profitable investment in theirsuccess in school and their future success as adults. It is also an investment in the well-being of our schools.

Click here to check out a video of a Brooklyn class learning about resolving conflicts, emotional well-being.

Safe and Sound, An Educational Leader's Guide to Social and Emotional (SEL) Learning Programs. Click here to read about the background and theory of SEL and how to implement the programs.

Prevalence, nature of this issue

gcorless — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:55:13 CST

Postings listed here should present information on the inter-relationship between disadvantage, health and education.This page provides a selection of available research towards defining the scope of the issue in Canada, US, and internationally.

If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

RESEARCH

UK

The impact of poverty on young children's experience of school

"The UK Government is trying to break the link between child poverty and educational disadvantage. This study examines the extent to which poverty impacts on younger children's experience of school and looks at life in primary schools in Northern Ireland from a child-centred perspective." November 2007

This research is notable because it shows how boys as young as 9 were starting to disengage with school in disadvantaged communities.

CANADA

From the Alberta Coalition for Healthy School Communities:

A Background Paper on Socioeconomic Disadvantage: Health and Education Outcomes for School-Aged Children and Youth, May2006
This document explores the links in research between health outcomes, educational outcomes, and socioeconomic disadvantage, and outlines the effects of disparity on outcomes for children of school age.

The report includes Insights derived from academic, government and other research literature present a clear picture of the interrelationship of disadvantage,health and education:

Increased risk of injury and negative health outcomes are associated with lowsocioeconomic status.

Mental health concerns, including hyperactivity, inattention and other behaviour issues, aremore common among children from families with lower incomes.

Mortality differences are pronounced along gradients of socioeconomic status (SES).
A variety of SES indicators have been linked to poor self-perceived health.
Higher SES groups have better access to health care, and are more likely to make use ofpreventive services within the health care system, therefore mediating health risks.
Socioeconomic disparity has a negative impact on healthy lifestyle such that disadvantagedyouth are more at risk due to higher prevalence of obesity and smoking.
Neighbourhood effects of socioeconomic disadvantage are an important consideration interms of comprehensive school health, as the health outcomes of school-age youth areclearly affected by the community and school environments to which they are exposed.
There are clear, negative, and cumulative impacts of poverty and low SES on educational attainment and grades.

Parental involvement and expectations are both positively associated with educationalsuccess for children. Both of these parental variables, however, are affected by incomesuch that poorer parents tend to have lower educational expectations of their children andless time and resources to devote to school involvement.
Grade failure and greater numbers of absences from school have also been found to beassociated with socioeconomic risk. Educational attainment, in turn, affects futuresocioeconomic circumstances.
Poverty and unstable financial hardship for families predicts delinquency, negativepsychosocial adjustment, and serious manifestations of adolescent antisocial behaviour.

About this wiki

gcorless — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:37:59 CST

This wiki is a work in progress that gathers together examples of programs, policies, and research oncurrent work in the area of schools in disadvantaged communities.The purpose of this wiki is to facilitate the sharing of information on current practices and thought on the positive role of schools to alleviate disadvantages such aspoverty, cultural isolation, and geography. Through our ongoing dialogue, we hopethat this wiki will provide useful information on successful Canadian and US programs and policies, as well as relevant international research.

If you would like to change this page or other pages in this wiki by adding additional references and links, you will need to join this wiki (no charge, no spam) To do so, click on the "Join this Wiki" button from the Home Page or contact info@cash-aces.caYou don't need to join the wiki if you want to comment on materials listed or linked here or to ask a question of the members of this wiki-community, we invite you to do so by selecting the Discussion Forum in the Navigation Bar on the left hand side of these pages.

Home

gcorless — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:03:29 CST

Welcome to this wiki-toolbox that serves as a shared work space for researchers, non-governmental organizations and local agencies interested in a dialogue on the role of schools in alleviating the impact on students ofdisadvantages created by poverty, geography, and other determinants. This dialogue will centre on school-based and school-linked programs in Canada and internationally that make a difference in disadvantaged communities, by taking a coordinated and comprehensive approach.

If you would like to contribute to this wiki, please click on the "Join this Wiki" button on the right or contact info@cash-aces.ca If you want to simply comment on the various pages, uploaded and linked documents and other information in this wiki, we invite you to do so at the bottom of each page found on the navigation bar on the left hand side of this page.

The purpose of this wiki is to collect the educational, planning, assessment tools related to school health programs and practices in disadvantaged communities. We also have a page on related news and events.

This wiki is kept up-to-date by its members and is part of an ongoing "Community of Practice" that includes:

the joint planning of pre-conference sessions at the annual School Health conference (Ottawa-Gatineau, April 21-23, 2008)
webinars on selected topics related to schools in disadvantaged communities
other activities organized by the lead organizations and individuals