Catalyst Projects Advancing Community Health
These projects bring cardiometabolic disease prevention and healthy living supports into the places where people live, learn, gather and receive community services. Through culturally responsive nutrition, physical activity and education initiatives, project teams are working with communities to reduce the risk of diabetes and related cardiometabolic diseases and support health and well-being.
Increasing Knowledge, Reducing Risk: A Community-Integrated Nutrition Education Intervention to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in Peel
Project Lead: Dr. Vasanti Malik
Project Objective: Assess the effectiveness and implementation strategy of an intervention co-designed with community stakeholders that delivers nutrition education based on the Portfolio Diet on reducing T2D risk factors among Peel residents with elevated T2D risk.
Staying Active and Connected: A Healthy Lifestyle Group for Mississauga Adults Living With Psychosis
Project Leads: Dr. Deborah Scharf and Dr. Alison Freeland
People who live with psychosis have two to three times higher rates of diabetes than the general population. Trillium Health Partners, who provide care to more than 500 adults with psychosis, run weekly programming to promote socialization, physical activity, and community engagement. This project will provide enhanced opportunities for participants to engage in physical activity, group-based meal planning, shopping and cooking in the Diabetes Care Centre kitchen at THP, and use City of Mississauga recreation facilities. Participants will receive financial help to purchase groceries and basic supplies and build connections to City and community programs to maintain new health behaviours after the group.
Upstream on the River of Chronic Disease Prevention: Leveraging the Education System Toward Nutrition and Food Literacy to Build Health Literacy Across Generations in Peel-Region
Project Leads: Dr. Leanne R. De Souza-Kenney
With a goal of improving nutrition and food literacy, this project will map the Ontario curriculum and create educational tools using social justice frameworks. Parents, community councils,educators, students and others will be involved in determining the features of a culturally sensitive nutrition and food literacy curriculum. The team will look at the barriers to accessing food and nutrition information to improve the process and develop a more equitable curriculum.
Meeting Dual Needs of Hunger and Diabetes: Scaling and Sustaining Skills-Based Nutritional Education Programs to Diverse Communities With or at Risk of Diabetes in Peel Region
Project Leads: Manreet Lachhar, Vipin Saini, Dr. Vasanti Malik, Dr. Terence Tang
In collaboration with Seva Food Bank, this project looks to leverage Seva’s community teaching initiatives to build formal curriculums centered on nutrition education, food literacy and culinary skill development. The project focuses on teaching community members how to develop healthful meals that utilize budget-friendly, accessible and culturally-appropriate foods, in an effort to combat type 2 diabetes and mitigate its risk factors. Many seniors, newcomers and youth face accessibility and equity barriers when it comes to nutrition education and healthy eating; this project will minimize these barriers by creating curriculums targeting the greatest education needs of these demographics to support diabetes risk reduction.
South Asian Healthy Living Project
Project Leads: Dr. Neil Tangri and Dr. Baiju Shah
This project is a partnership between Peel Public Health and Healthy Living MD. It aims to foster healthy behaviours among the South Asian population through faith-based settings. The project will help congregants make changes for their health with the goal of reducing diabetes and other chronic disease risk. Peel Public Health will work with leaders in faith-based settings to increase access to and information about healthy eating and physical activity. Healthy Living MD will lead a community health and screening event at these faith-based sites, including blood pressure and blood sugar testing.
Enhancing Sense of Belonging Through Physical Activity: “Active Community, Connected Community”
Project Leads: Sylvie Atwill and Dianne Fierheller
As a provincial subject association for Health and Physical Education, Ophea envisions an Ontario where physical activity opportunities empower every student to enjoy the benefits of healthy, active living. To support young people in Peel Region who are struggling to find connections in a post-pandemic world, Ophea will be leading a multi-sector collaborative that will research young people’s experience of belonging in relation to physical activity, and how to consider this in future school community planning. Participating schools are located in high priority neighbourhoods. Many students and families experience income limitations, speak English as a second language, and are new to Canada from non-English speaking countries. Identity-affirming physical activity opportunities, that authentically reflect culture, interests, and needs, are potentially transformative for these school communities. The findings will inform the design, implementation and evaluation of future, community-driven, interventions that promote sustained and meaningful physical activity participation for young people.
Community health outcomes improvement by computerized education seminars (CHOICES)
Project Leads: Chenai Kadungure, Dr. Mireille Norris, and Dr. Camille Clarke
The CHOICES project is aimed at improving diabetes prevention and treatment in the Black community of Peel Region through cost-effective, culturally-tailored nutrition education . This study will evaluate the level of nutrition literacy among a group of Black patients with type 2 diabetes at Mississauga Community Health Centres and then use this information to create and deliver a customized education program via Zoom for participants. The data collected from this study will provide valuable insights into how culturally-competent interventions can address disparities in diabetes outcomes, helping to shape health policies and primary care practices.