Community Matters Healthy Living program is a grass roots response to the health challenges faced by new Canadians who are at a high risk of diabetes, cancer and cardio vascular disease.

The initiative provides knowledge, recreational and nutritional activities and work-shops and one on one support in a coordinated holistic approach to mitigating the risks of these diseases.

Over 500 residents participate in numerous programs and events every week with many reporting improved levels of health and changes in health behaviours.

What is program planning?
Program planning is the activity we engage in with the community, our staff and volunteers and our partners in a systematic response to suggestions and requests from our neighbours who wish support in improving their health.

A good program plan is a blue print from which we build, deliver and evaluate our programs.

Who do we involve?
A precise response to a need requires input from all of those who are impacted. In our case this involves new and existing participants, our staff and volunteers, our partners as well as professionals in the field both from Canada and from “Back Home”

The community gains the most when our responses includes as many different points of vie as possible

Mobile intervention
Mobile intervention is the use of social media and telephony to support residents who are changing their health behaviours. It is a way to engage. This is not a program on its own but is rather a tool for support.

For us, this opportunity arose as we were looking for effective ways to reach a broader population.

This intervention allows us to reach a far greater group of our neighbours in a consistent regular way.

Determining a health goal
Our work is to encourage our neighbours to want to set a goal for themselves which will improve their well-being

The goal provides direction, gives us something to aim for and provides a clear picture for those who are providing support.

One goal builds on another in a stepped process towards changing health behaviours

Preliminary work
Here is where we put the tools in place to ensure success. We determine the best ways to support, we train our staff, we determined the key factors for success in motivating neighbours to participate and we researched best practices in the area.

By doing this work we determined the part that successful Mobile Intervention could play in meeting a residents health goals.