Belonging Summit: Painting a Picture of Comprehensive Primary Health Care in Action

On June 6, 2017, the Belonging Summit brought together Be Well Survey participants and representatives from the broader Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) membership to build awareness, share knowledge, and initiate action to strengthen the health and wellbeing of people who face barriers such as social isolation and exclusion.
Over the past several years, the Association's members have worked to better understand people and communities by examining community wellbeing and the work that supports it through the lens of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW). The adoption of the CIW as a tool to better understand health promotion and community development work helped shine a spotlight on what the Association's members do to create a sense of belonging - both inside and outside their centre walls. The summit was also an opportunity to further explore the importance of a sense of belonging to overall health and wellbeing, and to share experiences, challenges, and promising practices to make real change for communities.


Here are some insights from the Belonging Summit's panel. See below for the list of speakers, topics and related resources.
Panel: Comprehensive Primary Health Care in Action
Moderator: David Jeffery, Executive Director, Chigamik CHC
- Bill Davidson, Executive Director, Langs CHC: Multi-Service HUB Evaluation with a focus on impacts on sense of belonging (Download Hub Evaluation Fact Sheet)
- Kelli Tonner, Executive Director, South East Ottawa CHC: Collective impact on seniors social isolation in low-income neighbourhoods (Download overview of Strengthening Seniors’ Neighborhood Networks project)
- Cate Melito, Executive Director, Grand Bend and Area CHC: A collective impact approach with support from the Be Well survey (Download presentation)



In his closing remarks, David Jeffery, Executive Director at Chigamik CHC, shared his reflections on belonging and pointed to some key resources.
The Belonging Summit was an all day pre-AOHC conferece event. For conference highlights, including the summit, check out this recap. And click here to view photos from the summit.