Okanagan Similkameen Healthy Living Coalition

Ours will be the healthiest community in BCOkanagan Similkameen Healthy Living CoalitionWho we areRegional authorities: Municipalities (7) SDs (3)Indian Bands (2)RDOS Interior HealthOS Healthy Living Society convenor UBCOOkanagan CollegeCommunity working groupsOur coalition brings together high and mid level representatives from essentially all regional agencies with a legislated mandate to address health needs of our citizens. To this we have added UBCO and Okanagan College because of the interest they have in and the resources they bring to the challenge of healthy communities. From a founding group of 6, we expanded to become fully regional with our healthy Living Forum last May in Osoyoos2May 2013 Regional Forum

This event was attended by approximately 90 senior staff, managers and elected officials from municipalities, Indian Bands, RDOS area directors, SDs, IH, UBC and OC. The energy was palpable and the hunger to act was strong. Agreement reached to form 6 community working groups to get started on the development of local asset maps and gap analysis, and also the formation of a leadership council with senior administrative or elected representatives from each of the participating authorities. 3StructureCommunity-driven, bottom up planning and deliveryEnabling and supportive governance: Constellation ModelCommunity Groups:Identify assets, gaps, opportunities, championsSpawn constellationsHub:Develop community capacity and competencyKnowledge Transfer, Knowledge Exchange, Worldview Set scope; quality standards; grant writing support, project management, evaluation, data management, seed grantsThe underpinning of our work is that our communities must own their own health challenges and discover the solutions, supported and enabled bot not controlled by a governance structure. However, the prerequisite for success is a deep understanding among leaders of exactly what the challenges are as a means of reframing the problem in ways that will open up opportunities for novel and innovative interventions.

Constellation mnodel: Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment (CPCHE)4Constellation Model

Conceived by Tonya Surman, Canadian Center for Social Innovation 5Our ApproachMove beyond harm avoidance to reward pursuit: paradigm shiftHealth behavior determinants are complex, interactive and non-linearTo be sustainable, healthy lifestyles must become a new normStrategy for cultural change, not just a strategy for individual lifestyle changeSuccess will be achieved through multipronged and simultaneous community-level interventions that reach a critical massSocial marketing will be key to success.

We must not be constrained by the medical model, but must build on it through understanding and accepting that wellbeing is not simply the avoidance of illness, and that sustainable lifestyle change will emerge from new norms, personal and social, that reflect evolving personal and social values.6A Couple of Old Nuggets:Every system is perfectly designed to achieve exactly the results it gets.- W. Edwards Demming

Culture eats strategy for breakfast- Peter Drucker7Success Lies in the CommunityCapacity (Quantitative)The number of people with the will and motivation to bring about changeCompetency (Qualitative)The knowledge and skills community champions bring to the taskUnderstand and address the health challengeUnderstand and address the cultural challengeUnderstand and address complexityCapacity + Competency = Empowerment8ChoicesMake the healthy choice the easy choiceAwarenessAccessibleAffordableAttractiveChoicesMake the healthy choice the preferred choicePerceived rewardSocial normPersonal norm

Preferred ChoiceA Model For Mediators of Lifestyle Choice

ConclusionEmergence of sustainable healthy lifestyles is a challenge in personal and cultural NORMSNorms are based on authentic values, satisfaction and rewardPersonal norms are strongly influenced by community norms: the culture we live in and belong toHealth and change management professionals dont have the cure: this rests with the individual and communityOur role is to help them figure it out for themselves. We need to develop a curriculum for empowerment that recognizes complexity. May 2013 Regional Forum