

Canada's monthly school health report from the Canadian Association for School Health
Volume 4 Issue 10 (June 2010)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Featuring: Green & Healthy: Linking Health Promotion & Sustainable Development through Schools
This month’s feature article examines the linkages between human health and sustainable development. It has been almost ten years since CASH led a national project for Environment Canada and Health Canada on “environmental health”. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the challenges remain, particularly in making the connections that should exist between the “green schools” movement and the “healthy schools” movement. Another CASH project on skin cancer done for the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer last year, although quite successful in its intended outcomes of creating materials and a plan on sun safety, revealed this same gap between the two movements.
The feature article below comes from an international symposium being held in Geneva next month. The intent of the statement is to create an agenda of issues and programs that focus on the links between green and healthy schools without seeking a merger of the two movements, both of which have considerable investments in their respective sectors as well as a justified focus on the issues and programs that matter most to them.
Readers may want to access a recorded webinar presentation that was held as part of the international symposium. Bernard Coombes, the UNESCO staff person responsible for the UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development program highlighted efforts in several countries as well as explained the connections between health & the environment. This webinar described the activities of the UNESCO Associated Schools program. In particular, the webinar will focus on UNESCO's 2009 Collection of Best Practices in Education for Sustainable Development and the similar 2009 UNESCO advice for policy-makers on education for sustainable development.
As part of its involvement as an organizer of the Geneva symposium, the International School Health Network started monitoring research articles, reviews, reports and resources and is posting them on this page within its extensive blog/information service that monitors and clips items from many journals, news media outlets, web sites and social media. The ISHN has also taken over the task of maintaining an extensive list of web-linked research references and resources on sun safety that will eventually be linked to similar collections of other aspects intersecting the green and healthy schools movements.
Here in Canada, readers should note that the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada has listed education for sustainable development as one of its six strategic priorities in its 2020 vision statement. Charles Hopkins of the Faculty of Education, York University chairs the international network of teacher education institutions promoting education for sustainable development. The Green Teacher is a great magazine for educators and others. The Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication brings together many of the organizations concerned with ESD in Canada. The Federal Sustainable Development Strategy (FSDS) was tabled on October 6th, 2010. This strategy has, all in one place, the Government of Canada’s environmental sustainability priorities and progress in achieving them.
One last historical note: the 1986 Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion included a specific reference to and a call for joint action on the environment as part of a health promotion agenda. I guess it is time that we truly addressed the issue.
| Canadian School Health Knowledge Network News | Canadian Media Reports for June 2010 |
- Summer Slowdown. Our CASH activities will slow down over this summer because of a few things. Doug McCall will be doing contract work in Singapore in June and will be organizing several meetings related to the international SH symposium in Geneva, then taking his first long summer vacation since his first year of teaching.
- How Tweet! Do you have SH news you want to share with 2500 other Canadian SH practitioners. Then feel free to post your news on the shared "CSH Tweets" account on Twitter. Simply go to www.twitter.com/cshtweets, sign in as user "cshtweets`, password `cash-aces and post your news. Those tweets and other items posted on this web site through posting updates directly onto our School Health Blog will be included in this mailout to 2500 people. This process is starting to work, with three recent postings coming directly from other organizations into the School Health Blog.
- CSH Community Grows
The CSH Knowledge Network list of SH contacts has grown to over 2500 people. We are continuing to transfer the email contacts lists over to the professional networking web site at www.canadianschoolhealth.ca. Agencies, organizations and individuals will be able to control the email they receive from this wiki-based web site through their own profiles. (This occurs by "watching" or "unwatching" selected pages). As well, they will be able to use the tools on the web site to interact with others and receive RSS feeds from the daily blog of SH news.
- Call for Suggestions about Canadian SH Research
Marthe Deschenes (Public Health Institute of Quebec), Dan Laitsch (Simon Fraser University) and Doug McCall (CASH) have been asked to prepare a book chapter on Canadian developments in SH promotion. See their call for suggestions on this page and then send your suggestions to dmccall@cash-aces.ca
- CASH Invited to CIHR Injury Prevention Project
The Association will be represented on the Steering Committee of a multi-year CIHR project on injury prevention being led by the Children’s Hospital of BC. This is the first major project on injury prevention in Canada in a long time and we look forward to building a comprehensive, school-based and school-linked approach to this problem using this project as a starting point.
| News Story (June 28-10) Schools grapple with solutions to thorny cyberbullying issueshttp://is.gd/dR7wu
News Story (June 21-10) Active play eludes kids in summer: survey http://is.gd/cY7DL
News Story (Jun 20-10) Toronto program lets dropouts test-drive the classroom http://is.gd/cY7jr
News Story (Jun 18-10) Nearly all stroke risk preventable: study http://is.gd/cY7Mv
News Story (June 15-10) Teenage java drinkers raise health concerns http://is.gd/cRChL
Report (2009) Effectiveness of Organizational Interventions for the Prevention of Workplace Stress (Canada) http://is.gd/cRAa0
News Story (June 14-10) Injuries more frequent in poor areas: report http://is.gd/cRvyl
News Story (June 9-10 Calgary Canada Green Cleaning Lessons Resonate Around the World http://is.gd/cKmxx
News Story (June 9-10) Report Calls for plan to fight TB on reserves in Canada http://is.gd/cKn4A
News Story (June 8-10) H1N1 exposed serious gaps in Canada pandemic planning: Roundtable paper http://is.gd/cKnLH
News Story (June 9-10) Energy drink action too slow: PEI parents group http://is.gd/cKnw8
News Story (June 6-10) Canada needs national program to target diabetes on reserves: Study http://is.gd/cKn94
News Story (Jun 4-10) High levels of gas found in four more schoolshttp://is.gd/cYbJt
News Story (June 4-10) Sick school syndrome in Ontario http://is.gd/cRCcA
News Story (Jun 4-10) N.B. expands flu shot program http://is.gd/cYbrB
News Release (June 2-10) Am I pregnant? - The SOGC launches a new online and mobile application to help Canadian women http://is.gd/cA8yj
News Story (June 2-10) Canadian teen launches barefoot fundraising challenge http://is.gd/czMKd
News Story (June 1-10) Ontario needs community schools http://is.gd/cy4Re
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Canadian Research, Reports and Resources from the June School Health Blog Postings
Our blog also tracks Canadian research studies, reports and new planning/educational resources announcements. Here are the ones posted for June 2010:
- A decolonizing approach to health promotion in Canada: the case of the Urban Aboriginal Community Kitchen Garden Project
- Understanding the structure of community collaboration: the case of one Canadian health promotion network
- Sexual Experience, Contraception, and STI Prevention Among High School Students: Results from a Canadian Urban Centre
- Commentary: Adolescent Sexual Health Education. Does it Work? Can it Work Better? An Analysis of Recent Research and Media Reports
- Policy Doc School Health Guidance for Public Health Authorities in Ontario http://is.gd/cAe0S
Feature Article: Linking Health & Sustainable Development through Schools: An Initial Identification of Priority Issues, Approaches and Relevant Programs
Introduction
This draft discussion paper on the linkages between school-based and school-linked approaches and programs promoting human health and sustainable development will be open for comments and editing before and after the July symposium in Geneva. You will find the paper at this page in the ISHN School Health Encyclopedia, among a growing collection of other statements and multi-intervention plans and programs on health, safety, social development, equity, learning and sustainable development. Please use the editing and discussion tools in that wiki to either edit or comment on these paper which will be used at the conference in Geneva and as a back drop to the webinars that will precede and follow the July conference.
The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, adopted by participants in the first world conference on health promotion on November 21, 1986 states that:
"The fundamental conditions and resources for health are:peace,shelter,education,food,income,a stable eco-system,sustainable resources,social justice, and equity.
Our societies are complex and interrelated. Health cannot be separated from other goals. The inextricable links between people and their environment constitutes the basis for a socioecological approach to health. The overall guiding principle for the world, nations, regions and communities alike, is the need to encourage reciprocal maintenance - to take care of each other, our communities and our natural environment. The conservation of natural resources throughout the world should be emphasized as a global responsibility.
Systematic assessment of the health impact of a rapidly changing environment - particularly in areas of technology, work, energy production and urbanization - is essential and must be followed by action to ensure positive benefit to the health of the public. The protection of the natural and built environments and the conservation of natural resources must be addressed in any health promotion strategy."
The Ottawa Charter also states that "Health is created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play and love" Schools are one of the key settings in all communities. Consequently, schools need to be at the forefront of action promoting human health and sustainable development.
Sustainable development was defined in the 1987 UN Bruntland Commission report, Our Common Future, as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising those of future generations. This simple definition encompasses a complex dynamic that implicates values and value systems as well as interdisciplinary knowledge and experience, and stresses the interdependence of the environment, society and the economy.
UNESCO defines education for sustainable development as follows:
The role of education for sustainable development (ESD) is to help people develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and for the future, and to act upon those decisions. ESD is an approach to teaching and learning based on the ideals and principles that underlie sustainability – human rights, poverty reduction, sustainable livelihoods, peace, environmental protection, democracy, health, biological and landscape diversity, climate change, gender equality, and protection of indigenous cultures.
UNESCO urges all Member States of UNESCO to involve as many stakeholders as possible in activities to develop and implement policies, strategies, and activities throughout the Decade. A number of key action themes have been developed to highlight possible areas of focus and project implementation: gender equality, health promotion, environment, rural development, cultural diversity, peace and human security, sustainable urbanization and sustainable consumption.
Purpose and Use of this Statement
The purpose of this statement is to describe the the actions that schools, working with other agencies and their communities can take to promote human health and sustainable development that protects the ecological environments in which we live. Our goal is to to identify, describe and discuss the comprehensive approaches, coordinated programs and whole school strategies that have proved to be relevant and effective in school-based and school-linked programs that address this conjuncture of common concerns. This statement can be used as a lens to focus the efforts of advocates, policy-makers,officials, researchers and practitioners from the environmental sector that promotes eco-friendly or green schools, from health sector that promotes healthy schools and the education sector, that is primarily concerned with effective schools and educational outcomes. The intent is not to merge all of the efforts of these three sectors, since they each have their own separate mandates but rather to better align efforts where they overlap.
Preamble and Principles
There are many frameworks, models and multi-intervention approaches, programs and strategies that have been developed by various sectors, working with schools, to promote different aspects of human development for all children. Community schools, healthy schools and safe schools and eco-schools are just four examples of these approaches. The research on these multi-intervention approaches to health, safety and social development is consistent in one respect; having a variety of carefully selected policies, programs and services whose delivery is coordinated and aligned is far more effective than single issue or single intervention strategies. Consequently, this statement seeks to identify and describe a cluster of policies, programs, services and practices that are more suited to the promotion of human health and the protection of the ecological environment.
It is suggested here that the pursuit of a detailed common framework or model to mesh all of these models together would be a mammoth undertaking because each of these approaches has already established long-term visions, shared terminologies and complex relationships between education systems and the health, welfare, law enforcement and environmental sectors. This paper suggests that it is more useful to simply note what is common or compatible in the approaches, identify where expertise and experience resides from among the various sectors/models and then encourage jurisdictions and local communities to select the programs and work with the sectors that they see as being most relevant to them.
Further, there is already significant knowledge and experience in implementing these comprehensive approaches that we need not re-invent in this statement about health and sustainable development. The International School Health Network, in its consensus statement, has identified several broad implementation strategies that are common to almost all school-based and school-linked programs. They include: - addressing the needs of the whole child to identify clusters of strengths, problems and conditions. For example, clean water, discouraging the use of pesticides, climate change and sun protection are are inter-related and can be addressed in holistic programs
- recognizing the limits of school-based and school-linked programs while still maximizing their potential use in partnership with parents, communities and community-based and government agencies
- selecting a corresponding synergistic combination of programs and policies to address them
- striving for comprehensive approaches, coordinated programs and whole school strategies through means such as assigning and staffing coordinator positions, coordinating policies at the ministry and agency levels, using formal mechanisms such as inter-agency protocols and informal means such as joint professional development programs
- using multiple, coordinated interventions, including school, environmental agency and health authorities policy, instruction, health, social and other services, different forms of social support (such as parent involvement, youth engagement, community participation) and changes to the physical environment to improve student knowledge and skills, alter risk and protective factors and influence practices that influence health or the environment
- selecting or adapting evidence-based and experience-tested programs, policies and practices as well as implementation plans/models
- building community, system, agency and professional capacity for sustainable programs, policies and practices through adequate budgets, ongoing knowledge exchange and workforce development, regular monitoring and reporting on program capacity etc
- seeking congruence with the educational mandate and constraints of school systems
- deepening our understanding of the complex, ecological factors that are the reality of the multiple, open, loosely-coupled and bureaucratic systems that work with and within schools
Common Arenas for Action
School-based and school-linked programs can be implemented in several arenas. By clarifying the levels of action and the systems/agencies/personnel involved, we can be clearer about intended outputs. The arenas or levels of action for school-related programs include: - enabling, engaging and empowering young people to develop fully through attention to the whole child and not just specific problems, by building assets such as positive relationships with others and mental health while timing interventions to match developmental stages
- informing, involving, educating and supporting parents and families through school-linked parent programs delivered in cooperation with other agencies
- the transition from early childhood programs and the home into primary school is a time of vulnerability and potential continued strength as young children leave from various pre-school programs. Other transitions (into secondary schools, between schools when families are forced to move often due to economic needs,from school to work or training) also need attention.
- classroom instruction whose intended outputs are in the students’ knowledge, attitudes, normative beliefs, awareness of services and how to access them locally, skills such as social skills, self-knowledge and behavioural intentions (Note: most instructional programs produce minimal behaviour change but changes in knowledge, attitudes, skills etc may be a prerequisite for change)
- whole school strategies that can address broadly based issues such as preventing dropouts
- coordinated agency-community-school based/linked programs
- comprehensive approaches (multi-level, multi-system, multi-issue) include changes at the ministry level, school board/agency/health authority/police service level and the school-neighbourhood level. They include synergistic programs that address aspects of other issues such as addiction, violence, crime, and others. The focus at this level should be on system capacity and change.
The Issues and Programs that are Link Human Health with Sustainable Development
The issues associated with the link between human health and the environment and how they can be addressed through schools - Climate Change has caused increased risks from exposure to the sun. Schools can promote sun safety through instruction, parent involvement, modifications to the school grounds to create shade and cooperating with voluntary health organizations
- Climate change has created extreme weather conditions. Schools can educate students about the causes of these new weather patterns, ensure that students and parents are aware of community safety, risk mitigation and emergency response plans and cooperate wuthg authorities in emergency response procedures
- Pesticides are a major cause of human health problems as well as deterioration of habitats. Schools can educate students, inform parents, cooperate with community awareness campaigns and use pesticide-free procedures to maintain the school grounds.
- The use of environmentally hazardous cleaning agents also affects human health. Schools can instruct students, inform parents and ensure that cleaning products used in schools and classrooms are not destroying the environment
- At current levels, human consumption of natural resources is not sustainable. Schools can restore instructional programs that educate students in sustainable consumer and home economics, ensure that use of non-renewable resources is minimal in schools, conserve energy, teach and practice re-using and recycling, participate in community awareness campaigns, inform parents and address the economic ideology that "growth" and over or extravagant consumption is desirable.
- In low income countries and low income communities, basic needs such as clean water, sustainable sanitation procedures, pollutant free food supplies and other minimal conditions for health and sustainable development are not being met.. Health, environmental and educational authorities must work together to eliminate or mitigate those hazards through comprehensive efforts to address the needs of these countries and communities.
- The growth and proliferation of long-distance supply chains in food supply systems often results in increased risk of supply problems in the event of natural or other disasters, higher use of energy and exploitation of workers. Schools can educate students, inform parents, participate in community garden programs and order food from local or sustainable producers. These programs can also address the issue of genetically modified food.
- Energy use in transporting children to schools is part of the overall problem with the use of fossil fuels. Schools can reduce emissions through the use of "walking school buses" and the elimination of bus and car idling outside schools.
- Please add additional summary statements here
The Programs that Link Health & Sustainable Development
The programs listed here should be delivered in a coordinated manner, clustering them in synergistic ways to maximize their effectiveness. This requires that advocates, policy-makers, officials and practitioners who have traditionally worked in separated domains such as "eco-schools" and "healthy schools" must find ways to work together in cooperative rather than competitive fashion. For example, rather then competing for scarce instructional time within the school curriculum, the two sectors should be identifying, developing and promoting integrated instructional packages and curricula that deliver coherent messages in subject areas such as health, social studies, science, literature, physical education, family studies/home econo9mics and moral/spiritual/religious education.
Multiple Intervention Approaches, Programs and Whole School Strategies
There are several examples and models of multi-intervention programs that address both the environment and sustainable development. These include: - Eco-Schools (Foundation for Environmental Education)
Eco-Schools is a programme for environmental management and certification, designed to implement sustainable development education in schools by encouraging children and youth to take an active role in how their school can be run for the benefit of the environment. - Green School Bali
One of the most amazing schools on earth, is giving its students a relevant holistic and green education. The students come from all corners of the world, many relocating with their parents just for the experience of attending. - Les écoles vertes Brundtland
Le programme des écoles vertes Brundtland a été lancé en 1992 par la CEQ (representant les enseignante (es) au Quebec, Canada). - Healthy Schools Assessment Tool (Environmental Protection Agency, USA)
The HSAT is a fully customizable and easy to use software program designed to help school districts evaluate and manage ALL of their environmental, safety and health issues. - Educational Institutions and Sustainable Consumption (BINK): In the pilot project BINK schools and high schools explore ways to promote more healthy and sustainable lifestyles by systematically transforming the organizational culture. Teachers, students and other stakeholders, assisted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, engage in the participatory development of measures of intervention.
- Please add more examples of multi-intervention programs that address health and sustainable development here
Individual, Evidence-based Interventions
These individual programs, policies, services and practices can be brought together in a variety of multi-intervention comprehensive approaches, coordinated agency-school programs or whole school strategies. These interventions are listed in these five domains below:
Please add more examples below:
Policy Changes to the Physical Environment and Resource Allocations
Instruction
Social Support - A number of American school health and green school organizations are promoting a joint "healthy schools day" awareness campaign that links health and education for sustainable development
Support Services