Grant: Operating Grant: Programmatic Grants to tackle health and health equity - LOI

Many of the worst health inequities in Canada are experienced by people living in inner cities. This Research Program will increase our knowledge about the best ways to coordinate services and policies from outside of the health care system in order to address inner city health inequities. Relevant sectors may include housing, community and newcomer services, and education. This type of coordination is called "Intersectoral Action for Health" (ISA). Although the idea of ISA is very popular, governments and researchers agree that limited evidence is available to guide decision-makers about how to implement, sustain, or evaluate such complex and long-term policy initiatives. Fortunately, consensus is building around the kind of research needed to understand intersectoral pathways to health equity, including: evidence synthesis, health equity indicator development, evaluations and case studies, cost-benefit analysis, and creation of longitudinal datasets to measure interventions over time. Our Program will contribute to building this much-needed knowledge base, in collaboration with service providers and policy makers from diverse sectors and levels of government. We will begin with projects in Toronto, Hamilton, and Brampton, where intersectoral action for health equity is unfolding. Then we will expand to other cities, including Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary. This Program is based at Centre for Inner City Health, St. Michael's Hospital (a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto). The scientists in this Program are internationally recognized for research excellence in social epidemiology, geography, health economics and health services research, social sciences, and knowledge translation (KT). They also have excellent reputations as responsible and responsive community partners, who work with service providers, policy makers, and communities to address health inequities. This Program is aligned with CIHR IPPH strategic priorities.