Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

In collaboration with partners in Canada and Antigua & Barbuda, our project aims to advance child health through three key objectives: sharing pilot findings from Antiguan schools, planning a child health surveillance system, and developing a Comprehensive School Health approach. Our initiative considers diverse factors shaping child health and prioritizes equity, ensuring every child has equal access to health resources. Our commitment to research excellence and knowledge mobilization will be realized through a series of knowledge exchange meetings in Antigua and Barbuda, fostering collaborations and planning for an expanded health surveillance system. During these meetings, we will share the valuable pilot findings we collected from Antiguan schools in fall 2023 and will use the lessons learned from the success of the Champions for Health Promoting Schools program, which has been making a positive impact about ten of the elementary schools in Antigua since 2008. An environmental scan of schools, utilizing the ISCOLE tool, will inform our Comprehensive School Health approach, emphasizing a strengths-based perspective. Our inclusive and culturally safe practices aim to catalyze new initiatives and collaborations, promoting health equity in Antigua & Barbuda's educational system. We will engage research trainees from both Canada and Antigua & Barbuda to build global health research capacity in both countries.