Health in the Hubs

The School of Nursing (SON) is dedicated to improving the health of residents in our local communities and fulfilling the School’s mission of community engaged scholarship.

To that end, students and faculty from the SON, in partnership with local community planning teams from the McQuesten, Crown Point and South Sherman neighbourhoods; Wesley Urban Ministries and Homestead Christian Care, have launched the Health in the Hubs initiative. The project will help citizens from these three neighbourhoods identify their key barriers to healthy living, and develop and implement action plans to address these issues.

The local community planning teams are made up of residents, service providers, places of worship, institutions and local businesses from each neighbourhood hub. A hub brings organizations, businesses and citizens in a community together.

Phase 1: Neighbours and Nurses Working Together wrapped up in June of 2011. From January through March 2011, resident coordinators went door-to-door with a group of nursing students to engage area residents in discussions about health issues of concern and have them complete surveys. Over 700 surveys were completed, with responses ranging from air quality and lead pipes to illegal duplexes and joblessness.

After analyzing the results and presenting the information to residents for their feedback, one key health issue in each neighbourhood was selected to focus on in Phase 2 of the project: Street Smarts↔Book Smarts.

Citizens of the South Sherman area identified the beautification of their neighbourhood, focusing on graffiti, gardens, litter and alleys, as their priority in working towards a healthier place to live.

In Crown Point, the lower city bounded east-west by Kenilworth Avenue and Gage Avenue, residents want to develop a more walkable community by looking at traffic calming, safety and barrier-free walking.

And, residents in the McQuesten community west of the Red Hill Valley Parkway to Parkdale Avenue, will concentrate on social enterprise with such things as developing their community kitchen and a community garden.

The project team was awarded funding by the Hamilton Community Foundation to undertake the second phase, which is now underway. It involves combining existing research evidence around the three health issues with residents’ views of what they feel would be the most useful ways to address the concerns, to come up with potential solutions.

This type of two-way information exchange is unique. Residents will be able to apply academic research in an effort to build healthy neighbourhoods with help from university partners, while faculty and students will learn more about engaging with residents for research purposes and how useful this type of research can be in future studies.

The overall goal of the Health in the Hubs initiative is to utilize the assets of the SON and the three neighbourhoods to build a collaborative partnership with the McQuesten, South Sherman and Crown Point community planning teams in an effort to make Hamilton a better place to live, work and raise a family.

Click here to read the final Phase 1 report.