EVENT: An Evening of Reflection & Hope - December 1

An Evening of Reflection & Hope

Date - Monday, December 1, 2008
Time - 6-8:30pm
Location - Lula Lounge 1585 Dundas St. W. (West of Dufferin - TTC accessible.)

Please join us for a reception, an Evening of Reflection & Hope, in support of the YWCA December 6 Fund, providing interest free loans to women fleeing violence.

Enjoy Lula Lounge, a Latin-inspired and lively venue, with classy cocktails and canapés at the beginning of the holiday celebration season. After an opening memorial to remember the women lost to violence on December 6, 1989 and over the past year, you will enjoy live music by Latin Jazz artist Lady Son, and have an opportunity to mix and mingle with some of our City’s most interesting and engaging women.

Tickets are $75 each and include hors d’oeuvres and a complimentary cocktail. This YWCA December 6 Fund event, supports the YWCA December 6 Fund, allowing women and their children to leave violent homes by granting them greater safety with interest-free loans; easing the financial burden of leaving an abuser and starting all over again. The December 6 Fund was established in 1994, to commemorate the 14 women murdered at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989. Since its inception, more than 730 women have directly benefited from these loans. In 2007, 85 women and 122 children accessed over $56,800 in loans. In April2007, the December 6 Fund became a YWCA Toronto program.

Please note that we will have guest registration on the night of the event. Please bring a copy of your printed confirmation of ticket purchase to the guest registration desk. Tickets will not be mailed in advance.

Also available in limited quantity:
Tables for 5 people for $650 and include hors d’oeuvres, a complimentarycocktail and tax receipt for $275. Tables for 8 people for $1000 and include hors d’oeuvres, acomplimentary cocktail and tax receipt for $400.


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South Asian Health Fair - December 6, 2008

The South Asian Health Coalition of York Region (SAHCYR) is a not for profit group made up of equal partnership from Blue Hills Child and Family Centre, Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Diabetes Association, Family Services York Region, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, Kinark Child and Family Services, Social Services Network, and York Region Health Services. This coalition was formed with the mandate to provide the South Asian residents of York Region and Greater Toronto Area with information to promote healthy lifestyles.

The 2008 Health Fair Event for the South Asian community will take place on Saturday, December 6th 2008 at Alexander Mackenzie High School (300 Major Mackenzie Drive West Richmond Hill L4C 3S3) from 10:00am to 4:00pm. The health fair will provide the Asian community with greater awareness and knowledge about the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle to promote overall wellness and reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases. This event is expected to be attended by over 2,000 Over 60 Exhibitors will be participating and will include interactive booths and Healthy cooking demonstrations and many exciting speakers, and displays. Over 1600 community members participated in last year’s event, as well as many of the local politicians.

Confirm participation by November 26, 2008 at (905) 940-7864 or narain@socialservicesnetwork.org.
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Reducing Gaps in Health

The Canadian Population Health Initiative has released its Reducing Gaps in Health: A Focus on Socio-Economic Status in Urban Canada report.

The full report is here:

http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/products/Reducing_Gaps_in_Health_Report_EN_081009.pdf

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First Steps to Equity - Ideas and Strategies for Health Equity in Ontario, 2008-2010

Dianne Patychuk and Daniela Seskar-Hencic have released a report entitled "First Steps to Equity: Ideas and Strategies for Health Equity in Ontario, 2008-2010" to mark the Nov 12-14 launch of the new Ontario Public Health Standards.

The authors write:

With this document, we celebrate the launch of new Ontario Public Health
Standards that include identifying, reporting and using information about
health inequities and tailoring strategies to inform actions that meet the
needs of priority populations. This document provides some ideas, steps,
examples and resources to support people and organizations working for equity
in health in Ontario. Equity in Health is about eliminating unnecessary/avoidable, and unfair/unjust differences in health among population groups and communities.

The document is available in .pdf format at:

http://www.healthnexus.ca/policy/firststeps_healthyequity.pdf

More information about the new Ontario Public Health Standards here:

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/pubhealth/oph_standards/ophs/index.html

The 2008 Ontario Public Health Standards can be viewed here:

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/pubhealth/oph_standards/ophs/progstds/pdfs/ophs_2008.pdf

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The Roots of Youth Violence Review

The Roots of Youth Violence Review was released today by the Ontario provincial government. The Review was established in 2007 by Premier Dalton McGuinty, and was co-chaired by former Chief Justice and Attorney General Roy McMurtry and former Speaker of the Legislature Alvin Curling. The purpose of the review was to identify and analyse some of the contributing factors to youth violence in the province in order to develop policy and planning recommendations.

The report highlights the critical importance of developing strong public policy that addresses racism, neighbourhood marginalization, affordable housing, and income disparities:

The very serious problems being encountered in neighbourhoods characterized by
severe, concentrated and growing disadvantage are not being addressed because
Ontario has not placed an adequate focus on these concentrations of disadvantage
despite the very serious threat they pose to the province’s social fabric. Racism is becoming a more serious and entrenched problem than it was in the past because Ontario is not dealing with it. The significant new investments in education are not reaching many of the children who need
the most help because long-identified barriers to learning are not being addressed. Ontario’s youth justice system is harming some youth because it has no overall coordination, remains punitive in ways that are not strategic and permits increasingly problematic police-community relations (page 3).

It is further added that:

The worst impacts are being felt in neighbourhoods that are often already isolated from the rest of the community because of the circumstances of poverty. What is particularly disturbing is that many of these communities are largely composed of members of racialized groups. We trace in Chapter 4 how racism and other barriers have concentrated poverty in these groups, and
how the housing market has then driven them into concentrations of those who
suffer from high levels of poverty. When poverty is racialized, and then ghettoized and
associated with violence, the potential for the stigmatization of specific groups is high. That stigmatization can, in turn, further reduce opportunities for those groups. If we allow these trends and impacts to grow in intensity and impact and fail to mobilize as a society to
address the conditions that give rise to them, the prognosis for the neighbourhoods and for the future of this province could be grim (page 4).

The full report can be viewed here:

http://www.rootsofyouthviolence.on.ca/english/reports.asp

A CTV article about the report can be found here:
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081114/youth_violence_081114/20081114/?hub=TorontoNewHome

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