Catalyzing Change Through Building With Mission
Catholic Health Alliance of Canada
The Catholic Health Alliance of Canada supports health organizations with Catholic identity to be leaders and advocates in making the ever-evolving health system stronger and more responsive, drawing on our Catholic values, and a legacy of innovation and ethical reflection. The Catholic Health Alliance of Canada is the lead sponsor of the Building with Mission Solutions Lab.
All health service providers, whether autonomous or part of a larger health system, are being challenged to look beyond their own environment of care to identify and re-frame the role the organization will play in creating a healthier community. Resulting action can be to provide community leadership or to adjust the service offerings of the organization itself, or both.
Literature and leading practice are helping it become more widely understood that health status is influenced by many factors other than genetics and health care, such as social determinants of health including education, income, housing, and environment. Health service providers have opportunities to collaborate with housing, education, transportation, social service, and urban planning stakeholders to evaluate the overall health needs of a community, and to take action to address priority areas.
Housing is clearly one of the most significant priorities to be addressed. Community needs assessments have demonstrated that there is a widespread dearth of affordable housing across Canada, affecting both large urban and small rural communities.
We know that homes and communities, their physical design, the availability of supportive programs and services nearby and their affordability are particularly important to ensuring the health, well-being and dignity of older Canadians. As mission-driven health organizations, we can improve health outcomes for individuals and communities and amplify our impact by helping to challenge the mindsets, norms and business models that are no longer serving older adults or their families well.
There is much work to be done to demonstrate and scale new models of housing and care that better serve older adults, and health organizations bring a unique perspective and expertise to this work. Together with experts in municipal planning, housing development, community services and others, mission-driven health organizations play an important role in co-creating a better future of health at home for Canada’s older adults.
Building With Mission has created this tactical playbook to support organizations and leaders who are new to housing work, with a goal to accelerate project initiation. The playbook is intended to bring together expertise from a variety of partners and disciplines to advance housing initiatives in communities across the country.
Any progressive organization must look at its role as part of the larger community, and there is no room for any organization not to be community minded. There is a need for board members and leaders to be addressing vulnerable populations and to look at social determinants of health and health equity. While daunting, each health care leader and each health organization can effect change. Collectively, we are compelled to act now and have a responsibility to do so.
“At the core of Catholic health care is a deep commitment to serve people who are marginalized or disadvantaged by responding to the greatest need in local communities. Housing is a natural extension of Catholic health care, and we are encouraging our 129 organizations across Canada to think about how they can take action and work with partners to advance housing initiatives in their local community, either for older adults or others in need of care.”