The Planning Institute of BC (PIBC) announced the winners of its annual Awards for Excellence in Planning and Individual Achievement. There were 12 winners  and two of those involved VCH.

The Healthy City Strategy, a partnership between VCH and the city of Vancouver, picked up gold in the Excellence in Policy Planning – City & Urban Areas. And A Whole Health Neighbourhood: The Pearson Dogwood Redevelopment, a partnership between VCH and DIALOG won the silver prize in the same category.

The Healthy City Strategy work is spearheaded by Claire Gram, Lynn Buhler and Juan Solorzano.

“It’s exciting to get an award for a healthy policy initiative and to see that local government and health authorities can partner together to improve the health of residents in the city,” said Juan Solorzano, executive director of population health at VCH whose team has worked on the Healthy City Strategy since its inception three years ago.

As part of the Healthy Communities initiative, VCH collaborates with municipalities across the region to improve the health of the population. This initiative, Juan says, is about “collaboration and partnering with local governments to keep people healthy.”

“It’s been important finding out our joint priorities, sharing resources across the teams…being able to work together,” he explained. “That’s made a big difference, especially because access to quality health care only accounts for approximately 20 per cent of what determines people’s health. Income, housing, civic infrastructure, community belonging and the other social determinants of health are responsible for the remaining 80 percent. That’s where municipalities can play a big role.”

More information

For more information on the Healthy City Strategy click here.

For more information on A Whole Health Community click here.