REMINDER

Upcoming Webinar: Global Progress and Perspectives on Non-Communicable Disease

Hosted by Action on Smoking & Health (ASH) Canada and the Centre for Healthy Communities

Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026
Time: 12 - 1 p.m. MDT
Location: Online

Leslie Rae is the executive director of the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control, a civil society alliance working towards a world free from the consequences of tobacco and tobacco use. She is also the president of the (global) NCD Alliance and a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Civil Society Working Group on NCDs. In 2025, she received the prestigious Luther L Terry Young Pioneer award for her international leadership in tobacco control and advocacy.

Her presentation will focus on progress and perspectives relating to NCDs globally and nationally. NCDs account for 70 per cent of the global disease burden and 75 per cent of deaths, according to the WHO. Many of these diseases and premature deaths can be prevented through evidence-based policies and interventions, including successful tobacco control measures.

Now Available: Centre for Healthy Communities White Papers

The Centre for Healthy Communities has recently released two new white papers. 

Community-Led Interventions to Address Social Isolation Among Older Adults: A Rapid Review

Social isolation has serious impacts on physical, social, and mental health and well-being. Existing interventions that aim to address social isolation and inclusion among older adults, as well as their mechanisms and methods, target populations, and settings, have not been assessed. The purpose of this rapid review was to address this gap.

A Review of Workplace-Led Strategies to Improve Health for Work-From-Home Workers

Work-from-home (WFH) models are still prevalent among many employees, particularly those in white-collar positions. Despite some job and work-life balance benefits, WFH practices have also led to harmful health effects. We conducted a rapid review of reviews and an environmental scan of workplace interventions to identify the scope and breadth of workplace interventions designed to promote healthy eating, physical health (including physical activity), alcohol misuse, tobacco use, mental health, psychological wellbeing, and job satisfaction and performance in high-income countries.

Additional white papers reporting on projects conducted by the Centre for Healthy Communities are available on our website.

New Publication: Developing a Tool to Build Capacity for Healthy Public Policy Change

A new publication from the Policy, Location and Access in Community Environments (PLACE) Research Lab (led by Dr. Candace Nykiforuk, Centre for Healthy Communities Scientist and Scientific Director) showcases the theory-driven and evidence-based Policy Readiness Tool. In 2014, the Policy Readiness Tool became available online (www.policyreadinesstool.com) to support policy change efforts in a number of ways, such as making the policy process more visible and strategic, informing use of limited resources, and enabling policy actors’ capability to tailor strategies to particular contexts. Since the original launch, the Tool website has consistently received over 1,000 visits each year and has been widely used by many types of organizations. To learn more, read the short summary and the full publication. 

Questions? Contact us here.