Exploring New Areas
	Climate Change and Health Impact
	Emergency Preparedness
	Data Sustainability and Analysis

Exploring New Areas in Public Health

In September 2004, the Office of the Voluntary Sector (OVS) became part of the newly-established Public Health Agency of Canada. This change provides an opportunity for the OVS to consider the role and contribution of the voluntary sector to public health issues, in terms of both policy and program activities. For your information, we present an evolving list of these new areas of interest.

Climate Change and Health Impacts

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) have been paying special attention to the effects that climate change and extreme weather events will have on Canadians. The OVS has joined in these research efforts, with a particular focus on the ways in which the Voluntary Sector makes a significant contribution, developing and delivering emergency preparedness programs that are designed to build community resiliency and adaptation to the impact of disasters.

The OVS is contributing an article for the November 2005 issue of Health Canada's Health Policy Research Bulletin . Written in collaboration with David Hutton, Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Public Health Agency of Canada and John Lindsay, Brandon University, the working title for this article is "Extreme Weather Events: Facing the Challenges in Health Emergency Management."

For more information on this topic, download the backgrounders developed as part of the article preparation:

• OVS has developed an expanded version of the original Health Canada chart "Climate Change and Health Impacts" , illustrating the health impacts of the changing climate, which provides selected examples of Voluntary Sector roles in responding to these impacts.
• A list of Voluntary Sector projects related to the areas of Climate Change or Emergency Preparedness

For more information about the Climate Change and Health Impacts, refer to the Health Canada website Climate Change and Health and the Government of Canada website Taking Action on Climate Change .

Emergency Preparedness and Response

Through the OVS, several projects are underway through the sector development program of the Funding Assistance to National Voluntary Health Organizations to enhance the emergency health management role of national voluntary organizations working in collaboration with government. For more information, refer to our list of Voluntary Sector projects related to the areas of Climate Change and/or Emergency Preparedness.

For more information on this topic, visit the Public Health Agency of Canada website Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Data Sustainability and Analysis

The collection and analysis of data related to the Voluntary Sector is an important component of developing an enhanced understanding of the nature of the Sector broadly, as well as the extent of its role and contribution across health promotion, disease prevention and service delivery.

For more information on the types of surveys and reports that are being undertaken, refer to our Voluntary Sector Surveys page.

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