Working Together to Achieve Healthier Lifestyles in Yukon and Northwest Territories' Communities
Principal Investigator: Butler Walker, Jody (2)
Licence Number: 15703
Organization: Arctic Institute of Community-Based Research
Licensed Year(s): 2016 2015
Issued: Jul 06, 2015
Project Team: Katelyn Friendship, Elsie De Roose, Geoff Ray, Craig Scott, Julian McLean, France Benoit, Mabel Wong, Iris Hamlyn, Lone Sorensen, Sheena Tremblay, Damon Crossman, Jessica Dutton

Objective(s): To encourage and support Northerners in Yukon and Northwest Territories’ communities to follow healthier lifestyles; and to facilitate organizations, government departments and businesses in Yukon and NWT work to in partnership together to foster healthier lifestyles in communities.

Project Description: The objectives of this research are to encourage and support Northerners in Yukon and Northwest Territories’ communities to follow healthier lifestyles and to facilitate organizations, government departments and businesses in Yukon and NWT work to in partnership together to foster healthier lifestyles in communities. The project will aim to engage organizations involved in healthy eating, active living, and health literacy as a collective, to examine the collective impact of working together within and across both Territories. The research team is interested in understanding factors (i.e. facilitators, barriers) that contribute to sustainability of successful healthy living initiatives in communities and they will be working to identify and highlight successful healthy living initiatives with interested communities. The project aims to enhance and strengthen collaboration and networking between and within non-government and government agencies, businesses, and communities in both the Yukon and NWT, with a focus on healthy eating, active living and literacy. Opportunities include participation on the Core team and working groups, identifying and highlighting successful healthy living initiatives, capacity building and training workshops. The research team is working to create an inventory of healthy eating and active living programs in all communities in both territories. The intent of the inventory is to provide opportunities to share information on infrastructure, programs and services related to active living and healthy eating. This will help to identify gaps, develop/strengthen networks and share information between communities and programs, facilitate planning or networking, and celebrate successes related to healthy eating and active living initiatives. The inventory will be an online interactive map. Working with a core team, the researchers are developing a communications strategy that includes in-person presentations, face-to-face meetings, website, social media, contributions to partner publications (ie. newsletters), and the use of other tools for communication as deemed appropriate by communities. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from July 7, 2015 to December 31, 2015.