The Canadian Poverty, Health Equity, and Climate Change knowledge mobilization initiative started in 2022 with funding from the McConnell Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This initiative aims to improve Canada’s climate change mitigation and adaptation responses as they relate to individuals, families, and communities that are experiencing poverty.

This initiative has established networks of experts, policymakers and community organizations and provides research, policy, education, and service direction based on the best available evidence on the climate change-poverty-health nexus in Canada.

Through a co-designed process, these networks are engaged in an array of activities, including literature reviews, think tanks, and participatory lived experience engagement. An intersectional lens is applied with specific emphases on the experiences of women, children and youth, older adults, and populations experiencing homelessness and housing precarity. Connecting and aligning this work with Indigenous communities, racialized communities, and other key points of intersection is a priority in this effort.

Our Team

The initiative was established by Dr. Sean Kidd, Chief Psychologist and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. 

  • Mariya Bezgrebelna, Research Analyst, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Leanne Lacap, Research Analyst, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Yaa S. A. Amoah, Research Trainee at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a PhD student in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Ottawa
  • Jolly Noor, Research Trainee at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an MPH student at the University of Toronto
  • Mariam Farooq, Research Trainee, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and an MPH student at the University of Toronto
     

Canadian Experts Engaged to Date

  • Peter Berry, Health Canada; University of Waterloo
  • Pranita Bhushan Udas, Thompson Rivers University
  • Anabela Bonada, University of Waterloo
  • Nathalie Chalifour, University of Ottawa
  • Robin S. Cox, Royal Roads University
  • Runa Das, Royal Roads University
  • Erin Dobbelsteyn, University of Ottawa
  • Julie Drolet, University of Calgary
  • Blair Feltmate, University of Waterloo
  • Amber Fletcher, University of Regina
  • Bonnie Fournier, Thompson Rivers University
  • Sherilee Harper, University of Alberta
  • Katie Hayes, Health Canada
  • Christine Hoicka, University of Victoria
  • Glen Kenny, University of Ottawa
  • Diane Longboat, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Fiona Miller, University of Toronto
  • Onyx Sloan Morgan, UBC Okanagan
  • Ellie Perkins, York University
  • Joanna Petrasek MacDonald, University of Guelph
  • Rebekka Schnitter, BC Ministry of Health
  • Liette Vasseur, Brock University
  • Ingrid Waldron, McMaster University
  • Gregor Wolbring, University of Calgary
  • Britt Wray, Stanford University
  • Haorui Wu, Dalhousie University
  • Shelby Yamamoto, University of Alberta
  • Céline Campagna, Université Laval
  • Cheryl Forchuk, Western University
  • Maya Gislason, Simon Fraser University
  • Pierre Valois, Université Laval
  • Robert Meade, University of Ottawa
  • Kristin Clemens, Western University
  • Denise Thomson, University of Alberta
  • The National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health
  • The National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health