Description
Health Nexus is a bilingual organization that supports individuals, organizations and communities to strengthen their capacity to promote health and to create healthy, equitable and vibrant communities. The organization has been breaking down silos and bridging across sectors for more than 30 years.
In 2016, Health Nexus developed a Health Equity Strategy with the goal of strengthening Health Nexus’ capacity to develop healthy, equitable communities. The Strategy has three objectives:
- Embed health equity as a value into organizational procedures and processes;
- Increase staff confidence and capacity to apply a health equity lens in their work; and
- Position Health Nexus as a champion in the field of health equity.
To support the strategy, a literature review and an evidence brief on health equity was conducted by a graduate student. The objective of this literature review was to provide evidence from the literature on how to embed health equity into organizational capacity, and the specific research question developed for this literature review was ‘What strategies/approaches are used by organizations in Canada or Ontario to increase their health equity capacity?’. The discussion section provides health promoters and health promotion organizations with evidence to serve as a foundation for tangible health equity activities.