District of Sooke residents will soon benefit from additional funding for the Community Health Initiative (CHI) which seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of people in communities extending from Beecher Bay to Port Renfrew.
Island Health and the District of Sooke have signed a key memorandum of understanding agreeing to match $17,500 of funding towards the Sooke CHI, which aims to address the region’s determinants of health – the non-medical factors that impact health. These funds will support collecting information and establishing partnerships that will help residents access the health care system.
“We are very proud to support the Community Health Initiative,” said Wendal Milne, Mayor of the District of Sooke. “These funds will allow for greater support towards local health promotion projects providing a tremendous resource for our community”.
Composed of local residents, medical professionals, local agencies and government, the CHI aims to coordinate the groups and organizations currently serving the region’s health needs. Its mandate is to bring people and organizations together to take collective action in addressing the region’s health needs.
“Island Health thanks those who have worked so hard to establish the Sooke Community Health Initiative” says Dr. Brendan Carr, Island Health President and CEO. “It has become an invaluable community health network and Island Health is proud to support the group’s efforts to integrate healthcare services throughout the region.“
The CHI was established in 2003 to improve the health and well-being of local citizens. CHI projects have included: forming the Sooke Youth Council, the Sooke Region Volunteer Centre and Sooke Food CHI, as well as publishing a community needs assessment and raising public awareness of health-related community matters.