Our His
tory
The Go For Health Windsor-Essex Coalition was initiated in 2005 by 3 core agencies. Since then more than 36 community partners have joined the Go For Health Coalition.
As part of the evolution of Go For Health, a case document entitled - An Urgent Green-Light Initiative for Community Health - A Call For Action was developed in early 2007.
This document focused on the impact of 3 chronic diseases (i.e., heart disease, cancer, diabetes) on the health and wellbeing of Windsor-Essex County residents. It identified the fact that much of the illness and premature death resulting from these diseases could be prevented by addressing a number of key modifiable risk factors (i.e., tobacco use and exposure, unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, obesity, excess alcohol consumption).
The Call For Action document identified 7 key sector groups that could be established to identify and address healthy policy issues in each of those sectors. Sample policies that could be addressed were identified for each of the sectors.
In June 2007, Go For Health was formally launched throughout Windsor-Essex County. Community leaders from each of the 7 key sectors as well as many core partners were present for the launch.
In September 2007, a Go For Health Community Forum was held. This was the community kick-off of Go For Health. Key individuals from each of the 7 sectors were identified and recruited to assist with bringing together key partners for their sector and to lead a process of identifying key policy issues within their sector. From this forum 5 of the seven sectors developed short and long term policy priorities. From there, they began the process of developing action plans to work toward their short and long term policy efforts.
Under the guidance of the Operations Committee and with the support of a Trillium Funded staff resource, each of the 5 sectors worked toward achieving their short and long term policy goals. Ongoing planning and adjustment of work plans has taken place over time in order to adapt to the changing environment with both new opportunities and barriers presenting themselves. Key individuals have been recruited to sectors as identified by the sectors themselves. These sectors continue to work on priority policy issues as well as identify new policy opportunity and direction.
In the spring of 2010, it was recommended by the Operations Committee and confirmed by the Steering Committee that Go For Health would adjust its structure and move from 7 sectors to 5 sectors. Indeed it was agreed, that one of the sectors (i.e., media) was more of a conduit for change rather than a sector itself. The other sector (i.e., food service) was seen to be a key policy issue in each of the other sectors, in addition to being a possible sector itself. It was thought that the greatest gains would be made by integrating food and nutrition policy strategies into the other sector activity plans.
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