What We Do
The Community Health Systems Resource Group works with more than 1,000 different community partners on research, information sharing and community building on issues that affect children, including home life, school, peer relationships and health.
CHSRG quick facts
- created: 1997
- staff: multi-disciplinary
- goal: to improve child and family health
- method: community partnerships
- tools: research, system change, advocacy, education
- partners: we have over 1,000 community partnerships
A model for children's success
For over 125 years, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) has been serving children and their families in the Toronto area. "We're off to SickKids" is a phrase known by generations of families throughout the city and in many communities throughout Ontario and Canada. Over this time, SickKids has become widely known and respected as a world-class health care, research, and teaching centre.
While the work of our scientists, doctors and health care professionals is felt worldwide, our efforts to improve healthy outcomes for all children begin right here at home in our own communities. To support our tradition of innovation and outreach, SickKids has created a unique unit called The Community Health Systems Resource Group (CHSRG). We are comprised of a group of dedicated health systems scientists who conduct research in many areas important to the well-being and mental health of children. We do so using an innovative model that is distinct among paediatric health care centres. In our work, we partner with community organizations to develop and conduct research, and then share the results to improve the health and well-being of the world's children.
The purpose of the Community Health Systems Resource Group is to create and implement systemic models for children's success through the transfer of knowledge to all who can influence healthy outcomes for children.
Perhaps our trustees best described the importance of CHSRG when they said:
"We see SickKids' most important product as knowledge. We generate knowledge when we do research, we apply it when we treat children, and we disseminate it when we teach others. Our greatest future potential, where we will see the greatest return on investment, depends on our ability - through research, education and advocacy - to influence child health outcomes outside our walls, in Canada and around the world."
Knowledge, therefore, is one of our most important products and the transfer of that knowledge to communities through community partnerships is one of our most important services.
Since our creation in 1997, we have assembled a team of top-level professionals to promote positive change in children's outcomes in our community, our province and beyond. As advocates for system change we are committed to helping practitioners and all those who influence children and their families by:
- Conducting research to determine how to optimize child and youth health outcomes within existing systems and organizations
- Creating awareness of new, evidenced-based research and knowledge
- Fostering partnerships to transfer that knowledge in a manner that stimulates its use and benefits
- Supporting local efforts to make change within communities
In our model for children's success, we consider all the factors essential to producing successful outcomes for children, including health, home life, school, community life, and peer relationships, to name a few. Our scientists develop research programs that look at all these components to promote success in children and youth.
In keeping with the World Health Organization, we believe:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Our model for children's success has three primary objectives:
- To improve services for children and youth at the community level
- To build community commitment to children and youth
- To advocate for strong policies at all levels of government that support children, youth and their families
We share our research and policy analysis skills, as well as our knowledge of programs and interventions with community leaders, service agencies, and governments who, in turn, share their knowledge and expertise with us. We build and develop partnerships between different community sectors so that priorities, policies, and interventions are jointly planned, implemented, and disseminated.
Join us
If you share our vision, join us. As research partner, as advisor, or as a corporate or public funder, please let us know what your interests are and how we may work together to create more resilient children, in more resilient families, in more resilient communities.