About HEAL
Want to be a community health leader right here in Alberta?
Our work at the QTHC is driven by community health leadership. We were founded by and operate for the community we serve. For this reason, our Health Empowerment through Active Leadership (HEAL) program provides community members access to the knowledge, skills, and networks they need to contribute to their health, the health of those they love, and the health of the community-at-large.
HEAL contains three separate programs adapted from programs initially developed by the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC): Investigaytors, Totally Outright, and Pivot. HEAL engages participants in a series of educational sessions that build basic health knowledge around a variety of sexual and gender minority health topics.
Each of these programs meet the QTHC’s core community health leadership principles with what we call BITE:
Build connections between community members
Improve health literacy
Train in practical skills
Empower to solve challenges in community
Participants then build their practical skills related to the specific stream they are in. To top it all off, HEAL participants identify key health issues impacting the community and work with the QTHC and its partners to develop and pilot capstone community health projects aimed at addressing the issues they’ve prioritized.
Each program offers a unique experience for participants. The practical skills participants learn and the types of community health projects they develop and implement depend on the specific program or stream they are in. Check out each of the programs below for more information!
fEATURED CONTENT
pivot
Are you ready to disrupt the status quo, shake up the establishment, and be a catalyst for change in your community? Pivot is an Alberta-based HEAL program that builds individual and community capacity to respond to community health challenges through social justice strategies that impact systems change. Participants will engage with sessions on change theory, 2S/LGBTQ+ health, social justice, and advocacy. Participants will then work collaboratively to develop and implement their own community health systems change project!
investigaytors
Investigaytors is a seven-month program based in Alberta designed to empower participants to conduct community-based research and establish community connections. Throughout the program, participants meet weekly to conduct their own original research, with the possibility of using quantitative or qualitative methods. Modules include: Introduction to Community-Based Research, Research Methods and Study Designs, Data Collection, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Translation. The program will culminate in research projects that will be shared locally within our community. Previous Investigaytors have also presented their research at the CBRC’s national Summit.
totally outright
Totally Outright is a community health leadership program equipping young queer, trans, and Two Spirit people with the social connections, health knowledge, and health promotion skills they need to be health leaders in their communities. The program aims to harness the cultural knowledge and resilience of queer, trans, and Two Spirit community members by centering their lived experiences in the development and implementation of community-led health responses, and create lasting connections between participants.