Tools for an Inclusive Ontario

Belonging -- to a family, a community, a society -- is one of the most important things in life. It makes us feel good. It makes us healthy. It makes us want to reach out to others. Belonging makes our communities healthy, too.

COUNT ME IN! is a health promotion strategy that highlights the relationship between inclusion and health. After reviewing 10 Background Papers on Inclusion, a Provincial Advisory Group created a Canadian definition and framework for inclusion:

A society where everyone belongs creates both the feeling and the reality of belonging and helps each of us reach our full potential.

• The feeling of belonging comes through caring, cooperation, and trust.
• The reality of belonging comes through equity and fairness, social and economic justice, and cultural as well as spiritual respect

An Article (PDF 84kb) published by the Ontario Health Promotion E-Bulletin (#358.1 April 23, 2004) explains the process of developing the definition and framework.

A fifty-three page Workbook (PDF 337kb) shows community leaders how to help groups find factors that influence belonging and create indicators, strategies, and targets to build more inclusive organizations, schools, and communities.

COUNT ME IN! has also created posters and a brochure to apply the ideas of inclusion to population health.

The opinions expressed in this project do not necessarily reflect the official views of Health Canada, Population Public Health Branch, now the Public Health Agency of Canada, or the Laidlaw Foundation.

Some documents in this section are PDFs, which require Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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