Current Initiatives

Tackling Child & Youth Isolation During COVID-19

DASH is playing a proactive role by providing parents and families in Indigenous and remote British Columbia communities with creative ways to entertain and teach their children during this time of isolation. According to the BC Government website, only 33% of rural BC communities and 35% of rural BC Indigenous communities have internet access. Therefore between 65 and 67% of these communities are not able to take advantage of the multiple online resources.

DASH is creating or obtaining relevant resources such as books, videos, games and other relevant items and shipping them to the communities. These resources are intended to not only entertain but also create family connections and resiliency during what could be very stressful times.

DASH Supports School Communities

DASH is taking a multipronged approach to supporting our school communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DASH staff have created easy-to-use, one-page resources that can connect educators and parents to the BC Physical and Health Education Curriculum through various activities, lessons, videos, podcasts and more. These resources will be uploaded daily onto our website and include topics from the following four areas:

Eat & Grow
Move & Play
Mental Health
Staff Well-being

Check them out here.

DASH’s Healthy School Communities Certification Pilot

DASH has enrolled 11 schools to take part in DASH’s Healthy School Communities Certification pilot program for the 2019-2020 school year. This initiative, based on Ontario Physical and Health Education Association’s program, recognizes and celebrates school communities for promoting and enhancing the health and well-being of students, school staff, and the broader community.

By completing the 6-Step Healthy Schools Process over the course of the school year, these pilot schools will earn points and apply to be certified in April 2020.

The goals of DASH’s Healthy School Certification are:

To support and increase the capacity of schools to address a priority health topic through the effective implementation of the 6-Step Healthy Schools Process
To celebrate and formally recognise an individual school’s achievements relating to Healthy Schools

To learn more about the program see Ophea’s Introductory Webinar.

Have a question or want to be involved for the 2020-2021 school year? Contact us to find out more.

Regional Outreach

It is DASH’s mission to work with schools and other partners to create, facilitate, and support school communities to be optimal places for health and learning though a Comprehensive School Health Approach (CSH). Comprehensive School Health Facilitators can offer your school community workshops with a central focus on the Comprehensive School Health framework.

CSH Facilitators can also offer support and guidance in developing and implementing your school’s action plan to help your school achieve its priority health and wellness goals for students and staff, assistance with connecting schools to your respective health authority partners and other community organizations, help with sharing health-related resources and programs designed for school staff, students, and administration, and implementation and guidance through DASH and Healthy Schools BC programs and supports.

If your school is interested in working with one of our regional Comprehensive School Health Facilitator, or if you’d like more information, please contact one of our facilitators.

Healthy Schools BC

Healthy Schools BC (HSBC) strengthens health-education partnerships and supports effective implementation of healthy school initiatives using a comprehensive school health approach (CSH). CSH is an evidenced-based “whole school” approach that supports students’ health and academic achievements through four interrelated components: social and physical environment, teaching and learning, healthy school policy and partnerships and service.

DASH manages the Healthy Schools BC program and its website. As such, we create and disseminate provincial tools and support the collaboration between health and education sector partners.

To learn more about Healthy Schools BC, visit their website at: www.healthyschoolsbc.ca

Healthy Schools BC Regional Grants

Healthy Schools BC Regional Grants support education and health-sector partners to work together on initiatives that support healthy schools, with a focus on promoting mental health and well-being, and Indigenous ways of wellness. The grant application process is now closed for the 2018-2019 school year. We thank the Ministry of Health for funding these grants. Please check back in 2020 for new funding opportunities.

Healthy Schools BC First Nation School Grants

Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grants are intended to support First Nations schools in implementing Indigenous ways of wellness across a whole-school environment. This funding stream is now closed. We thank the Ministry of Health for funding these grants. Please check back in 2020 for new funding opportunities.

DASH BC District Mental Well-being Grants

The grant application period for DASH BC District Well-being Grants has closed.

DASH BC District Mental Well-being Grants support education and health-sector partners to work together on initiatives that focus on mental well-being of staff as a way to improve the mental well-being of all members the school district community. These grants were funded in partnership between DASH and the McConnell Foundation.

Mental Well-being Coaching

Funded by the McConnell Foundation, DASH provided leadership and managed the Mental Well-being Coaching Initiative from 2018-2019 that paired expert coaches with school district teams to support the development and implementation of district-wide approaches to promoting student and staff well-being.

Six participating district teams included a senior administrator, a district-wide teacher/ counsellor and a health authority partner, all committed to dedicated time to work with a coach throughout the initiative. The coaches were retired senior leaders from the BC education sector. Through the district level work and reviews of research, our knowledge of staff well-being did increase. Learnings included the challenges school and district staff face, and how to make change to support staff and students. Work around focus groups was a promising way to gather data, engage staff and develop a shared ownership of staff well-being.

To learn more about the Well-being Coaching Initiative, view the videos on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3TRVI2RxlXGuAUd5KaqXsLubJjzrO9OW

You can also find an article on staff well-being in schools on the EdCan site here: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/3-steps-to-districtwide-staff-well-being/