Hello Everyone,

The Best Practices Work Group of the Centre for Health Promotion
(University of Toronto) has been exploring the potential for a best
practices approach to health promotion for the last three and a half years.
As part of this exploration a framework for health promotion practitioners
to use as a tool for developing and implementing a best practices approach
to their work has been pilot tested at three sites in Ontario (a community
health centre, hospital, and public health department) since last
September. (The definition of best practices the framework is based on is
the Interactive Domain Model definition: "Best Practices in Health
Promotion are those sets of processes and actions that are consistent with
health promotion values, theories, evidence, and understanding of the
environment, and that are most likely to achieve health promotion goals in
any given situation.")

One of the sites suggested that a computer program would have made things
easier for them as they worked through the Framework; as a result, we are
currently developing a computer program to do this. As part of the program
we would like to include lists of resources that practitioners have found
particularly helpful in different areas of practice (we are using the term
"resources" broadly here to include a variety of things including tool
kits, frameworks, books, journal articles, web sites, list serves,
organizations, etc.).

It would be wonderful if any of you could let us know what you have found
to be the one or two most useful resources for your health promotion work
in any of the following areas:

-- planning & research/evaluation
-- implementing actions/strategies
-- incorporating processes that are empowering, capacity-building,
participatory, etc. into activities/strategies
-- identifying/defining/clarifying values, goals, ethical principles,
theories/concepts, beliefs/assumptions
-- identifying/defining/collecting/selecting evidence
-- developing vision
-- developing an environmental analysis of health-related issues e.g.
identifying priorities, factors which influence the issue (including
socio-economic and political systems and structures, and psychological and
physical conditions), ways to address the issue, how to build on capacities
and minimize challenges
-- developing an environmental analysis of organizational/work-related
issues (similar to above)

Thank you!
Barbara Kahan and Michael Goodstadt