A local group is exploring ways to make Bonnyville a healthier community.
The Bonnyville Wellness Coalition will be surveying the area in the coming months after receiving a grant from the Alberta Healthy Communities Initiative. They will receive $20,000 over the next three years to put toward the project.
"Typically, they don't involve interviewing people," explained Sarah Cole, co-chair for the coalition and public health promotion facilitator with Alberta Health Services (AHS). "We'll be doing environmental scans of what's available; if there's a vending machine, or if there's any shade structures for example."
Once completed, the group will identify their priority areas and ways to best address them. Some options include physical activity, healthy eating, tobacco and alcohol reduction, and mental health.
Out of 60 communities, Bonnyville was among the 24 chosen for the Alberta Healthy Communities Initiative grant program.
When the opportunity arose to apply, Cole saw it as a project that could benefit the town.
"The nice thing about it is it's very much about what the community wants. It's community-driven, and it looks at what strengths we have and how we can build on them," she explained.
The City of Cold Lake worked on UV reduction and nutrition when they were part of the pilot program. As a result, they created the Healthy Choices Count Coalition. Through their UV protection campaign, they installed three greenhouses around the city and purchased tower gardens. One was installed at Happy House Daycare.
The group is still in the early stages of determining what would work best for Bonnyville.
"We're just trying to bring information, collect information for what our group looks like, and some initiatives that we could do that aren't duplicating what's already out there," said coalition member Elisa Brosseau.
Cole added, "Everything that we would want to implement would be evidence-based and sustainable, so those are where the decisions would come from."
For Cole, having social spaces that promote healthy behaviour is one step toward improving the overall health of Bonnyville residents.
"Really changing the environments where people live, learn, play, and work is more effective in the long-term for positive health outcomes. Rather than just focusing on behaviour change alone, we want to focus on that environment piece. It's not just about how can each individual person make changes, but how can the community make sustainable changes to make those options more available?"
She continued, "Individual choices are strongly influenced by factors that surround us, such as community deigns, access to parks and green spaces, access to affordable nutritious foods, and social connections in early life experiences. When our health is shaped by the places where we spend most of our time, we can really improve health when we have access to affordable healthy choices in that community. I think that's a really important piece when we look at communities like Bonnyville."
Brosseau hopes the coalition can put systems into place that can help residents who need it.
"For rural communities, we just have less access to all sorts of amenities that you might find in an urban centre. I think the more we can band together as a coalition, reach out, and give some resources for our community members who are in need and might be suffering from mental health, or who might be living alone, just something different that might help them."
While they still aren't sure what their project is going to look like, Cole hopes what the group decides on will be sustainable in the community.
"I really like to see things implemented that are going to be there for a long time... I would also like to see, even after the grant funds are utilized, that we continue to grow and keep implementing those sustainable pieces for preventative."
