Better schools through health: learning from practice

7. WEB-BASED PROMOTION OF SYSTEM CHANGE & BETTERPRACTICES ON INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONDouglas McCallInternational School Health Network, CanadaBackgroundProfessional networks and networking have been instrumental in making progressaround the world in school health promotion. In Europe, the Schools for Health inEurope network (SHE network, formerly known as the European Network of HealthPromoting Schools) began as a loose network of interested schools and grew into aninter-governmental network. In the United States, a close partnership between theAmerican School Health Association and government agencies has led to a highlydeveloped system of coordinated school health programmes. In Canada, the CanadianAssociation for School Health and its NGO network created a comprehensive approachto school health that survived severe cutbacks at all levels and recently re-emerged withnumerous national activities in research, intergovernmental and knowledge exchange.In Asia, leadership from the Chinese University of Hong Kong has formed the primarythrust for programs for two decades.This practice story attempts to describe a new generation of such professionalleadership. We describe Canadian efforts to promote better practices using webbasedand other professional networking strategies to support systems, agency andprofessional change. We then suggest that it is possible that this story will continue,where the International School Health Network will be using similar techniques topromote an ecological, systems-based approach to school health promotion centredon ten key strategies and numerous concepts that will be included in an online glossaryand encyclopedia that will be supported through bibliographies of research/resourcesand a series of handbook chapters.Professional networking for systems changeThe Canadian experience is similar to many countries around the world. We began in1988 with voluntary networks of professionals and agencies in each of our provinces/territories. We developed a Consensus Statement in 1990 that created an enduring,shared vision. We applied that comprehensive approach to a number of health andsocial problems. A 1999 survey of provincial-local-school policies in the educationand health systems reported progress just as an economic downturn was divertingattention away from school health programs.However, our collective vision survived and was revived in 2005, when a fortuitouscombination of events led to the creation of a stronger NGO network, a researcher’snetwork, an intergovernmental consortium of health and education ministries, severallarge scale research projects and parallel movements on safe schools and communityschools.The 1990 Consensus Statement was revised, a research agenda in school healthpromotion was established, a series of annual school health conferences was started,a 2005 capacity assessment was completed and a knowledge/resource centre wasestablished. For the first time, the school health movement in Canada had multi-yearfunding in the non-governmental, intergovernmental and research arenas. A newparadigm for school health promotion was defined as well; one that was based on an36