The Intersectoral Action Fund (ISAF) is a grants program by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), designed to bolster community capacity for intersectoral action on social determinants of health. The ISAF funds organizations addressing the societal, economic, legal, and political structures and norms that impact individuals and their behaviours. The program aims to enhance population health, reduce health inequities, and strengthen community resilience.
The 2022-23 ISAF funding cohort contained 13 projects. Each ISAF-funded project engaged diverse stakeholders – including community organizations, government agencies, local businesses, and individuals with lived experience – to collaboratively develop a common agenda and an action plan to address a pressing public health issue. This approach enabled the implementation of solutions for a range of complex health priorities while fostering long-term systemic change.
The Collective Impact (CI) Framework – a proven framework for multi-sector collaboration – served as the foundational model for ISAF projects funded between 2022-23. Each project required coordination across various sectors to tackle complex health challenges affecting health equity and well-being. The CI Framework’s five conditions – a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone infrastructure – facilitated the conditions for community action and implementation of meaningful intersectoral action.
Implementing innovative solutions demands creativity and courage. We commend funded projects for sharing their valuable experiences and insights for the benefit of all communities.
This case study focuses on the Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Partnership Project: Building intersectoral partnerships and community strategies to support the health and well-being of children aged 6 to 12 and their families (The Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Project), led by the City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario, and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Intersectoral Action Fund. This project aimed to better understand and support the needs of children aged 6-12 and their families as they transition from the well-supported "Early Years" phase to "Middle Childhood." The project recognized that, following the pandemic, the mental health and social and physical development of children in this age group has been impacted and that more comprehensive and coordinated programs and services are needed.
The project engaged diverse partners including childcare, schools, municipal recreation and leisure groups, and public health, with the shared goal “[of better understanding] the needs of children aged 6-12 and their families, and to develop strategies to coordinate and promote community programming, resources and information for this age group.”
The project had four primary activities (see Figure 1):
Figure 1: Overview of the Sudbury Middle Childhood Project
A central focus of the project was to break down silos between sectors and groups to facilitate the development of shared strategies. Another important focus for the project was to establish an infrastructure to support networking and collaborative planning. Such infrastructure would help to ensure the long-term sustainability of the project and its partnerships.
The project partners identified that children in the middle years are experiencing an overall decrease in their well-being due to declines in their social, physical, and mental health. Conversations among partners revealed that many have seen similar issues in children in this age group since the pandemic. These included more screen time, less socialization, decreased social skills, and increased social anxiety.
Children in this age group were also experiencing a decline in their physical health and activity levels, a growing lack of interest in physical activity, greater food insecurity, and reduced access to a healthy diet.
We have been dealing with issues in the 6-12 age group that we would normally see with older children since the pandemic.
Childcare provider
The mental health of children in the middle years has also declined since the pandemic. Specifically, there has been an increase in mental health disorders and behaviours, less self-regulation, and various challenges to a healthy family environment. Positive child development depends greatly on strong family relationships, but factors like domestic abuse, parenting stress, and pandemic-related challenges such as isolation can significantly harm children's cognitive, emotional, and social well-being.
Input from agencies and parents of middle-aged children identified barriers and challenges that limited the ability of both groups to respond to the identified needs of children in their middle years.
The challenges for both groups included:
Staffing issues presented challenges for many agencies. These included insufficient staffing levels and staff burnout. A need for specialized training to address behavioural and/or mental health issues was also identified. A lack of information and an absence of quality data were also highlighted. This hindered collaboration, and limited system navigation, planning, and evaluation.
A better understanding of the needs and challenges experienced by kids in middle childhood, as well as those faced by parents and agencies, led to the identification of specific priority actions that could be collectively undertaken.
The 6-12 age group is always forgotten... meetings are always geared toward the early years.
Childcare provider
Collaboration was recognized as an effective way to better coordinate efforts to address the needs of children aged 6-12. The Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Project identified the following three priority areas for collaborative action:
The collaboration that was created to better understand the needs of children aged 6-12 in Greater Sudbury has identified some specific priorities for action, illustrated the overall benefits of coordinated action, and affirmed the willingness of continuing collaboration between agency partners and parents.
Services are often costly; school resources are very limited, and waitlists are long.
Parent of a 6–12-year-old
The work of the Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Project generated a richer understanding and appreciation of the unique needs of children aged 6-12. The project’s literature review and needs assessment, which included input from both parents and agency partners across a diversity of sectors, found an overall decline in the social, physical and mental health of children 6-12 and their families due to many common issues and the need to better service this age group. The project highlighted examples of successful collaboration, and built consensus on specific priorities, measurable outcomes, and indicators of success to guide continued collaboration among community agencies.
For example, the project established a Middle Years Partnership Committee made up of 13 partner agencies. These partners established Terms of Reference and made a long-term commitment (2024-2029) to continue their collaboration. This Committee will operate as a sub-committee of the established Early Years Planning network which will help sustain this work for long-term. Resources and tools generated to support this work included several guides and templates for establishing Advisory Groups and conducting community surveys. The project also created consent forms and data-sharing agreements between partners.
To begin addressing the immediate need for greater awareness and coordination between existing programs and services, the project developed A Repository of Resources for School-Aged Children. This resource is a platform/webpage for both agencies and parents that profiles community programs and online resources to support the well-being of children aged 6-12 including specific information about program eligibility criteria and cost. The page has supported greater awareness of available programs and services and encourages service alignment and navigation.
Another tangible result of the project is its demonstration of the value of collaboration between community partners. This has deepened interest and commitment among partners to continue networking, engage in peer learning, and collaborate with agency partners. Effective collaboration helped project participants achieve greater alignment of existing services, enhance service navigation, decrease wait times, and increase availability and access to programs and services to improve the well-being of 6-12-year-olds and their families.
The Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Project has confirmed that children aged 6-12 are experiencing a decline in their overall well-being due to various unmet needs and service barriers. The project also identified common needs and issues experienced by multiple organizations that support children of this age and their families. The project’s collaborative approach has resulted in shared interest across many agencies to commit to long-term collaboration on priorities designed to enhance the region’s responsiveness and effectiveness in supporting children in their middle childhood and their families.
Importantly, this project highlighted the benefits of cross-sector collaboration to effectively address the needs of these young people, their families, and the agencies that serve them.
The Greater Sudbury Middle Childhood Project would like to thank the leadership and staff from partner organizations as well as the many individuals whose input contributed to the success of this project. We would also like to acknowledge the Public Health Agency of Canada for the funding they provided to make this project possible.