{"id":1408,"date":"2020-07-15T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bccdcfound.wpengine.com\/whats-new\/bccdc-foundation-year-in-review\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T23:27:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T23:27:55","slug":"bccdc-foundation-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pacificpublichealth.ca\/whats-new\/bccdc-foundation-year-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"BCCDC Foundation Year in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If 2020 has taught us anything it\u2019s that time is a strange concept. In thinking about time, we realized that our work at the Foundation has reached a one-year milestone<\/strong>.

The BCCDC Foundation was born in 2004, but it was only last year that we became a public-facing organization and began to actually engage directly with you, the people of British Columbia. We gave ourselves a makeover, took stock of who we are and what we wanted to achieve, and here we are: your provincial public health charity.

Public health is broad; it took us time to crystalize the change we wanted to create in the world<\/strong>. A year in, what we\u2019ve landed on is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We believe we can improve the quality of life for British Columbians by investing in projects that improve health equity and social justice, by supporting upstream solutions to our modern problems, and by empowering people to take control of their health.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words: when we have equality and equity in our society, we all benefit. When we address root causes of issues, we see positive changes in our health and communities. When we take an active role in improving the health of our population, we\u2019re better protected and can drive well-being in all aspects of our lives.

These core values have come through in the work we\u2019ve done, and chosen to support at the BC Centre for Disease Control<\/a> over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reducing harms, the overdose crisis, and stigma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Through our Reducing Harms Priority, we worked closely with Toward the Heart<\/a> (BCCDC\u2019s Harm Reduction Services). The overdose crisis and stigma against people who use drugs has been ravaging our province for years. This is having catastrophic outcomes; people are not getting the support they need and are dying at alarming rates because of systemic inequities. We launched an anti-stigma campaign to break it down: your words matter. Change your language, remove the stigma, help curb the overdose crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n