Dear colleagues,

Following the suggestion of Eric our colleague, we would like to share his call to join him organising a workshop on community health for the next EUPHA conference in Dublin (8 - 11 November 2023, deadline for submission is May 1^st.)

The aim of this 60-minute workshop would be to generate a discussion on the state of community health practice in Europe; a discussion that could help researchers working in this field to find each other, leading to further collaborations on European projects. Here is the first attempt at summarizing the workshop:

Community health is one of the most undervalued and poorly funded domain of action of health systems. Although one regularly runs into evidence of its contribution to population health, well-being and equity, national health systems and to some extent public health training and research tend to pay little attention to its contribution and to what it takes to build population health capacities at local level. This workshop aims to generate a discussion among EUPHA members on the state of research and on what it takes to improve capacities in community health.

In order to circumscribe the field, we loosely define community health as the application of health promotion principles and strategies at the local level to improve equity and resilience of a community. It does so through 3 fundamental means: cross-sectoral collaborations, community involvement, and community health workers.

The workshop will feature [up to] 5 speakers presenting on the state of community health practice and research in their countries and the challenges they face. It will be very interactive; attendees being encouraged to share their views all throughout the section.

As just a suggestion, aim and objectives are likely to change according to the nature of the different contributions. No need to be an expert on the question. Just need people who have a real interest for this domain of action. Just send Eric an email if you are interested.

Hoping this initiative will bear fruit, I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes from Rennes

Eric BRETON PhD

Enseignant-chercheur à l'EHESP et chercheur au Laboratoire Arènes (UMR CNRS 6051 : équipe INSERM U1309)

Professeur associé à la Chaire UNESCO EducationS & Santé

Tél: +33 (0) 2 99 02 25 06 (Assistante: Esther Amenyitor Olivier au 02 99 02 28 52)

Eric.Breton@ehesp.fr

Best regards, on behalf of the EUPHA - Health Promotion Section

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