2019-20 recipients

The following Emerging Leaders in Health Promotion Grant Program projects received funding in 2019-20.

NOTE: All 2019-20 recipients have received a one-year extension to complete their projects due to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Multilingual perinatal video and website by and for Edmontonian immigrant women
Recipient(s): Uilst Bat-Erdene, Claudine LeBosquain
Mentor(s): Dr. Sue Chandra

This project aims to provide immigrant women with accessible and accurate information about perinatal care and hopes to improve health literacy, patient satisfaction, and reduction of adverse pregnancy outcomes in this underserved population. To achieve this, an inclusive and patient-centered website that addresses the needs of this immigrant population in Edmonton will be developed.


Empowering children in the foster care system: A needs assessment & toolkit to improve care
Recipient(s): Dr. Rebekah Bauman
Mentor(s): Dr. Tami Masterson, Dr. Dawn–Ellen Young

The aim of this study is to develop a tool that allows caregivers to “hear” perspectives of children in the foster care system on what they need and want from their different adult caregivers. This will in turn be used to help provide more meaningful and trauma-informed care for youth in foster care.


Women's reproductive health: Self-empowerment through art and education
Recipient(s): Dr. Lindsay Drummond, Dr. Kristin Black, Dr. Anneline Slabbert
Mentor(s): Dr. Rebecca Rich

This project will provide: an opportunity for women to gain empowerment through education and recognition of the influence of health and culture; increasing awareness that cervical cancer can be screened for; and educating women of the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer. This will be achieved via an art-based project to engage women in underserved communities in discussions about reproductive health, specifically: safe sexual practices, and cervical cancer screening and prevention.


Training South Asian Youth Mental Health Ambassadors 
Recipient(s): Dr. Harleen Hehar
Mentor(s): Dr. Abdul Rahman

The purpose of this project is to train South Asian youth between the ages of 16 to 25 with the knowledge and skills required to become mental health ambassadors for the South Asian community across Calgary. At the end of the training, participants will be expected to collaborate and create outreach projects to promote South Asian mental health, thus having a ripple wave effect for change and awareness.


Young Chefs: educating and empowering youth to combat food insecurity
Recipient(s): Dr. Zach Levacque
Mentor(s): Dr. Jacques Branch

This project aims to set up a pilot program to teach nutrition and cooking skills to youth. A group of youth will participate in 12 weekly 3-hour after school workshops in a community kitchen to learn how to prepare nutritious meals that they can take home to their families. During some workshops, experts such as dieticians, physicians, and chefs will be brought in to teach the participants about healthy eating. 


Agency through words: An integrated knowledge translation partnership between literacy instructors and women's health experts
Recipient(s): Dr. Stephen Macumber
Mentor(s): Dr. Rebecca Rich

This project aims to provide an opportunity for recently resettled refugee women to be empowered with high yield vocabulary and phrases relevant to their health needs. This will be done by developing six women's health content modules addressing priority themes identified in a recent needs assessment. The project will be done in collaboration with the St. Francis Women’s Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program and will target women at highest risk of language isolation and translation failure.


The Re:Pro Health Podcast - discussing pro-health topics in women's reproductive and general health
Recipient(s): Angela Messer, Daphne Cheung, Sabrine Garrison
Mentor(s): Dr. Jill Konkin

Re:Pro Health aims to raise awareness about women’s reproductive and general health topics. The goal is to provide education about these topics so women may become better advocates for their own health. This project hopes to use podcasting, a widely available and popular platform, to distribute accurate information about medical topics that are both sensitive in nature and may otherwise be difficult to access without seeing one’s doctor in person. 

Visit the website at: reprohealthpodcast.com.

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