Categories: Healthcare Access & Equity

Scaling equity-based attachment means being ready for more than just matching

Overview 

As we move towards Ontario’s 2029 primary care attachment goal, we face a choice. We can build an attachment system based strictly on administrative matching by counting numbers. Or we can build a system that invests and values engagement, access, and equity equally, to create true attachment based on readiness,

BETTER for All: Creating Sustainable Pathways to Chronic Disease Prevention 

Can preventative health be more attainable with an accountability partner; particularly one who shares language, life experiences, interests and or other supportive qualities? 

The BETTER for All program is a GTA-based evidence-based peer health coaching (PHC) program focused on eliminating barriers to care and reducing the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases for newcomers to Canada and in racialized communities.

What gets measured gets improved – our annual client experience survey

This research-like activity is about understanding the client experience within Access Alliance’s primary care services. It focuses on gathering feedback from patients who visited one of the organization’s three main sites (Jane, College, and Danforth) or accessed care virtually between November 2025 and February 2026.  

Overview and context 

We operate within a community healthcare model defined by health equity and social inclusion,

Advancing health equity, strengthening attachment readiness, and improving mental health outcomes for Black children and youth

Advancing health equity through attachment readiness and systemic transformation

Access Alliance’s annual Community-Based Research Retreat Day in 2026 focused on advancing health equity, strengthening attachment readiness and systems of care, and improving mental health outcomes for Black children and youth community members.

In the morning, we focused on advancing health equity through attachment readiness and systemic transformation.

A sense of belonging – 2026 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Rockcliffe-Smythe & Mount Dennis

The 2026 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) evaluates the well-being, assets, and challenges of the Rockcliffe-Smythe and Mount Dennis (RS-MD) neighbourhoods in Toronto. RS-MD are vibrant, diverse neighbourhoods located at the west end of Toronto along the Humber River.

Both areas contain large immigrant populations with various housing and employment opportunities.

Advancing newcomer health data justice 

We are working with longtime Access Alliance collaborator, Jay Shaw, to support his work on ADJUST (Advancing health data justice), a project that explores newcomer understanding of health-related data and their ideas for developing policy and practice standards that promote justice.  

According to Dr. Shaw’s earlier research, Health data justice: building new norms for health data governance,

Mental Health Needs and Service Standards for Black Children and Youth 

Access Alliance is embarking on an important Community-based Research (CBR) project with African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities – From Policing to Public Health: A Data-Driven Framework for Culturally Concordant Mental Health and Non-Carceral Crisis Response for children and youth in Toronto.

Led by the Director of the Research Department, AKM Alamgir,

A Newcomer Health Plan for Ontario – the time is right

It is time to design, validate, and evaluate an equity-focused Newcomer Health Plan (NHP) in Ontario.

Why a Newcomer Health Plan?

Approximately 250,000 people immigrate to Canada annually, contributing to about two-thirds of the country’s annual population growth (1); and almost half of all new Canadians settled in Ontario in 2025 (2).

AccessTO – ensuring access for all

The City’s Access to City Services for Undocumented Torontonians (AccessTO) policy outlines that all Torontonians, regardless of immigration status, have the right to access City services without fear. Through the Toronto Newcomer Strategy 2022-2026, the ongoing implementation of the AccessTO policy remains a key priority.

In March 2025,

Opening doors for cancer screening in a downtown priority neighbourhood

Led by the University of Toronto’s Rosanra Yoon, Access Alliance is excited to be part of this new project: Open Door to Address Cancer Screening Hesitancy: a community-based co-design project to address cancer screening hesitancy in a downtown Toronto west priority neighbourhood.

Project focus

With funding support provided by the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research,