Health and education are interdependent: healthy students are better learners, and better-educated individuals are healthier. Healthy School Communities works collaboratively with school communities to create conditions for students to feel accepted, safe, and valued-so they can best learn and succeed now and throughout their lifetime.

Healthy School Communities is a partnership between HRCE and Public Health. Healthy School Communities use the Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework to guide their work. HPS is an evidence-based, whole school approach to health promotion that engages partners across the school community in planning, processes and actions on factors to improve student health, well-being and learning outcomes.

This whole-school approach builds capacity to incorporate well-being as a essential pre-condition for student success. Research has shown that it improves both health and educational outcomes and promotes healthy behaviours that last a lifetime.

What is Healthy School Communities?

• Healthy School Communities use an evidence-based approach aimed at creating and sustaining supportive school environments that foster student health, learning, and well-being.

• Healthy School Communities take a Health Promoting Schools (HPS) approach. HPS is an internationally recognized approach that relies on a formal partnership between Education and Public Health to support student success and health.

• Healthy School Communities work collaboratively with school communities to shape conditions in the school environment to support student learning and health in an equitable, holistic, and integrated way.

• Healthy School Communities seeks to continuously enhance the climate, culture, policies, practices, and physical design of the school environment to support all students in achieving their optimal health and learning potential.

• Provide annual funding (Health Promoting Schools funding) to HRCE schools to nurture and support student well-being, build connectedness within the school community and promote students’ sense of cultural safety and belonging.

• Apply a “whole school approach”, engaging students, teachers, school administrators and staff, families, communities, and governments in planning, processes, and actions to foster healthy, accessible, inclusive, equitable, and vibrant school communities.

• Provide resources, ongoing support and learning opportunities to school communities to build capacity for supporting well-being using an HPS approach.

• Support opportunities for students to identify and implement innovative solutions that support meaningful change in their school community.

• Youth Health Centre's (YHCs) located in every high school and 2 middle schools. The YHC is a partnership between HRCE and Nova Scotia Health, and is operated by Public Health.

• Provide a vision and a path for working together to create sustainable change benefitting school communities now and into the future.