Building Health Promotion Capacity: Action for Learning, Learning from Action

Building Health Promotion Capacity explores the professional practice of health promotion and, in particular, how individuals and organizations can become more effective in undertaking and supporting such practice.

The book is based on the experiences of the Building Health Promotion Capacity Project (1998-2003), a continuing education and applied research venture affiliated with the Saskatchewan Heart Health Program.

The project studied the process of capacity development in relation to practitioners and regional health districts in Saskatchewan. For health promotion practitioners across Canada and beyond, this book provides a coherent framework for effective professional practice. Leaders in health sector organizations will develop a firmer grasp of how to support health promotion practice and how to recruit and retain individual practitioners with a high level of capacity. Policy makers will improve their knowledge of environments that support the health promotion capacity of individuals and organizations. Scholars will learn about the nature of health promotion capacity and about a methodology for its study.

Scott McLean is Professor and Associate Dean of Extension at the University of Saskatchewan. Joan Feather recently retired as Coordinator of the Prairie Region Health Promotion Research Centre. David Butler-Jones is the first Chief Public Health Officer of Canada.