Selected Projects

On this page, I have highlighted just a few  projects illustrative of the various services we have performed:

The Health Communication Unit: Materials, tools, and services

Various  funding from 1993-2011 Ontario Ministry of Health (and Long-term Care), Ministry of Health Promotion, Public Health Ontario; Larry Hershfield & Associates acted as Manager and Consultant under contract to University of Toronto

THCU began as a Unit of the Centre for Health Promotion (University of Toronto) dedicated to build Health Communication community capacity, and over the years its mandate grew to include Planning, Policy Development, Evaluation and Sustainability.

THCU was widely regarded as a leader among the 2o plus resource centres in the Ontario Health Promotion Resource System (OHPRS). We summarized its work in a THCU_Services_Brochure.

In the beginning, we spent substantial time developing over 20 workbooks, then moved on to various checklists and products, and presented these at various 1 and 2 day workshops. By 2011, we were developing online intelligent tools, and conducting dozens of webinars, and our website had over 24000 links to it and tens of thousands of downloads. As of this writing, the resources are available at the THCU Information and Resources database.

Throughout its years, THCU maintained a very accomplished group of consultants, and enjoyed numerous partnerships. I had the honour of being the first chair of the OHPRS (and some years later, its last, before the system was re-organized).

Online Health Program Planner

National Coordinating Centre for Methods and Tools funded the project; Larry Hershfield & Associates acted as Manager and Consultant under contract to University of Toronto

OHPP is a complex and comprehensive tool, and those interested should visit the site. Be sure to see the various ways in which program plans are inputted and outputted, the various Help and Learning features, and the accompanying Sample Plan Library.

If you are interested, three organization partnered to produce a narrative about its development.  OHPP_CPHA_Outsert_en.

There are also numerous webcasts that explain its workings, and a brochure 2010_07_26_OHPP_Brochure_EN.

While I led the team, the lion’s share of the work was done by Jodi Thesenvitz, Steve Kingston, and Ali Kilbourne; we were also blessed by the insights of funders, partners, colleagues, and the end users who participated in the Usability Testing.

There are many notable features of OHPP and at its core, we created a tool for common tasks that draws upon resources as users need and want them. At the same time, with each passing day, new insights and better technology reveals just how much more can be done.

Community Works Report: Research and writing

Goodwill Ontario

We took on the assignment of writing  a report on the effects of employment on Communities. The process began with a number of consultations and key informant interviews; these, along with searches, led to a very interesting and diverse literature.

The report was notable in that it was part of a transformative process at Goodwill Ontario, developed  to advance a broad agenda as well as specific partnerships and initiatives.

You can read the report here.

I loved the assignment, learned a lot about the issues and key community players. In addition, working with a journalist writing partner and various reviewers expanded my ideas about science writing.

Analysis of HP101 Online Learning Modules: Strategic Planning

Office of Public Health Practice, Public Health Agency of Canada

For this assignment, Jodi Thesenvitz and I carefully developed a set of standards and criteria, in terms of short and long term objectives of the Office of Public Health Practice. We then reviewed the content of  HP101 (online learning modules that had been developed by the Ontario Health Promotion Resource System) in terms of addressing core competency content required within health promotion practice (the standards and criteria we had developed).  This essentially was a gap analysis, so we were able to include detailed recommendations for expansion of learning content.

This assignment was a particular pleasure in that our PHAC colleagues were very well-organized and very clear in their concepts (and very well-documented).  I also had had a lot of positive experiences with HP101 having  played key roles in its inception, development, writing, and implementation.  So it was a worthwhile process to look at HP101 through a new lens.