Communities and Schools for Health (CSH)
A Worldwide Movement

This section of the website explains how communities and schools can work together to promote health, prevent health and social problems, assist children or youth who are at risk and help to support those already experiencing poor health.

In Canada, this approach has been called Comprehensive School Health. In the United States it is called Coordinated School Health. In Europe, Latin America and in countries in the Western Pacific such as New Zealand and Australia, it is called the Health Promoting School. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a Global School Health Initiative that contains tools and fact sheets for the understanding and planning of national school health programs.

In this section, you will find several groups of web documents that explain the concept of comprehensiveness. For an explanation of  the different specific elements of comprehensive school health see Healthy Schools.

This comprehensive approach can be used to prevent or address specific health problems/issues such as tobacco use or violence/aggression , as well as to promote different aspects of health such as physical activity or healthy eating. Go to  Background Information on CSH for more details and information.