Settings-based Intervention Research through
Changes in Lifestyles & Environments

SIRCLE aims to create wellness supporting environments for kids, their families, and their communities.

SIRCLE is Dr. Kate Storey’s Research Lab. Dr. Storey is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair, and Distinguished Researcher, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.

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What We’re Up To

SIRCLE delivers and evaluates school- and community-based healthy living programs throughout Canada which promote wholistic health, prevent chronic diseases, and reduce health inequities. We work to create systems-level change through projects that foster resilience and empowerment and builds on the strengths of communities.

SIRCLE-led Projects

Active School Travel (AST), or walking and wheeling to/from school, is an innovative way to support healthy cities. AST improves mental and physical health and provides social, economic, and environmental benefits.
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This project aims to surface diverse stories of wellness to inform and inspire Canadian school jurisdictions in adopting their own unique cultures of wellness to improve the health of children in their community. Learnings will be shared to inform and strengthen school-based health promotion.
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Essential Conditions for taking a Comprehensive School Health Approach (CSH) is an effective approach that benefits the health of school communities by transforming the culture of the schools, promoting healthy behaviours for students, and improving academic outcomes.
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The Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program (IYMP) is a communal, relationship-based afterschool healthy living program. It is delivered by Indigenous high school students for elementary school children. IYMP is delivered in partnership with Ever Active Schools in over 50 communities across Canada.
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This study evaluated the implementation and effectiveness of the scale-up of School’s Out…Let’s Move!, an after-school healthy living program that provided training, resources, and support to after-school care providers.
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Sleeping Soundly is a research project aimed to improve the implementation of sleep promotion in schools, with reach to home and school environments. Our team works to understand perspectives on sleep, and ways that sleep behaviour can be improved.
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Partner-led Projects

APPLE Schools is an innovative school-focused health promotion initiative that works with vulnerable school communities to change students’ healthy eating, physical activity, and mental health habits to improve their quality of life.
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The Canadian Healthy Schools Alliance is a collaboration of stakeholders spanning the interest of both health and education working together to advance healthy school communities across Canada.
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What’s New

The magic of mentorship: How an after-school program is building brighter futures for Indigenous youth

How can volunteering for an after-school program help you finish high school, go to university and even get a job? It’s all through the power of mentorship — having a role model and being one yourself. It promotes leadership skills, builds confidence, and fosters Mino-Bimaadiziwin (Anishinaabe) or mino-pimâtisiwin (Cree), which means “living in a good way.”

The Indigenous Youth Mentorship Program taps into that power for young people in five provinces, and now it will expand further thanks to a new Applied Public Health Chair grant of $1.5 million awarded by the federal government to Kate Storey, associate professor in the School of Public Health and Stollery Science Lab Distinguished Researcher.

Learn more about the program and how Dr. Storey’s CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chair will support IYMP in this recent article.

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