How does it work?

School Participation

22 Peel Region schools will take part in 2 different ways. 10 schools will be chosen to participate as “activation schools” and 12 additional schools will be invited to participate as “reference schools”. 

All schools that apply will be notified of the outcome by June 12–16, 2025.  

Activation Schools 

Activation schools will receive an honourarium of $5,000 each year of the three-year study, for a total of $15,000.  

Activation schools will also gain access to a resource toolkit and will take part in a school and community planning approach. You’ll work with experts from Ophea and 8 80 Cities to identify a Growing Healthy Place planning team and build an activity package tailored to the unique needs across all the activation schools for health and physical activity learning and participation opportunities and access to nutritious food. With ongoing support, you’ll implement your plans with long-term sustainability in mind.  

Activation schools must agree to:  

  • Commit to the full project term (June 2025–December 2027). 
  • Identify a Growing Healthy Places planning team of school contributors.  
  • Support and participate in a co-design process for activities. This will involve using the engagement tools provided to identify existing assets and needs within the school and community and build an activity package for the region.  
  • Implement activities from the package over the project term and encourage participation from students, teachers, parents and community partners.  
  • Distribute and collect parent consent forms. 
  • Facilitate research and data collection three times over the project term.  
  • Communicate and share knowledge with interest holders within and outside the Peel District School Board (as appropriate).  
  • Support sustainable outcomes once the project is complete.   

Reference schools

Reference schools will receive a yearly $2,500 honorarium in each year of the three-year study, for a total of $7,500. 

Reference schools will provide important benchmark information to help us measure the impact of the Growing Healthy Places: Mississauga project.  

Reference schools must agree to:  

  • Commit to a shorter project term (September 2025–December 2027).  
  • Distribute and collect parent consent forms. 
  • Facilitate research and data collection three times over the project term.  
  • Communicate and share knowledge with interest holders within and outside the Peel District School Board (as appropriate).  

All participating schools will: 

  • Represent the Peel District School Board in an exciting global health initiative. 
  • Gain access to funding (amounts for activation and reference schools differ). 
  • Have the chance to participate in and learn about scientific research.  
  • Be part of a community that contributes to a wider understanding of how to promote learning and access to nutritious food and physical activity among children in underserved communities. 
  • Engage in a larger conversation about student health and well-being with tangible outcomes.   
  • Have the opportunity to receive an annual report on students’ health based on survey responses.  
  • Participate in an event to share key findings from the study.   

Whether your school is selected to be an activation school or a reference school will be based on school portraits (e.g., Measure of Economic Inequality data) and geography. 

Research

The project will be researched in partnership with Brock University and includes student-level data collection conducted in accordance with the Research Ethics Board at Brock University and the Peel District School Board’s guidelines for conducting research. The study involves students in grades 3-8 completing surveys at three points:  

  • October 2025 (baseline) 
  • October 2026 (follow up 1)
  • October 2027 (follow up 2) 

The study will assess the effectiveness of the activities and programs on student health and well-being over time and provide insight into implementation challenges and opportunity to address these in year 2 of the project.    

Reference and Activation schools will: 

  • Distribute the Information Letter and Consent form to the parents/guardians of all students in eligible grades (Grades 3-8) at their school. Paper or electronic forms will be available to collect signatures or electronic consent. (Consent from 120 students is required at each data collection point.)

  • Assist in preparing a list of students with parental/guardian consent to participate in each classroom.  

  • Coordinate with the research team to schedule data collection days. 

  • Support survey distribution to students during class time.   

Student participation in one survey, has no bearing on their participation in another survey. All Grade 3-8 students attending participating schools will be invited to participate in each wave of data collection. This ensures sample size is not impacted. 

Study results will be combined with data from other countries for use in global evaluation.