The PHABC promotes and protects the public’s health by actively working to:

• Advocate the development and implementation of healthy public policy;
• Facilitate the sharing of health and related information;
• Encourage research into the broad issues that affect the public’s health;
• Cooperate regionally, nationally and internationally with other organizations to promote the public’s health;
• Encourage governments to provide sufficient resources for disease prevention and the promotion and protection of the public’s health
• Advance opportunities for professional development.
  

A voluntary, non-profit, non-government organization, the PHABC’s mission is to preserve and promote the public’s health. The Association works toward this mission through its activities in four essential areas:

• Disease and injury prevention
• Health promotion
• Health protection
• Healthy public policy

The PHABC was founded in 1953 and incorporated as a non-profit society in 1980. PHABC is a provincial branch of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA).

The Association works in partnership and in collaborative and participatory ways to engage the public in addressing health related issues. In recent years, it has:

• Coordinated the project ‘Building Public Health Capacity in BC’, whose three objectives are: (1) To consolidate partnerships between key stakeholders in public health, (2) To provide access to a virtual community to facilitate cost-effective communications, information sharing and collaboration across the province, and (3) To "map out" the basic infrastructure of public health services, with a focus on traditional public health functions and basic demographic information.
• Coordinated and administered a December 2005 workshop, “Public Health Renewal in BC” with over 200 attendees from across the public health sector
• Administered a contract for a Healthy Communities evidence review
• Administered a contract for a research project on the pricing and promotion of fruit and vegetables in the supermarket setting
• Administered the 2005 BC Literacy and Health Research and Practice Workshop
• Promoted and supported the BC Healthy Child Development Alliance
• Participated in the BC Healthy Living Alliance
• Promoted and supported the Dietitians of Canada’s report, ‘The Cost of Eating in BC’
• Promoted and supported local and regional government in non-smoking and clean-air bylaw amendments
• Produced a quarterly newsletter The Public’s Health, developed a virtual office for the Association’s operations and created a web site with timely public health topics’
• Presented awards for significant contributions to community and public health
  

PHABC’s future direction is focused on sustaining and building on the efforts of the ‘Building Capacity for Public Health in BC’ project, and supporting efforts to strengthen the public health sector in BC. This includes:

1. Providing a virtual community where public health stakeholders from throughout the province can come together to engage in dialogue on public health issues
2. Coordinating and supporting the BC Coalition for Public Health in the 21st Century
3. Disseminating and maintaining the map of public health infrastructure in BC

In addition, PHABC will continue to:

• Monitor the integration of disease and injury prevention, health promotion, health protection and healthy public policy into health services management and delivery
• Distribute timely health-related information and showcase accomplishments in the area of public health across the province via our newsletter and web site
• Support the implementation and incorporation of the Provincial Health Goals across the province
• Advocate for healthy public policies
• Encourage the development of public health research and sharing of knowledge from such research
  

The Public Health Association of BC has a long history of service to public health interests. It is a voluntary association that focuses on advocacy to protect, promote and improve population health. The Association is a non-profit organization and operates under the Societies Act. It is joined in its mandate to the Canadian Public Health Association and other provincial and territorial branch organizations. This national linkage enables the PHABC to participate in dialogue and act on matters of interest to provincial and national public health. The stability of the PHABC makes it a low risk for funding and granting agencies and demonstrates the viability of the Association to act for the common good over an extended period of time.

As a partner in community based advocacy the Association has a membership with a vast range of experience and public health competencies. The Association has considerable experience with coalition building, community development, health informatics, initiatives focused on addressing the determinants of health, strategic planning, policy development, research, survey design and evaluation.