Work at CSI for the day with our new Lounge Pass!
Join Us
Log In
News

Toronto Vital Signs Report – Issue eight: Health and wellness

  • Categories Reports & Studies
Audra Williams

Audra Williams

Toronto Foundation has just released Vital Signs Report 2019: Growing Pains and Narrow Gains. This report provides a consolidated snapshot of the trends and issues affecting the quality of life in our city and each of the interconnected issue areas is critical to the wellbeing of Toronto and its residents.

Vital Signs examines ten issue areas. We are going to explore highlights of each of these sections. Issue Eight is Health and Wellness.

Toronto is a physically healthy city, outscoring the rest of the province and country on many indicators of health. Mental well-being is also a critical aspect of quality of life, but in some ways Toronto is not the happiest place — the city has growing mental health challenges.

  • Toronto is physically healthier than the rest of the country and province, and many physical health metrics have been improving over time.
  • Hospitalized strokes, heart attacks, and avoidable deaths have all been decreasing significantly over the last decade.
  • Despite strong physical health, Toronto is by several measures the least happy city in the country, with our young people the least happy of all.
  • Emergency room visits for mental health are increasing extremely rapidly among young adults, as are hospitalizations for eating disorders.
  • Opioid deaths and alcohol poisonings are also increasing rapidly.
  • Lower income is broadly associated with worse health outcomes across most major indicators available in this chapter.

If you are an Ontario resident dealing with everyday stressors or major life events, Big White Wall is an online mental health and well-being service offering self-help programs, creative outlets, and a community that cares. Freely express your thoughts and feelings with unique creative outlets. Interact with a supportive community where everyone’s voice counts. Learn from smart programs and useful resources that help you understand and feel more confident. Feel secure in an anonymous space where your identity is completely private.

Keep Reading
CSI Spadina in the ground floor kitchen, looking out towards the lounge and meeting rooms. In the foreground is a kitchen counter, with waffles, toppings, and glasses of coffees and teas. In the background, CSI CEO Tonya Surman is speaking into a microphone on the left. In the middle and on the right, a variety of people stand and sit, listening to her speak.
Who Are Our Community Animators?
Member Stories, Programs
One of the keys to CSI's magic is our Community Animator Program (CAP) and, specifically, the Community Animators themselves! Through this program, we've worked with more than 1,000 exceptional individuals who have each brought a little something different, and a little sparkle, to our spaces. And we're so glad to have had them in our community, because we've learned that each and every one of them has some exceptional talents, skills, and experiences to offer the world!  
Third floor lounge of CSI Spadina. In the foreground is a light blue loveseat sofa. In the background, we see two people working separately at coworking desks and tables. On the ceiling is a chandelier; to the right, a progress Pride flag.
What Pride Means to Us
Staff
The CSI staff team includes Pride veterans, newcomers, and everywhere in between! This year, as we celebrated Pride in our spaces and with our member community, we turned to our staff team to learn what Pride means to them. Some experienced it for the first time this year and were awash in the joy; others delighted in the fact that Pride remains such a fun celebration decades later. Others noted the increasing corporatization, which draws our attention away from the central premise of Pride - a protest.
whai header
Women HIV/AIDS Initiative on Collective Action and Community Change
Member Stories, Reports & Studies
CSI is many things - a coworking space, a non-profit organization, and a launchpad - but, first and foremost, we are a community. A community of innovators, of changemakers, of neighbours, of people putting people and planet first. And the awesome work that our members do, each and every day, never ceases to amaze us! So of course, we do our best to highlight our members whenever possible. Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Molly Bannerman, Director of Women HIV/Aids Initiative (WHAI), a community-based response to HIV and AIDS among cis and trans women in Ontario. Below is an edited summary of our chat, where we discussed the work of WHAI and their latest Collective Action Community Change report.
Become A Member
Learn About Membership