Authors: Abboud, Rida; Wells, Lana; Esina, Elena

Date: June-2014

A small steering committee of individuals (see Appendix 1) in Calgary is interested in exploring the feasibility of a community-service organization that would target South Asian communities. Coupled with interest from the Minister of Human Services, the Honorable Manmeet Bhullar, this group is interested in understanding the best practices of the Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS) organization based in Toronto, Ontario, which delivers a comprehensive service delivery model. This model, developed by PCHS-Toronto, implements culturally appropriate interventions in the South Asian communities in the areas of addictions, mental health, aging, health promotion, domestic violence, and parenting (Punjabi Community Health Services, 2010). PCHS started in 1990 by delivering one service – a support service for men with addiction problems – and continued to build its service model by including research and community-level assessments.Today, the organization delivers 24 programs, to various South Asian communities, including public events, educational workshops, and cultural competency training. Shift is interested in supporting community organizations in their pursuit to prevent domestic violence in their communities. This report will support the Calgary committee to understand the essential components of PCHS-Toronto that are required to build a similar organization in Calgary. The model proposed in this report draws on PCHS-Toronto, but does not attempt to replicate it in its entirety because any organization in Calgary needs to be sensitive to, and borne of, the Calgary context.