Tools and Processes Overview
A core goal of ECHO is to develop, test and share integrative tools and processes. Importantly, tools require processes that can test, socialise and embed their use - tools without these processes are ineffective. Tools and processes developed via ECHO are shared below, ending with a summary table sharing six key types of tools and processes that have been developed and utilised by the ECHO Network. These approaches to addressing the identified E-C-H integration gap are profiled on the ECHO Website and some are described in videos on the ECHO YouTube Channel.
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Arts and narrative based methods such as photovoice, graphic recordings, comic jams and digital stories provide rich ways to explore E-C-H issues, that can be integrated into face to face and virtual exchanges (see for example Martin Harris 2020). Gislason et al (2018) and de Leeuw et al (2017) explore these ideas further.
Click here to explore the Arts based and narrative methods webpage
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Capacity strengthening occurs through ECHO gatherings, tools and process development, projects, publications and presentations. ECHO has mentored researchers, knowledge exchange partners and community members to engage with the cumulative impacts of resource extraction. ECHO has also strengthened existing education and training programs to address these themes, including support for (and ECHO Team participation in) the CoPEH-Canada annual, multisite field course on Ecosystem Approaches to Health.
Click here to explore the Capacity strengthening for integrative work webpage
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ECHO has used maps and geospatial tools to profile and share information about cumulative environmental, community and health impacts for ECHO Member and partner groups. This includes refinement of anthropogenic disturbance maps, linkages with the expanded BC LEO Network, developed by FNHA, and partnering to develop the Nechako Watershed Portal and ECHO Network Portal.
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Indicator frameworks tend to create disconnects between environment, health and community issues. Integrative responses developed by ECHO include:
• Healing indicators, which are co-designed using decolonial ‘two-eyed seeing’: with one eye informed by Indigenous ways of knowing and the other by western science. Diverse funding partnerships have been harnessed to progress ongoing Healing Indicators work, in conjunction with the First Nations Health Authority, and informed by the First Nations Population Health and Wellness Agenda, as well as related ecological indicator work (Stelkia et al 2021).
• A “Health in the Watershed” Atlas, developed with the Battle River Watershed Alliance (for 2022 release) is an integrative framework for watershed level indicators with implications for future ‘State of the Watershed’ reporting.
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Responding to the need for more integrated assessment of the impacts of resource extraction has been a key focus for ECHO Members (see Brisbois et al 2021, Buse et al 2020, Hoogeveen et al 2021 and Hoogeveen et al 2020). Related tools and processes explored via ECHO in response to this need include:
• Risks and Benefits Calculator in partnership with New Brunswick Environmental Network
• Integrated Regional Profile Guide, in partnership with the Cumulative Impacts Research Consortium (CIRC)
• Adaptation of the CalEnviroscren methodology to the BC context in partnership with the CIRC, the Northern Health Authority, Office of Health & Resource Development, and the Centre for Environmental Assessment Research, leading to related pilots across the Network (Buse et al 2022). These pilots have now been trialed in BC, Alberta, New Brunswick and beyond!
Click here to explore the Integrative assessment tools webpage
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Child and youth engagement in ECHO occurs through its regional cases, ECHO university students and trainees, and relationships formed with schools and communities that partner with the ECHO Network. One example is the Koh Learning in our Watersheds project.
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The ECHO Network Zotero library is a living collection of resources that research leads, knowledge users, community partners, and research trainees have collectively contributed to throughout (and even prior to the official launch of ECHO) the project.