Building Relationships to Integrate Community-Driven Guidance for Health Equity
The Challenge
Canada is home to an immigrant population of 8.3 million people which represents nearly one quarter of the country. This number is only rising, with projections showing immigrants will make up 31% of the population by 2041. This growth will bring incredible diversity and growth to Canadian society, and it also highlights areas that the health system will need to address.
Canada continues to see persistent disparities in health outcomes among immigrant and racialized communities. These inequities span both infectious and chronic diseases such as viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Often, people are managing more than one challenge at the same time, compounding health risks and making care even harder to access. These inequities in care and health outcomes point to structural and systemic barriers that the universal healthcare model is not fully addressing.
Adding to these persistent systemic disparities is the fact that community organizations serving immigrant populations are repeatedly approached by isolated projects that deplete their capacity. Researchers often lack sustained relationships, and health data frequently misses cultural and contextual realities. Moreover, community priorities are not consistently reflected in research agendas.
This is the landscape BRIDGE is designed to transform.
Our Vision
BRIDGE envisions a future where immigrant and racialized communities are full partners in shaping the health systems that serve them. Through collaboration we can create a bridge between communities, researchers, clinicians, and public health/health system leaders to ensure that research aims and decisions are guided by community priorities, lived experiences, and cultural context. Instead of isolated, extractive projects, we aim to build a sustainable, coordinated provincial infrastructure that brings together communities, researchers, clinicians, and health system partners under a shared process.
Our vision: a research ecosystem where community leadership is foundational, knowledge flows both ways, and decisions are rooted in trust, equity, and long-term collaboration.
Our mission: BRIDGE will work to transform how health research is conducted by ensuring community voices shape research priorities and all partners mutually inform and strengthen each other’s work.
Foundational Phase: Key Activities
The BRIDGE Centre will build foundational, coordinated infrastructure through community-led engagement and shared governance. We will work to identify health priorities with communities, create population health profiles mapping needs and services, strengthen community capacity through workshops and training, and leverage data to inform service delivery and policy. Importantly, BRIDGE aims to build trusted relationships during stable times so partnerships can be mobilized quickly during future health emergencies.
Growing the BRIDGE Collaborative
BRIDGE is an evolving collaborative. We are actively expanding our network of partner organizations serving diverse immigrant and racialized communities across BC, as well as clinicians, researchers, and policy leaders committed to equity-driven change.
If you or your organization is interested in collaborating, learning together, or shaping the future of racialized and immigrant health research, please contact our BRIDGE Collaborative team at Analytics.PH@ubc.ca.