May 24th, 2022 1-2:15pm ET The 17th UNICEF Report Card on Child and Youth Well-being will be launched with a focus this year on children’s environment. For the past two decades the UNICEF Report Cards have examined the state of children and youth’s wellbeing across high-income countries providing comparisons and rankings for each country based on a number of indicators. This year the report card will focus on environmental indicators and how these impact children and youth’s health and wellbeing.

The launch of the 17th Report Card in Canada will be followed by a number of events hosted by organizations across Canada, including:

May 24th, 2022 2:30-5pm ET Children’s Healthcare Canada Pop Up Event – Environment, Climate and Kids: Time to Act

Immediately following the launch of the Report Card, Children’s Healthcare Canada will host a pop-up event focused on climate change and kids. Join Children’s Healthcare Canada as they explore the child health issues related to the environment and climate change and how the system can be better prepared to meet the unique needs of this vulnerable population. Catherine Clark (broadcaster, emcee, and co-founder of The Honest Talk) will moderate the afternoon complete with three interconnected sessions:

• The Impacts of Climate Change on Children’s Health: What we are seeing now and what we might anticipate in the months/years to come. Dr. Anna Gunz (Paediatric Intensive Care Doctor at Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences Center)

• Preparing Children’s Health Systems for Natural Disasters and their Impacts (on supply chain, infrastructure damage to the hospital and surrounding community, and patient evacuation). Dr. Mary McCaskill (Director of Medical Services and Clinical Governance at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network)

• A Closing Panel including Dr. Gunz, Dr. McCaskill and Catherine McKenna (former Federal Minister of the Environment) will address the opportunities to advocate to reduce the impacts of climate change on children and the health systems that support them.

May 25th, 2022 12-1pm ET Outdoor Play Canada Echo Event – Report Card 17 and the Role of Outdoor Play

On the following day, Outdoor Play Canada will host an echo event, celebrating the release of the 17th Report Card on Child and Youth Well-being. This online event will include panelists Dr. Raktim Mitra (Toronto Metropolitan University School of Urban and Regional Planning, Outdoor Play Canada leadership member), Dr. Richard Larouche (University of Lethbridge Faculty of Health Sciences, Director of the Physical Activity, Transport & Health Research Group), and Gillian Petrini (Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment, Child and Nature Alliance of Canada practitioner) who will collectively discuss how their work addresses the intersection of outdoor play and meeting/addressing UNICEF’s Report Card indicators, including those on ambient air pollution exposure, children’s environmental capital (awareness of climate change), urban green space, and child road traffic concerns. We welcome all those interested in promoting the health of children through outdoor play, including (but not limited to) practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and parents to join us in what is sure to be an engaging discussion!

Register here for Outdoor Play Canada’s Echo Event.