Environment Seminar Series: Social Connection and Access in Cities: Taking a Community-Engaged Approach to Advancing Social and Health Equity in Urban Spaces with Dr. Nadha Hassen, PhD MPH
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About the Seminar
Urban spaces play a critical role in promoting health, wellbeing, and social connection, yet access to these spaces and their benefits remains inequitable. This talk shares insights from different projects, including the findings and community-engaged process of the research project Park Perceptions and Racialized Realities.
Park Perceptions and Racialized Realities explores the experiences of racialized and underserved communities in Toronto's urban greenspaces. Using participatory arts-based methods, community members documented and analyzed their interactions with these spaces, uncovering barriers related to access, safety, and systemic exclusion. Recommendations to create equitable, just, safe, and health-promoting greenspaces are shared as well as strategies for co-developing solutions with communities.
About the Speaker
Dr. Nadha Hassen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is a public health and environmental studies scholar focused on healthy and just places and spaces. Dr. Hassen’s research explores health and social equity in different environments and takes an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on intersectional anti-racism. Her research and evaluation work is community-engaged and participatory where she collaborates with marginalized communities to address the social and structural determinants of health. Dr. Hassen has a PhD from the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University and a Master of Public Health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, specializing in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences. As a health researcher, she has worked at both policy and community levels. She works at the intersections of research, education, advocacy, and social, racial, and environmental justice. She is also on the Board of Directors for 8 80 Cities, a non-profit organization focused on creating healthier, more equitable and sustainable cities for all people.