The purpose of the HOPE Project (Healthy Opportunities for Parents Expecting) is to provide young moms and moms-to-be with a health information resource that is easy to access and understand. The HOPE project was born from another project – HOP (Healthy Opportunities for Preschoolers) that offers health information and training to parents of preschoolers. HOP, now called LEAP (Literacy, Education and Active Play), is a guide available to all families in British Columbia (Canada). To see this guide click on the above link.  

Because we wanted the HOPE website to reflect the health concerns and interests of the young women who we hoped would use it, we met with groups of young moms and moms-to-be and asked them to tell us about their health concerns and the kinds of health information they wanted. Based on what they said, the following 5 health related areas were identified.

1. Healthy eating for the whole family.
2. Being active during and after pregnancy and with children.
3. Healthy living related to stress management, drug and alcohol use, sleep, common illnesses, and keeping a clean and safe home environment for children.
4. Healthy relationships with partners, children and extended family members.
5. Parenting and communicating with children.

After identifying these 5 key areas, we met again with these groups of young moms and moms to be to invite them to be part of our web design consulting team. As part of the consulting team these women advised us on color, layout, graphics, wording, and the types of resources to include on the site.  

Members of the Research Team from UVIC

Sherry is a professor in the School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education at the University of Victoria. She teaches and does research on the topics of health literacy, social marketing, physical activity and health promotion. Sherry doesn’t have children herself, just a dog and two cats, but believes that it’s important for everybody’s health that they can find health information that’s right for them.

Mia is a graduate student working on her Master’s Degree in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria. She has a 16 year-old daughter who she’s raised on her own while working on her Master’s and teaching high school on-call. Mia, a high school drop out, feels a strong connection to the young moms she has worked with on the HOPE project because she, like the many young moms, has had to struggle to become educated and create a healthy life for herself and her daughter. Mia looks forward to finishing her Master’s and starting her PhD in 2008.

Jennifer is the manager of a First Nations Early Childhood Development program and a substitute teacher for the local school district. Working on the HOPE project has been has been especially fulfilling for Jennifer because she sees the need for easy access to Health information on a daily basis in the community where she works. The HOPE website has also been very important to Jennifer on a personal level because she had her first baby in May 2007 during the website development stage!

Grace is an undergraduate science student at the University of Victoria. She is now working on her Math and Statistics Degree with a part time job as a website developer for the HOPE Research Team.

The HOPE website was funded by ActNow BC.