HEART AND STROKE FOUNDATION

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Saskatchewan is a volunteer-driven, non-profit organization working across a broad range of activities – from getting school children up and active through to helping stroke survivors get back on the road to recovery. Our research investment involves the microscopic through to the society – all with the goals of preventing heart disease and stroke and of helping those people who do experience it to survive and thrive.

These activities place us front and centre in large and small communities across the province. Programs like Heart to Heart and Living with Stroke, support and education programs for heart and stroke patients, and Jump Rope for Heart, an educational program that helps elementary students get active and learn about healthy lifestyles, are placing Saskatchewan people one step closer to the Foundation's dream: a future free from heart disease and stroke. Advocacy at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Saskatchewan takes place on many levels. We work closely with government departments to encourage healthy public policy (for example, the national Trans Fat Task Force, seeking to reduce trans fats in our foods, legislation to protect people from second-hand smoke in public and workplaces, and the development of formal school food policies by Saskatchewan School Boards). Some of our volunteers work to encourage health care professionals to use and study new Foundation research findings and treatment protocols (for example, we are currently working to develop an integrated stroke strategy – a system of care that more effectively prevents stroke and gives stroke patients a far greater chance of survival with less disability). Other Foundation volunteers help encourage young people to be active everyday and provide programs to make it fun for them to do so.