Провинция Британская Колумбия отличается самым высоким показателем детской бедности в Канаде. Наибольшему риску подвержены дети в центральных районах г. Ванкувера. В 2006 г. мы предприняли попытку реализовать проект в сфере социальной педиатрии, который постепенно приобрел форму научно-практического партнерства RICHER. Инициатива RICHER (ЧМРЗОН) является аббревиатурой слов «чуткий, межотраслевой-междисциплинарный, ребенок-сообщество, здравоохранение, образование, научные исследования». С самого начала проект RICHER ставил своей целью решение проблемы очевидного неравенства в доступе к услугам здравоохранении для детей. Проект расширяет возможности такого доступа по всему спектру – от профилактики до специализированной поддержки, создавая партнерства и стараясь привлекать ресурсы, влияющие на определяющие социальные факторы здоровья.

British Columbia has the highest child poverty rate in Canada with children in Vancouver’s inner city being among the most at–risk. In 2006 we set out to develop a social pediatrics initiative that has evolved into the RICHER research to practice partnership initiative. RICHER is the acronym for the Responsive, Intersectoral-Interdisciplinary, Child-Community, Health, Education, and Research initiative. From its outset RICHER sought to address the marked inequities in children’s health by fostering access to clinical services along the continuum of care from prevention to specialized supports and by forming partnerships and working to develop resources to address the social determinants of health.  At the outset of the initiative the team recognized that the neighborhood had a significant percentage of children who were developmentally vulnerable at school entry, and emerging longitudinal research had demonstrated that the impact of social and material adversities was cumulative over the life course. Moreover, a series of longitudinal studies and emerging neurodevelopmental research has shown that the negative impact of social and material adversity can be mitigated. The importance of engaging to improve children’s health and development was further underscored by analyses that demonstrated that when social and material adversity is left unaddressed there is a negative impact on the child that potentially incurs significant costs for not only health care systems but also for social services, education, and the criminal justice systems.