A provincial honour for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
It's the recipient of the 'Bright Lights Award' from the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario.
The award is given out for outstanding leadership and work done by primary care teams across the province.
Director of Health Promotion Nicole Dupuis says for the past three years they've been working with a number of community organizations to improve health care in Windsor-Essex.
"It is pretty innovative." Dupuis says, "I'm not aware of too many partnerships that are as extensive as ours between primary care and public health and it really is the work of the staff, but also the leadership commitment. So everyone coming together and a commitment to sort of do something differently and share our resources to meet the needs of our community in a better way."
Dupuis says community partnerships are what got the health unit noticed.
The 2017 'Bright Lights Award' from the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
She says it's rare for a health unit to win an award like this.
"I think people were surprised. I think it was exciting right?" Dupuis says "It's a different kind of approach and I think they're thinking in their own community what ways that they can partner and to say there is partnerships like that happening across the province, but maybe not the way ours is working as far as leadership and a commitment."
The health unit was recognized for creating initiatives like the 'Eat for Life' healthy eating program and the 'Healthy Smiles' fluoride varnish program.
The award was presented to the health unit at a conference in Toronto earlier this month.