Local to global impact in health promotion

The Public Health Association of Serbia (PHAS) is a membership-based, nongovernmental not-for-profit association which advises on and facilitates the formulation of sound policies and programmes to promote good health practices. It was established in 2003 by a group of like-minded public health professionals and is supported by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), with funding under CIDA’s ’Strengthening Essential Public Health Functions in the Balkans’ initiative (2001 – 2005). On the request of PHAS, financial and logistic support were provided by CPHA for translation of the Circle of Health to the Serbian language, as well as the organisation of a summer school titled ‘Determinants of Health – understanding and implementation of the Circle of Health’ in June 2009, established to educate PHAS members on use of this tool. In 2010, another summer school used the Circle of Health for project development in area of drug abuse, smoking prevention and prevention of alcoholism between youth in local community.