From Innovation to Infrastructure: Embedding Social Prescribing in Canada's Care System

Social prescribing connects people to community-based supports that address the social determinants of health before crisis becomes the entry point to care. More than a service innovation, it is a systems-change strategy that challenges the assumption that families and communities can provide care indefinitely without support. Drawing on the experience of Waltons Trust and the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence, which was founded by the Azrieli Foundation, this paper explores how philanthropy can test, evaluate and scale promising approaches while catalyzing sustainable public investment. The goal is to embed social prescribing within Canada's care system within five years, with philanthropy building the bridge and government sustaining it.