Striving to make things better 60 delegates brain storm to improve their communities The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age are known as social determinants. There are several, but the focus was on three particular ones during the HC Link's East Regional Gathering Nov. 6 at the Best Western Renfrew Inn. Sixty delegates, who were predominantly social service workers, healthcare personnel and health promoters, gathered to share stories, network and create ways to improve the work they do in communities. The focus was on the social determinants of housing and homelessness, mental health promotion, and food and security. The day's theme was From Knowledge to Action: Moving Forward on the Social Determinants of Health. One speaker was Greg Lubimiv, executive director of the Phoenix Centre in Pembroke that is a children's mental health centre. The centre's executive director since 1981, he says he was embarrassed at the work he did very early in his career, but that he lived and learned. The answers aren't always what they may appear to be, said Lubimiv, who told the story of what one co-worker taught him after she asked permission to buy four cans of paint. Lubimiv's first thought was that painting one's home wasn't "our problem." But something stopped him from saying that, and he approved the purchase. What ensued, said Lubimiv, was amazing, as family members began interacting and including their friends in the painting process. As a result he says the negative social issues started