Although formally launched as a provincial organization in 2001, the Health Promotion Clearinghouse (HPC) emerged a few years earlier from the work of the Knowledge and Skills Working Group of the Western Region Heart Health Partnership (Heart Health Nova Scotia). The HPC was established in 1999 in response to the need for a knowledge and skills information exchange system or "clearinghouse" in Nova Scotia's Western Region. The working group had determined that such a system was needed to provide community groups and organizations with timely access to health promotion resources and expertise.