Spring Meeting of the Advisory Council April 18, 2019 1247 Kilborn Place MEETING OBJECTIVES • To receive updates on present and future Compassionate Ottawa (CO) activities. • To provide input and advice to the Board of Directors on current and emerging issues. CHAIR’S WELCOME AND OVERVIEW OF STRUCTURE, ROLE OF ADVISORY COUNCIL AND IMPORTANT AREAS OF FOCUS The Chair provided an overview of the structure of CO (Appendix 3), explaining how it has developed as CO has grown as an organization. Some highlights: • CO has become a legal entity with 9 Directors sitting on the Board. • The Champions Circle has been renamed to the Advisory Council. • A job description has been created for the hiring of a full-time Program Coordinator. This position is to support the volunteers; the volunteers will still be the ones driving CO. • The HELP Ottawa project’s governance structure is that of a steering committee; CO has two seats on it. Carleton is managing the finances. The principal investigator is making sure that CO is continually involved with the project. To disseminate this project, HELP Ottawa must raise $40,000; CO needs a team to work on this. • A proposal has been created to outline a 3-year initiative with The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) to hire a full-time community-based liaison with the goal to build capacity between TOH’s health-based services and supports for the community. • CO has had a contribution to its operations of $50,000 as well as $65,000 for three years; CO has also had a contribution of $2,000 from the Arbor Memorial Foundation to the Schools Project. UPDATES ON PROGRAM AND OPERATIONAL PRIORITIES Representatives of each priority area presented challenges that their groups are facing and what they have planned for the future. To read about the groups’ past activities, please view the deck in Appendix 4. Faith • Challenge: how to move to make connections and build relationships of trust with the faith communities. • This group needs more volunteers. 1
Schools • Challenge: Developing materials in both English and French, and the dissemination of materials. Also, what are the next steps? • This group needs more volunteers—especially French-speaking volunteers. Conversations and ACP • Challenge: finding the balance between allowing space for conversations and providing information. Facilitators always have to be infinitely flexible at workshops. • A priority is continuing to support facilitators so that they are comfortable. The Facilitator’s Guide that was developed will continue to evolve, and a training session will be organized in the coming months. Workplace • Challenge: most workplaces have been doing different work in this area. The Workplace team needs more doors opened so that they can be welcomed in. Communications • The Communications team has submitted a proposal to the Algonquin College Social Media Lab to increase CO’s social media presence. • Challenge: this team needs more volunteers, preferably those who have skills in social media adaptation, brand management and web-based communication strategies. • Challenge: more of the materials and content need to be developed in French. Evaluation • Working with the two PhD students from uOttawa, a survey of past ACP workshop participants has been done. The results indicate that a majority of people have begun talking about and planning their advance care plans. • This group has offered to develop a logic model and measurable outcomes for other CO teams. 3-year plan and staffing • Once confirmation is given by OCF, a job posting for the Program Coordinator will be put out. The AC members are asked to circulate it within their networks. • Challenge: to make sure that CO does not lose its roots in volunteer engagement by hiring a full-time person. • CO is looking to participate in large public speaking opportunities to engage the community (libraries, art communities, etc). HELP Ottawa • Interviews are being conducted to hire their Senior Research Project Manager; the position will ideally be filled by early June. 2
• Challenge/goal: to maintain a sense of cultural humility in all sites. • Sites should be confirmed in June. They will hire site staff in the Fall. Canadian Frailty Network (CFN) • This proposal is moving ahead, but there is more work to do. This group needs at least one volunteer for each of the major initiatives: digital stories, book chats, and Compassionate Ottawa story. Finance • CO is ahead of where it was projected to be, with 30k in the bank. CO has confirmed money for its operation for the next 3 years. • Challenge: CO needs to be focusing on fundraising. This requires developing a plan, which requires more volunteers. TABLE DISCUSSION GROUPS AC members were asked to join discussion groups and brainstorm the questions provided. The discussion questions and full discussion notes can be found in Appendix 5. Partnership development CO needs to find new partners and should draw inspiration from other groups across Canada and what they have done. Some ideas include the Council on Aging, CARP, NAFR, but also more local organizations, such as gyms, community centres, retirement communities, as well as women’s and disabilities networks. As many people as possible should be represented. When approaching these groups, it is important to do so with humility and curiosity. A focus should be the commonalities between CO and the group, as well as to share the collective impacts of our stories. Additionally, CO members need to keep up with their passion. Volunteer development When seeking new volunteers, AC members should go into settings that already have an interest in that initiative topic. For example, volunteers for the Faith initiative should be sought out in faith communities. A key group of potential volunteers is recently retired people who still have energy and want to do something different. Incoming volunteers need specific job descriptions and clarity of what’s expected of them now and going forward. As well, they need ongoing personal support, which the future Program Coordinator will do. It is imperative to keep our activities social, interesting, and fun. 3
Financial sustainability CO has successfully achieved funding for the next three years of operation, but it is necessary to stay prudent. Sponsorships from private sector organizations could be sought out, though these do require work to maintain a mutually beneficial partnership. CO should continue to bring awareness to the need for social change surrounding dying, death, loss and grief, to build a business case as a “public good” which could lead to public funding. Social enterprise is inevitable; CO will have to seek its own charitable status eventually. There are many law firms out there that would take CO on. The Board needs to develop policies surrounding approaching potential sponsors. Communications The objectives of this work need to be very clear. Communications strategies have to target these objectives, which will then allow CO to target its audiences. CO should approach local communications/advertising firms that would be willing to take it on. C O should also find and disseminate stories, as these are powerful tools. Post-secondary students would be useful to help with developing CO’s social media presence. Schools CO should target outreach to retired teachers (both an glophone and f rancophone). There is an urgent need for f rancophones on this team. As well, CO could identify leaders in the education community, including student leaders, and conduct forums or brainstorming sessions to determine the needs of the education community. Engaging the Francophone Community It is critical that our program coordinator is fluently bilingual. As well, CO needs to encourage more fr ancophone volunteers, which will allow access into the fr ancophone community. CO could hold a forum to meet with leaders in the f rancophone community and discuss their priorities. Engaging the fr ancophone community is a horizontal matter—that is, it goes through all of CO’s other priority areas as well. GUEST SPEAKER: WENDY MUCKLE; EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OTTAWA INNER CITY HEALTH The slide deck can be found in Appendix 6. MEETING ADJOURNED 4
Appendix 1: List of attendees Spring Meeting Guestlist April 18, 2019 Advisory Council Members Advisory Council Guests (*Also a facilitator) Members Regrets Doug Angus Mary Lou Kelley Claudia Chowaniec* Paul Adams Charles Barrett Joanne Lefebvre* Robert Cushman Ian Arnold Amy Boudreau Jane MacDonald Mac Evans* Lewis Auerbach Nick Busing Cal Martell Barb Hogberg Tim Brodhead Sharon Carstairs Jack McCarthy* Onno Kremers Jen Crawford Erica Claus* Barb McInnes Peter Jon Mitchell Pamela Grassau John Cosgrove Masoud Nematollahi Jean-Pierre Soublière Suzanne Halpenny Martha Fair Jim Nininger Arne Stinchcombe John Laframboise Indu Gambhir* Monica Patten* Lynn Stoudt Kristen Mikkelsen Louise Hanvey* Carol Seaby* Lisa Sullivan Wendy Muckle Jackie Holzman* Norman Tape* Bonnie Tompkins Nadine Valk Diletta Toneatti* Catherine Van Vliet CO ACP Facilitator CO ACP Facil. Staff Regrets Rick Baker Leslie McDiarmid Carole Bouchard Sheryl Bennett-Wilson Michael Namer Paula Campbell Tara Cohen Linda Hay Gisele Microys David Millen 5
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