About the project
This project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, builds on the strengths of two social innovations, a volunteer navigation program called Nav-CARE and a social mobilization approach called Compassionate Communities, to create a new model of volunteerism called Compassionate Communities Volunteer Navigation (CCVN). This involves implementing a Compassionate Communities approach in four rural communities in British Columbia that have an existing Nav-CARE volunteer navigation program.
The Need
There is an urgent need to provide better support for older people living with declining health to stay at home and experience good quality of life, particularly in rural communities where there are few healthcare services. In this project, we are implementing and evaluating two innovations designed to provide this better support: Volunteer Navigation and Compassionate Communities.
Project team
Barb Pesut, Principal Investigator
Eman Hassan, Co-Principal Investigator
Hsien Seow, Co-Principal Investigator
Kathy Rush, Co-Applicant
Jamie Penner, Co-Applicant
Rachel Carter, Co-Applicant
Gloria Purveen, Co-Applicant
Kelly Ashford, Co-Applicant
Vicki Kennedy, Knowledge User
Ali Martens, Knowledge User
Kenneth Chambaere, Collaborator
Lieve Van den Block, Collaborator
Madison Huggins, Trainee
Kelli Sullivan, Project Manager
Melody Jobse, Community Engagement Lead
Knowledge Partner:
Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA)
Community Partners:
Hospice Society of Columbia Valley
Quadra Circle Community Connections Society
Nav-CARE is a volunteer navigation program that uses specially trained volunteers to work with people in the home over months to years to connect them to community and resources. Over multiple studies, Nav-CARE has been shown to have a positive impact on people and their care partners who receive services. However, community organizations who implement Nav-CARE often experience challenges recruiting volunteers and connecting volunteers to clients who need help because of the stigma associated with dying and palliative care.
The Compassionate Communities movement was designed to address that stigma by raising awareness and educating the public about what it is like to live with dying and loss. Compassionate Communities have been forming all over Canada and the BC Centre for Palliative Care has designed a Compassionate Communities Toolkit to assist communities to do this work.
Building on the strengths of these two innovations, the project aims to create a new model of volunteerism called Compassionate Communities Volunteer Navigation that could increase the capacity to care for, and improve quality of life of, older adults living with life-limiting illness and their care partners living in rural communities.
The Approach
The CCVN project is using community-engaged research approaches in order to answer two questions:
- Can CCVN increase the reach of Nav-CARE as evidenced by the number of volunteers and clients recruited?
- What is the impact of CCVN on perceptions of the community as a compassionate community, beliefs and values about life-limiting illness and dying, and the establishment of social networks to assist those with life-limiting illnesses?
This project is in two 18-month rounds of implementation. The first round is from April 2025 to October 2026 happening in the Columbia Valley and on Quadra Island. The second round runs from October 2026 to April 2028 enabling two more rural sites to draw on the lessons learned from the first two sites.
In addition to the support of the research team and BCCPC, each community will have a draft CCVN Toolkit to guide them along the journey of embedding volunteer navigation within a compassionate community approach. The three main implementation steps include:
- Forming and orienting a Co-Leadership Team and Advisory Committee to the draft CCVN Toolkit which contains all of the necessary implementation information and tools. Each site will be administering the Compassionate Communities Index Survey to assess the level of readiness and commitment to adopt the 5 ideals of a compassionate community.
- Determining current gaps and two targeted interventions to help address them.
- Implementing and evaluating two interventions over the 18-month period. Sites are being asked to consider one intervention to raise the level of awareness and education in their community and another intervention to provide practical support to people living with declining health and their care partners.
In addition to the Compassionate Communities Index Survey data, evaluation data will be collected throughout the project implementation including:
- Interviews with Co-Leads and Advisory Committee members
- Most Significant Change Technique to learn about the most meaningful changes that have resulted from the CCVN approach
- Network Analysis with each Co-Lead organization to map the number and strength of partnerships as they develop over the project period
- Volunteer Navigation Reach Analysis to measure changes in volunteering and number of clients served.
Products and Outcomes
A draft CCVN Toolkit has been adapted from the Nav-CARE Toolkit and Compassionate Communities Toolkit to guide the implementation of a Compassionate Communities Volunteer Navigation approach for the project. Based on the lessons learned from this implementation, the toolkit will be refined to guide the adoption and spread of Compassionate Communities Volunteer Navigation to other communities.
This unique model has the potential to improve volunteer capacity in rural communities and directly enhance the quality of life of those living with declining health and their care partners.
Next Steps
As the work is just getting underway, we look forward to seeing how the vision of these four communities takes shape as they promote the idea of a compassionate community and raise awareness of the importance and impact of volunteer navigation in their communities.
For more information
For more information about Nav-CARE, contact: nav.care@ubc.ca
For more information about this project, contact: kelli.sullivan@ubc.ca
