What a year it has been! The success of the ECHO program in 2025 was truly a collective achievement. With our internal leads, hub partners, and all involved, the ECHO team is so very grateful to everyone for creating thoughtful, engaging, and sometimes wonderfully unexpected sessions. Together, we’ve collaborated with familiar partners and experts in their fields, and we welcomed new voices from people with lived experience.

With the year now wrapped, we exceeded 2024’s registration and attendance numbers—continuing our year-over-year growth since ECHO began! In 2025,we offered 39 sessions, 4,292 people registered, 1,864 people attended, and 2,607 accessed session recordings on YouTube. Many participants attended multiple sessions across several series, choosing the learning that mattered most to them, when and how they wanted to access it.

Based on the registration data, nurses (22%) and social workers (21%) are the most frequent attendees across all sessions. Participants also include representatives from a wide range of roles, such as volunteers, spiritual care providers, music therapists, dietitians, paramedics, and others. Those attending provided care in diverse settings, including hospice (14%), long-term care (14%), and home and community care (34%). Learner participants found ECHO to be a valuable learning experience, with 83% reporting that the ECHO sessions increased their knowledge of the topic. As well, 86% of participants reported feeling confident in applying what they learned from the ECHO sessions. A real measure of ECHO’s success is that 92% of the participants would highly recommend the session they attended.

In the fall, the ECHO program team conducted interviews with learner participants. While post-session surveys are completed after every session, these interviews offer deeper, more nuanced insights into the program’s impact. The feedback has been inspiring – confirming that participants trust ECHO, value the speakers and content, and appreciate the opportunity to learn about others working in this space, and how they fit into the broader ecosystem of care. Word of mouth remains our strongest promotional tool, with interviewees sharing recordings, discussing lessons learned in team meetings, and encouraging colleagues to register each month.

We heard so much in support of the program. Here are just two standout quotes:

“It’s really beneficial to hear and feel supported by others working in the field who have far more experience than me, who have medical backgrounds or lived experience to share.”

“…it has reaffirmed that there’s value in the way that I think and the way that I approach the work that I do.”

Thank you all, including those who help plan, the presenters, and those that attend ECHO, for making this possible—and here’s to everything we’ll achieve together in 2026!

Building compassionate communities that are inclusive and responsive to the needs of older people living with declining health, including those living with dementia, starts with a focus on people—seeing neighbours, friends, and colleagues with dementia not as cases to be treated, but as individuals with unique strengths, passions, and contributions. In a country facing economic strain and an overstretched health-care system, projects like the Compassionate Dementia-Inclusive Community (CDIC) Initiative and the Compassionate Communities Volunteer Navigation (CCVN) Initiative remind us that social health—connection, empathy, and belonging—can be just as vital as medical care. And driving that message forward are countless volunteers whose compassion is fueling awareness and change across British Columbia.

To honour these change-makers (and to mark International Volunteer Day on December 5), we spoke with CDIC and CCVN coordinators from BC about the pivotal role volunteers play in their work.

Extending Community Compassion through Intergenerational Connection on Quadra

On Quadra Island, the Quadra Circle Community Connections Society and Way to Go group are working together to include the younger generation as a short- and long-term support for older people living with declining health — a theme revealed from the results from the Compassionate Community Index Survey completed for the CCVN project. Jude McCormick, one of the CCVN co-leads, explains that the Simple Sharings program, “came from the work of four dedicated volunteers who saw the need for relationship building between children and older people as a way of instilling compassion through lived experience – simply by sharing.”

These volunteers connected the after-school program with seniors housing to bring together young students and residents weekly to engage in activities for the remainder of the school year. According to McCormick, after the first session, one child was surprised that older people liked playing games with them. Even a very shy student got into making rhythms and sounds with a ball and stick (made by one of the older participants) on bowls, aluminum foil, and other materials provided for experimentation. While the program is still in its early stages, the children and older people are already making connections through shared interests in music, airplanes, baking, and storytelling. Conversations are sparking and plans are underway to share pictures and bake cookies.

The immediate results can be felt by the joyous interactions and smiling faces of the participants. The hope, according to McCormick, is for these moments to become lasting positive beliefs of the younger generation about the value of older people and for a sense of personal value for each older person as they share themselves with the children. “The foresight and willingness of our volunteers to make this idea a reality is to be celebrated!”

Sharing Stories, Building Safety in Trail

On the other side of the province, CDIC Coordinator Maggie Shirley from the Greater Trail Hospice Society has seen firsthand how storytelling transforms communities.

“When someone living with dementia shares their story, you might have other people living with dementia who hear it and then feel brave enough to share their stories too,” she said. “It’s empowering for the storyteller—and eye-opening and deeply moving for the listener.”

Shirley believes storytelling creates a ripple effect of safety and connection. “A lot of health issues are related to isolation, so connecting in community—building bridges—is so important.”

In mid-October, the Greater Trail Hospice Society and Beaver Valley Recreation hosted a five-hour dementia training workshop for community members, volunteers, and care partners, that did just that. The event drew a total of twelve participants: volunteers from places like Columbia Seniors Wellness Society and Trail Better at Home, as well as interested community members and care partners for people living with dementia.

The workshop explained the different kinds of dementia and their symptoms, then offered a candid discussion about the stigma associated with the condition and how communities can challenge it. After lunch, participants took part in a sensory deprivation simulation to better understand the daily challenges faced by people living with dementia. The day wrapped with some practical guidance on communicating effectively and respectfully with people with lived experience—making connection safe and inclusive.

For many, the most meaningful part of this training was hearing from care partners. Their lived experiences offered a deeper layer of understanding and authenticity to the course content that allowed everyone to listen with compassion, ask honest questions, and validate each other’s experiences. Their stories became the bridge Shirley talked about — the kind that fostered the connection and inclusion all communities should aspire to.

Connection and Companionship in Prince George

In Northern B.C., Laurie De Croos of the Prince George Hospice and Palliative Care Society and Gagandeep Kaur from Prince George Council of Seniors are focused on bringing people together through their CDIC coordination team.

Their initiative matches volunteers with clients for engaging, shared experiences like walks, football games, or museum visits. “It’s about companionship,” said De Croos. “Those moments of connection can change someone’s week.”

To include folks who prefer group interaction to a one-on-one experience, they host paint nights, picnics, and other activities that make the community feel accessible to everyone.

Kaur adds, “We also match volunteers with care partners who need someone to listen, to help them feel seen and supported, too.”

Through empathy, storytelling, and shared experiences, these volunteers are proving that inclusion doesn’t start with policy—it starts with people. And that is truly something to celebrate!

To all volunteers, across every field, initiative and cause, we salute you today and every day… Thank you for the change you create, the connections you foster, and the way you make the world a better place!