Your support is making a healthier tomorrow possible
Last year, people reconnected to make a difference in the lives of patients and residents. These are just some of the ways you came together to make our community better.
Getting Back into the Swing of Events
Throughout the past two years, many fundraising events were postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic. Yet the community’s commitment to helping others never wavered.
- The Pink Dress Society’s commitment to enhancing breast care through their Little Pink Dress events over the years funded much-needed updates in the Norton and Lucille Wolf Breast Care Centre – like a feature wall that creates a welcoming entrance to the clinic and a refreshed waiting room with new paint and wall-mounted TVs.
- Donors came together for the Mental Health INcubator for Disruptive Solutions (MINDS) initiative, a social innovation lab creating interventions to address transitional-age youth mental ill-health and addiction. In June, hundreds of people took to the bike paths for the inaugural Forest City Cycling Challenge sponsored by Lerners LLP to raise funds for MINDS.
- Longtime supporter EllisDon sponsored the putting contest at the London and District Construction Association Golf Tournament and hosted their first own Golf Tournament – all in support of MINDS. Solving this complex problem isn’t easy, but the team at EllisDon are helping create real change for young people who desperately need it.
On the Road to Improving Youth Mental Health
Donor support helped the MINDS team launch a new Road to Mental Health transportation service to help youth living in rural settings access mental health care.
Virtual care has become vital during the pandemic, but some people need face-to-face support from a trusted care provider. This free door-to-door taxi service takes youth living in places like Strathroy and Exeter into London for appointments and crisis care. Young people who’ve used the program find it comfortable, safe and discreet. MINDS looks forward to providing rides to even more youth and expanding the service to Indigenous youth living on reserve.
Giving Back, In More Ways Than One
Joan Hubert knows just how much warmth and compassion matter when you’re feeling broken. In 2016, she spent more than five months as an inpatient in the Complex Care program at Parkwood Institute to recover from a traumatic car accident. With the support of St. Joseph’s care teams, Joan was able to heal – and now walks independently with the assistance of a cane.
Today, Joan is giving back to the community that cared for her by sharing her invaluable insights as a patient advisor on various hospital projects and committees at St. Joseph’s.
Last year, Joan and her husband Paul went one step further to directly improve care by purchasing a new blanket warmer for Parkwood Institute. There is nothing like a warm blanket to offer a soothing touch to patients and residents on their own road to recovery.