Facilitator & Consultant,
Raising the Profile Project 2017
The Raising the Profile Project launched a new era of health care development in BC.
How to shift from acute health care delivery to integrated, community-accessible health collaboration has perplexed institutional health planners for some time. The Raising the Profile Project, led by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives consultant Marcy Cohen, built cross-sector partnerships, collaboration infrastructure, and a capacity growth model that’s being scaled across Canada.
I facilitated the province-wide consultations, co-wrote the infrastructure model, and moderated Summit panel dialogues with health innovation leaders. I worked with appreciative inquiry, story mapping, creative dialogue and circle process, to mobilize knowledge in the system, and open doors to formerly unheard of partnerships. Raising the Profile innovated a new era of adaptive, highly accountable and relationship-based health care.
The seniors’ wellness sector grapples with pressing social change questions – “How we shape where we live and how we live so we can end isolation?” and “What is the role of older adults – soon 25% of the Canadian population – for a more connected world?”
The project launched partnership transformations in communities across BC, including civic & provincial governments, regional health authorities and elders’ social justice organizations, leading to wide-scale cross-sector infrastructure innovation. The consultations set up collaboration relationships that match real-life complexity with care that includes the social determinants of health, and lower health care costs. The resulting call for community-based health systems development was clear, and now being implemented by the United Way: Develop a common language through participatory, integrative evaluation; Facilitate cross-sector mentorships; Build a knowledge & practice mobilization network that’s adaptive and learning; Recognise leadership in community-based health innovation.
At the unveiling Summit in November 2017, “Vive la revolution!” was a participant’s call during my closing comments.
www.seniorsraisingtheprofile.ca