Volunteer Program: Program Highlights, Updates and Needs

As one volunteer shared: “I am truly grateful to be a part of Philip Aziz/Emily’s House. I never imagined how much these experiences would mean to me. It’s hard to describe what sort of impact being a volunteer here has been on me, but I firmly believe that my life is much richer for it.”  

As shared in our annual report, our focus remains on deploying volunteers in client-facing roles within the visiting hospice program and at Emily’s House children’s hospice. This past year, we enhanced our in-person service delivery and training, professional development and educational opportunities, collaborations with partners, community interest events, recognition events, and practical and psychosocial supports for both our client care and volunteer programs. For clients in our visiting hospice program and Emily’s House: we increased the number of visits, hours and clients served. Our team flexed their time between both hospice programs, with a commitment to supporting clients in many capacities. We noticed an increase in requests for social support, grief and bereavement, spiritual care/anticipatory grief, music therapy and child life/recreation – so a capacity assessment is underway to advise plans to upgrade our service delivery model for next fiscal year. In the new fiscal year, planned Grief and Bereavement program enhancements are a focus priority, including a revamped volunteer training that began with fifteen registrants: strong out of the gate!

Updates from Volunteer Program:

• Volunteer Numbers: Currently, 287 trained volunteers are on the roster to be frontline care providers to clients (adults and children) who require hospice palliative care supports: 216 are active and available; and 18 are episodic or on hold; 117 are available for administration, reception, photography/legacy, gardening, maintenance, food deliveries, art projects, family advisory council; additional miscellaneous opportunities are available for employee and faith-based volunteer groups (i.e., meal preparation, care pack deliveries, gardening, gift wrapping, food drive, third-party fundraising). Typically, volunteers in the visiting hospice and caregiver program provide an average of four hours a week (per client) of non-medical care, which is integrated into the professional health and hospice care team wherever the client is living. Volunteer support includes: emotional, spiritual and psycho-social support, assistance with mobility, some personal care, respite care for primary caregivers (allows a break from caregiving), practical care; assistance with daily activities of living; recreation, play, reading, songs, social interaction and consistent relationships.
• New Volunteer Online Scheduling Tool: In fall 2025, to make better use of volunteer oversight resources, new procedures have been introduced to enable volunteers to self-schedule/request preferred volunteer shifts, and to confirm actual volunteer hours logged through an online volunteer management tab on our existing client care database software (Info Anywhere). This gives volunteers a greater sense of autonomy; and streamlines scheduling oversight and administration.
• Relevant, Professional Development and Outreach: Ongoing, relevant professional development and training is available to core hospice volunteers as an engagement strategy, to demonstrate our appreciation via skills investment, and to provide opportunities to develop relationships in a community of volunteers.

Volunteer Program Highlights from Last Year:

• Volunteer Trainings: Total Sessions of Core, Grief and Bereavement, and Children’s Trainings for Hospice Volunteers: 40; Total training attendees, preparing for client care roles:
• Volunteer Wellness, Community Interest and Professional Development Sessions: 30 exciting sessions with 254 total attendees.
• Volunteer Information Sessions: 24 sessions with a total attendance of 200
• Volunteer Appreciation Events: 70 Volunteers attended the National Volunteer Week BBQ; and, 80 attendees were celebrated at the annual Appreciation Banquet.

To learn more about become a Volunteer, start with a Volunteer Info Session!

https://paceh.ca/volunteers/volunteer-information/

To Donate to Volunteer Program

Funding is needed to multiply hospice care supports and quality-of-life experiences for children and adults through compassionate volunteers. Volunteers need to be recruited, trained, retained, inspired, managed and deployed. It costs approximately $300 to onboard one new volunteer.

https://paceh.ca/ways-to-give/how-to-donate/

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