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Welcome to the office Jessica!
When we add another awesome team member to our ranks here at Young Adult Cancer Canada, we like to brag.
Jessica Ramsay started just a couple of weeks ago as our new Event Coordinator and we couldn’t be more pleased. Jessica graduated this Spring with a Bachelor of Business Administration from Memorial University here in St. John’s, NL. She’s super sweet, super smart, and we want to officially and publically welcome her to our crazy office crew!
Jessica will be working closely with myself and others on the 2011 Shave for the Brave as well as other fundraising and other events. She will also be providing administrative support for the team.
We know you’ll be an excellent fit, Jessica (you already are), and we look forward to working with you and getting to know you even better!
Posted on Aug 16, 2010 - 07:20 PM
Game On
Cancer does not stop with chemo’s last drop. Although the vast majority of our healthcare resources are focused on the “active treatment” portion of the cancer experience, the time between diagnosis and the completion of therapy is often a small part of a person’s journey. Simply, it takes longer to recover and heal from cancer than it does to be treated for it.
Cancer systems have recognized this and have started to move forward with initiatives that fall under the umbrella of “survivorship care plans”. Survivors are demanding that these care plans, while initially designed to help monitor and alleviate late-effects as well as screen for secondary cancers, be more holistic; a plan for their whole life as a cancer survivor.
At Young Adult Cancer Canada, we see the emergence of the care plan concept as another super awesome tool to empower patients and survivors. This was the drawing card for us to begin the exploration of development for our next cool program. It’s called Goaltender and it’s got your back when the survivorship game is on.
Goaltender starts with an assessment of personal satisfaction and priorities, which helps survivors figure out where they are and build a path to where they want to be. From there it allows survivors to collaborate with their health professionals, family, friends and survivor peers to establish goals. The plan itself is stored online with Goaltender and is easily adjusted over time as survivors progress on their journey of recovery and gain access to the wisdom of their peers within the Goaltender community.
It’s not just about setting goals in the four main areas of life (physical, emotional, professional and social) and creating a plan for long-term follow-up. Goaltender is designed to support you as you move into action.
Let’s say you set a physical health goal of “Putting on 10 lbs by summer 2011” and an action of “Getting to the gym three times a week” to reach that goal. You can then set Goaltender to connect with you once a week to see how you are making out on this essential action that will push you towards your goal.
Cancergoaltender.ca is a web-based community for young adults diagnosed with cancer to connect with others in a safe survivor-only environment. It has the social networking features every young adult wants, the technology to empower you to create your plan, and the support you need as you turn from plan to action moving your life forward.
Goaltender is empowerment at your fingertips.
Posted on Jul 27, 2010 - 04:55 PM
Rock Concert for Cancer
This past Friday, July 23rd, super volunteer organizer Robert Andrews held a rock concert in downtown St. John’s, NL in support of Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC). The event was held at The Levee and was a whole lot of fun with more than 90 people in attendance and some AWESOME talent!
Dodgeband, Another North, and Bad Alison all performed and over $500 in donations was raised to help young adults dealing with cancer in Canada.
HUGE thanks to the above bands, The Levee, and of course to Robert and his buddies Jeremy Brenton and Shawn Hussey for putting this all together. We really appreciate your support!
Posted on Jul 26, 2010 - 02:20 PM
Canada Day Feelings
Sunday night I was sitting back with my husband getting ready for our weekly movie night… this week it was Toy Story. Yes I know, where I have been if I have never seen Toy Story!? While I was waiting for him to finish reading the paper I was flicking the channels and I stumbled upon the Terry Fox story. For those of you who haven’t seen it, you should. It is a great story about the triumph of the human spirit.
It made me sit back, once again, and realize what I do for a living. I mean, yes, I go to work… I ‘do’ the financials… I make decisions… I help (and get help) from other members of our team… yadda, yadda, yadda…. But what I really do is make a difference.
As I was watching the movie I began to think… here is the most famous cancer survivor in Canadian history, and he is a young adult. While the Terry Fox foundation does great work, of which we are all very happy for, not much has changed when it comes to awareness, support and listening to the needs of young adults (specifically) dealing with cancer in Canada since Terry’s miraculous marathon.
The seven of us here in St. John’s, NL (and one in Calgary) are the only ones working full-time on support programs for young adult patients/survivors on a national level. But that is about to change… I can feel it!
What inspires me is the family of patients, survivors and supporters that we are so lucky to be a part of. This community is growing and I can feel the energy spreading across the country. This Canada Day is very special to me, as I can feel the energy from across this beautiful country… from BC (where Mr. Fox was raised) to Newfoundland (where he began his Marathon of Hope). The young adult cancer community is on the verge of explosion and I am so honoured to be a part of it.
Happy Canada Day to our community! You are all an inspiration!
Posted on Jul 01, 2010 - 08:00 AM
Event Coordinator Wanted - Job Posting
Young Adult Cancer Canada – Event Coordinator
Shave for the Brave went cross-country for the first time this year, promoting awareness and raising funds for Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC) and its awesome national support programs. YACC needs a super-organized, multi-tasking person to join the Shave for the Brave team, so next year can be even bigger and balder.
The Event Coordinator, will be based in St. John’s, NL and have major responsibility in Shave for the Brave communications, event and volunteer coordination, as well as be responsible for various other 3rd party events, communications and operations tasks.
Some skills that would really make you excel at this job: computer skills (internet and office applications), fundraising or event and administrative experience.
If this position sounds like you and you want to help us help young adults with cancer in Canada please forward your resume with cover letter to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Posted on Jun 27, 2010 - 05:35 PM
10th Anniversary Golf Tourney!
Young Adult Cancer Canada turned ten years old this week, and we celebrated in the same way we were created - by holding our 10th Annual Birthday Party and Golf Tournament.
Thanks to the beautiful weather and the tremendous support of our 3rd party TD Canada Trust organizing committee, the event was a success. With both a live and silent auction as well as various raffles, more than $21,000 was raised to support young adults with cancer!
Special thanks to all the volunteers, especially our super auctioneer, for working together on what turned out to be a really fun night and an awesome celebration.
Here’s to 10 years of helping young adults, and hopefully many, many more years to come!
Posted on Jun 19, 2010 - 04:47 PM
Retreat Yourself West Introduction Party!
I am very lucky to have been employed with Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC) since the beginning of 2007. I began as the Program Director and have since moved into the role of Managing Director. When Geoff came to me in the fall of 2008 to ask me if I would be interested in the newly created position of MD (I have finally made my parents proud to have a ‘MD’ in the family! 
) I was somewhat hesitant. I was honored to have been offered the position and the challenge of it intrigued me. However I was already in the best job of my life as Program Director. But I took the opportunity that was presented to me and I haven’t regretted it yet…
Well, that is until Retreat Yourself 2010 rolled around. In the three and a half years since I have been working with this amazing organization I have not missed a program event… I have met every survivor that has attended a Retreat or Conference with YACC since 2007. While I knew, upon taking this new position, I would eventually hand all program elements over to our new, very lovely, talented and extremely capable Program Director (Karine Chalifour) it wasn’t until I was faced with the actuality of this situation did I begin to miss my ‘old world’…
Now don’t get me wrong. I still love what I do. But not meeting the new members of our growing family had more of an impact on me than I thought it would. The sharing, growing, and loving that happens at a Retreat is such a special bonding experience that I felt a hole when Karine returned. It was the first time I didn’t know everyone… their names… their faces… their hearts. As soon as Karine walked in the office on her first day back I cornered her and said; “Tell me EVERYTHING!”… during that discussion I began to feel more connected with the group. While Karine didn’t share anything personal (confidentiality even exists among YACC staff) she shared personalities. I began to feel like I knew all of the retreaters, on a less intense level, of course… but it helped.
Then I had the idea that all YACC staffers should feel this connection. While we have known this for a long time, it is not feasible for all staff members to attend every support event, however we all need to feel the connection to the survivors… they are the reason we do what we do every day. So last Monday morning we had our first ‘Meet the faces of RYWest’ meeting… a catchier name is obviously needed, but you get the picture. So for the first time Karine took all of us through some pictures of the event. She told us each participants name and a little about their personality. It was a great way for all of us here at YACC to be ‘introduced’ to the new members of our family. It was a way for us to feel connected to this amazing group of individuals.
To all of our new family members from the 2010 Retreat Yourself West program – WELCOME! There is a whole community here for you to connect with. We all feel very privileged that you are now a part of this growing community of survivors and supporters. And I am apologizing in advance of the Survivor Conference in Nov… as I am sure when I meet some of you I will likely grab you and give you a big hug as I already feel I know you (believe me, this already happened at last year’s RYW… sorry again Karin!)… a little creepy?… probably, but that’s how we roll! Again, welcome to the family!
Posted on Jun 15, 2010 - 02:04 PM
Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself Realigned
Realign, not redesign
Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself launched a year and a half ago with a bold mission for self-exams, and the website sought to support that mission to deliver the program.
Six months ago, we started looking at taking Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself to the next level, and, a big part of that started at the website. Looking at the numbers, the website wasn’t the success we had hoped it would be. The tell-a-friend feature wasn’t used by many people, and most were confused by the fact that you needed to enter your own email address as well as your friend’s; given the state of spam on the internet, that was a real requirement.
So, we’ve removed it. And, we’ve removed the order-a-hangercard from the footer. (You can still order a hanger card on the Do it! or Watch it! pages). Instead there’s only one action on the footer- a signup for our Monthly Reminder to Touch Yourself (and Trust Yourself!). It’s the most important outcome for the Touch Yourself, Trust Yourself website for individuals- and our hope is that this redesign will significantly increase the number of people who will sign up for reminders.
The other thing you’ll notice is that the website design hasn’t really changed- we’ve only tweaked it a little bit. The idea here is to take Cameron Moll’s advice to heart: to realign, not redesign. And, we plan on doing the same thing with the copy in a few months, and, maybe some more improvements again a while after that.
Each time we’re hoping to make some real improvements, but, being sure to learn along the way from our mistakes, and make the improvements incremental rather than revolutionary.
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 - 07:54 PM
Another Successful Darryl Gorman Memorial Walk
Darryl Gorman Memorial Walk
participants make their way along the walk route.
The 9th Annual Darryl Gorman Memorial Walk took place this past Saturday in Holyrood, NL and it was another successful one, raising over $4,000. Mother Nature was once again in full agreement with the Walk, making sure the sun was beaming down on all of the participants from start to finish. The beautiful walk was finished at Furey’s Club where all enjoyed snacks and prizes. Special thanks to organizer Bridget Ghaney who once again did a wonderful job making sure the event was a success and thanks to all who participated this weekend, WAY TO GO!
The Darryl Gorman Memorial Walk is an annual fundraiser in support of Young Adult Cancer Canada in memory of Darryl Gorman. If you would like to make a donation to the Darryl Gorman Memorial Walk please email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Posted on Jun 08, 2010 - 06:47 PM
We’re looking for a Director of Development!
We’re growing- again. This time, we’re looking to hire a Director of Development, see our job posting below.
Director of Development
Young Adult Cancer Canada (YACC) is Canada’s coolest cancer charity and we’re looking for another fun, organized, creative person to join or office crew as we continue to move toward our ultimate goal… national domination (i.e. To empower young adults diagnosed with cancer to live and love life).
If your fund-raising experience (at least three years is preferable), connection to our cause and desire to make an impact align with our ultimate goal then we want to hear from you.
This position will oversee YACC’s development activities with a major focus on major gifts. So your excellent networking and communication skills, written and oral, will be in action daily. Your flexibility will come in handy as you’ll spend time at our head office in St. John’s, NL and our Calgary, AB office, opening in 2010.
As our Director of Development you’ll receive a competitive compensation package (starting salary range $45,000-55,000) which includes flextime, a fitness allowance and a health/dental insurance plan.
There are over 6,500 young adults diagnosed with cancer every year in Canada, YACC’s mission is to foster a community of young adults with cancer and provide information, support, skills and opportunity to them.
We’ve had some great success in our 10 years of operation but we know our best is yet to come. It has to, the young adults we serve are counting on it. If you want to be a part of our success please forward your resume and cover letter to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Posted on Jun 07, 2010 - 06:28 PM