Insight - YACC

YACC’s Insight team provides personal experiences, expertise, and support for the development and delivery of YACC initiatives, especially support programs, fundraising, research, and communications. We lean on the valuable and diverse experiences, expertise and perspectives of the committee members to ensure YACC continues to enhance support for all young adults dealing with cancer in Canada.

Click here for news from the Insight team!

Meet the team

Insight team: Ainsley

Ainsley joined the Insight team to share her knowledge for IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility) and to support the development of programming that is inclusive for young adults with diverse and intersecting identities.

Insight team: Alyssa

Being a part of YACC empowered Alyssa to identify and speak up for her needs as a YA patient, and she wants to help YACC grow so every YA patient in Canada gets the same chance.

Insight team: Emily

Emily is passionate about creating better experiences for cancer thrivers, and aims to share her own experiences with — and provide assistance or advice — to other supporters whenever possible.

Insight team: Joey

Feeling blessed with the opportunity to give back, Joey hopes to assist with raising awareness and funding for cancer research and treatments.

Insight team: Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn aspires to volunteer through YACC to help spread awareness and cultivate an even greater environment for cancer survivors to give back to the all of the community and individuals that helped her during her most difficult time.

Insight team: K. Carney

K wants to give back and connect with other young adults with cancer the way YACC did with her when she was first diagnosed.

Insight team: Kelly

The understanding and caring that she received from people who barely knew her bonded Kelly to the YACC family and that is why she wants to give back.

Insight team: Meagan

Finding a group that “got it” and where she automatically felt like an equal inspired her to help others find acceptance as they navigate their own paths.

Insight team: Mike Wark

The importance of giving back and remaining connected is the main reason Mike hosts his bi-weekly YACC Chats and is a member of YACC’s Insight team.

Insight team: Monica

Monica joined the Insight team because learning and growing in this community has been an unexplainable experience.

Insight team: Nick

Nick is brand new to YACC but finds comfort in sharing his vulnerable cancer experiences with other people.

Insight team: Nicole Furey

Nicole’s love of the power of storytelling is what keeps her coming back to YACC.

Insight team: Simone Kirkness

Simone connected with YACC in 2020 when she started seeing a social worker. Being in this group is helpful to her own mental health and not feeling so alone with her diagnosis.

The Insight Team is one of our strategic initiatives to help us achieve our primary organizational mandate:

Triple YACC’s program impact
Grow YACC’s community to 10,000 by adding 6,500 young adult cancer survivors
Increase annual revenue back to $1M en route to $2M per year
Recruit 2,000 young adults to the Prime II Study.

We want a team that is representative of the young adult cancer community in Canada, including representation from:

BIPOC
2SLGBTQAI+
Persons living with a disability
Geography – Rural and urban Canada from coast to coast to coast.
Multilingual and/or Francophone.

We also aim to represent and serve varied lived cancer experiences, such as:

Pediatric/childhood cancer survivor
Newly diagnosed
Various types of cancer
Post-treatment
Living with metastatic cancer
20s (school, start of career, etc.)
30s (established career, family, kids, etc.)
40+ (diagnosed under 39, but now into their 40s)
Supporter (this can also include bereaved supporters)

Responsibilities

Insight Team members work with the YACC board and staff members to pitch actionable ideas/opportunities that will offer inclusion, belonging, and community to the key priority populations, groups and communities; will have the opportunity to be a part of implementation of community efforts; as well as provide feedback on YACC efforts.

Team members play a role in advocacy, coordination, insights, and continuous improvement. They are a group who is regarded by the YACC board and staff members as a trusted group who can offer up their personal experiences, community advocacy knowledge, and those of their communities to the organization, critical thinking and analysis for consideration that may shape the YACC programming initiatives.

The YACC Insight Team will be composed of individuals who are selected for their specific fields of expertise, personal experiences and backgrounds to ensure YACC has a wide breadth of knowledge included in decision making.

Benefits

Network and build connections with other AYA community leaders.
Make a difference in the AYA cancer world.
Represent and advocate for your communities’ needs.
Contributing to YACC’s national mission of supporting more of Canada’s young adult cancer population.
Experiential opportunities.
Development of professional committee member skills.
The opportunity to be profiled or speak at a national YACC conference.
YACC Committee member swag.