Draft 2 - Mission Statement

The Buddhist Hospice Care Project is a network of people and information focused on providing resources and practical assistance for patients, families and caregivers interested in end of life care support in the Toronto area. We envision providing a network that values and practices Buddhist palliative and hospice care in Toronto’s diverse community.

Meeting December 10, 2007

Meeting December 10, 2007

Attendees:
Helen Craigie
Frances Garrett
George Kilma
Kanae Kinoshita
Marnie Roper

Hello again everyone, thanks to everyone who came to our last meeting back in December. My apologies for not posting these meeting minutes sooner, but I was traveling in India for three weeks on my honeymoon! Quite exciting really.

Our last meeting was very productive and I’ll get right to it.

Mission Statement

Firstly we summarized our previous meeting and discussed the draft Mission Statement. We took the one that I posted and re-jigged it using suggestions given from Craig. I’ll post a revised draft and hopefully by next meeting we can have the Mission Statement solidified.

Function of Group

Conversation around the Mission Statement brought to light our next topic of discussion, the function of the group. Are we a group that provides a network of caregivers or are going to provide actual care? This question was raised in light of the fact that there are many caregivers in our community who are practicing but are un-compensated and a relatively unknown resource to those who are interested in their service.

It was agreed that our group has room to expand in many directions, and there is no reason exclude providing care as well as our base network of care providers.

Name of Group

The name of the group, The Buddhist Hospice Care Project, was robbed from the previous group’s website. I also robbed the mailing list, and that’s how you’ve been receiving emails from me. It’s about time that we renamed ourselves. I’m putting together some suggestions for everyone to comment on. We’ll have a poll decide on one together. If you have any suggestions then by all means, let everyone know.

List and Categorize Activities of Group

We brainstormed and made a categorized list of accomplishments and services that we want to provide in the next 1-2 years. Then we marked next to each activity whether it is a long term goal or a short term activity. The categories and activities broke down as follows:

Education
Lectures
Workshops
Information Brochures directed at caregivers
Information Brochures directed at medical students
End of Life Ritual information
End of Life Lecture series
Panel Discussion – multi-Buddhist representatives
Publication – simple stories with Buddhist message – needs grant

Network
Online Directory - Website
Blog
Network with other similar groups

Care/Support
Volunteer Support
Training
Residences-Hospice

Research
Needs Analysis
Bibliography
Resource of Current Studies and Research

Focus for Next Meeting

There is a lot to do for the next meeting. I am going to come up with a tentative timeline for activities with specific needs and how others can get involved. I am also going to solidify our Mission Statement for final discussion. Also we are going to have our group name poll and decide at the next meeting our final decision.

Until next time!


Helen Keller:
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.