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Pierrette Vezina, volunteer coordinator at Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa, has played many roles over the years. One of the things she’s most proud of is helping to create a meaningful place for other people at Wabano, to help them get better connected to each other, themselves, and the programs and services around them. After she received the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship in January, we spoke to Vezina, who is Métis, about building a program to increase the number of active volunteers from 14 to more than 400, growing one of Wabano’s volunteer programs into a chocolate-based social enterprise that helps bring in money for other programs, and what the work means for people’s health and wellbeing.

Can you tell us a bit about how you got started at Wabano?

I had to retire because of medical reasons, but I was looking for something to do, as a therapy really. And Wabano called to me. At first, I was working with the seniors program they had started here with the Elders. I worked for them for about three or four years and I loved it. I had practised as a Therapeutic Recreologist and Music Therapist in my career, and so I was able to bring some of my skills here to help them. Then I heard they were looking for someone to fill the role of volunteer coordinator. So I said, “You know, I could help you out with that a couple of days a week.”

It’s now been four years that I’ve been the volunteer coordinator. For me, that role has meant a lot. I have chronic pain, but when I’m here at Wabano, I don’t feel it. Being here helps me feel better. So Wabano has done a lot for me, too.

We can’t hide the fact we have a real sweet tooth. Can you tell us more about the Wabano Fine Chocolates social enterprise and what it means to have a volunteer program evolve like this?

I’m a trained chocolatier, and I was trying to find creative ways to show the volunteers that we appreciate them, so I made chocolates, and it started out as a gift. Then I thought, well, maybe this could become something bigger. But it grew very slowly. I taught people how to make chocolate, and we started by producing prizes for programs, or as little gifts.

Now we are actually getting contracts because people really love our chocolates. We worked hard to develop our flavours. It’s a totally Indigenous program, so we have chocolates that tell stories of our culture, and we have chocolates with teachings. People really liked that.  The program is youth-oriented, and includes volunteers facing barriers. Also all the money made goes back into supporting programming.

Can you explain your approach to volunteerism, and how it might differ from other organizations?

Volunteerism is such a big word, but in our culture, the tradition is helping, and being a helper. So if a neighbour needed fish, you’d go and help them catch fish, you know.   That’s what living in a community is all about. And that’s what is so great about Wabano: we do everything in a community.

I spend some time with incoming volunteers to get to know them and what they’re passionate about. Then I try to find the perfect job for them where they’re going to be happy and where they can use their talents, and we can nourish those talents. Sometimes I even create a role so someone can learn while they can give back to Wabano.

Can you give us an example?

Graphic artist. I had a young person who is a talented artist, so we had her create a few cartoons for educational purposes, and some wrapper designs for the chocolate program, and things for the Wabano galas. It was something she really loved to do, and gave her a chance to use her artistic ability to address design needs at Wabano.

What do you think of the connection between social interaction and health, especially for seniors?

What seniors are really missing is people talking to them. A lot of times with seniors, the main issue is loneliness: they’re isolated, and it’s important to engage them. Especially with Indigenous seniors, a lot of people have had trauma, from residential schools and other things, they’re dealing with mental health issues, they’re living under the poverty line, but one of the things they need the most is a place of belonging, and that’s where Wabano comes in.

We welcome people who’ve faced intergenerational trauma, and people who’ve had trouble with the law, and we try to help them get their lives back, to change their story, and give them a chance to accomplish things. We also have people with physical and mental disabilities, and they have so much to offer, they just need a safe place to do that.

So, the Wabano environment is what helps to nurture rich volunteer opportunities for community members?

It’s the people here, and the vision of our Executive Director [Allison Fisher], and our Board, for this to be a place of belonging, for this to be a place where people feel safe. It’s about the people and the community. One of the big reasons I’ve been here 10 years is because I believe in what they do, and I’ve seen Wabano make a difference in people’s lives.

--To learn about volunteer opportunities and more, visit Wabano’s website or email Pierrette Vezina at volunteer@wabano.com. And we hear that she knows where to find the Wabano Fine Chocolates, too, in case you're looking to place an order.

Last week, Jodi Pearce, a health promoter at Windsor Essex Community Health Centre, received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from Health Promotion Canada. This national award “recognizes passionate and visionary health promoters who, during their lifetimes, have made substantial contributions to the promotion of health … and health equity among communities, thereby empowering Canadians to achieve full life potential.” To help mark this milestone moment, we spoke with Pearce about the evolution of health promotion and unleashing the profession’s full potential in the context of comprehensive primary health care.

You’ve worked in a Community Health Centre for nearly three decades, many of them working as a health promoter. Can you speak to why the health promoter role is so crucial in delivering comprehensive primary health care? How is the health promoter role different in the context of a CHC?

I feel that health promotion in primary health care is definitely an approach that extends beyond services one would receive in the traditional health care system. Customarily ‘health care’ consisted of a diagnosis and treatment regime. In more recent years, practitioners are recognizing all of the services and factors that play a part in health, such as income, housing, education, and the environment. Working collaboratively at a CHC, a health promoter is able to assist with the identification of risk factors and prevention of chronic disease, and utilize the resources that exist to assist a client in addressing their individual situation. Health promoters in a CHC, I feel, have a uniquely wonderful opportunity to assess needs, and then design and facilitate programs and services that are necessary in their community. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and so incorporating health promotion into a CHC makes a lot of sense for addressing the unique needs in one’s community.

Health promotion is sometimes narrowly misunderstood as solely being chronic disease and lifestyle education and prevention, such as stop smoking programs. Can you talk about how you’ve seen the profession evolve?

I feel it is a profession that has gained a lot of momentum over the years. It has moved from a ‘nice idea’ in the early 1990s to some very credible work done across the province. It has grown to incorporate disciplines such as public health, medicine, epidemiology, sociology, psychology, economics and social work.

What are some of the ways that health promoters are uniquely positioned as part of an interprofessional primary health care team to help bridge barriers to good health and wellbeing by addressing factors that impact health equity?

The chance to be creative and the access to so many resources both play a role in being able to design and deliver programs that are outside of the box of “treatment.” The flexibility and support from community members and other CHC staff alike are what I think help to position a health promoter uniquely. The role of a health promoter outside of a CHC can be much different or sometimes siloed into specific tasks such as grant-writing, and while that has its purpose, CHCs often allow more opportunities to take a project from paper to practice.

What are some of the things that health promoters do, and that you’ve done over the years, to ensure that the social determinants of health are being addressed in your community?

Health promotion is not something that can be done alone; partnerships are the key to success. As well, it is not always a single position or staff person who enables the work of health promotion, but instead it’s about incorporating a health promotion approach into everyone’s everyday practice. The ‘it takes a village’ mentality is the key to addressing the social determinants of health in any community.

What are some aspects of your work of which you are most proud?

Most recently, I would say the “Not My Kid” adolescent and opioid community forum was very successful. It was very well attended, and represented a great opportunity to inform community members non-judgmentally while trying to reduce stigma about specific substance use. It’s also served as a very adaptable turnkey project for other communities facing similar issues. [Editor's note: click here to check out Windsor Essex CHC's Teen Health programs and services.]

What can policy and decision-makers do to ensure that health promoters have the best possible impacts across Ontario on the health and wellbeing of people and communities?

Listen and work together. It’s all about the higher levels and grassroots coming to a middle ground, because there is certainly no shortage of work in the health promotion field!

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