St. Paul’s Foundation

The bar was set very high right from the beginning of the year when the Foundation received one of the largest private donations in Canadian history: Jim Pattison’s transformative $75 million gift. His generosity will quite literally lay the foundation for the new St. Paul’s within the Jim Pattison Medical Centre.

We also celebrated the first year since St. Paul’s Foundation amalgamated with Tapestry Foundation. As a result, our philanthropic portfolio has increased to include Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, Holy Family Hospital, St. Michael’s Centre, St. Vincent’s Langara, Honoria Conway, and Brock Fahrni, and Youville Residence in addition to St. Paul’s. In turn, that has created a kind of “one-stop” fundraising organization with an all-inclusive mandate that stretches right across Providence from neo-natal to seniors’ health and elder care.

St. Paul’s Foundation was proud to continue Tapestry’s signature gala fundraising event: the 11th annual Feast of Fortune. Together with more than 650 prominent guests from Vancouver’s diverse community, we welcomed the Year of the Dog and raised more than $900,000 to purchase a state-of-the-art mammography machine for the Providence Breast Centre.

In total, St. Paul’s Foundation disbursed almost $24 million last year to help meet the diverse needs of our community including $3 million to Foundry for youth; $2.1 million to the HUB, St. Paul’s innovative mental health and substance use clinic; and almost $800,000 to Mount Saint Joseph Hospital.

 

Along with these kinds of big-picture gifts, our donors make it possible for us to help with smaller needs, too. After all, little things mean a lot especially to people who are sick and frightened, and perhaps far from home or family. Gifts to Lights of Hope and Greatest Needs are specifically directed where the need is most acute and the impact is most profound. Last year, we set a record by funding 225 individual projects, each one under $5,000, and each one specifically chosen to enhance the care and comfort of our patients and residents. These gifts touch the entire breadth of Providence and show just how much every donation means to the patients, residents, families, and caregivers we serve. Among the highlights: DVD players for patients to use during rehabilitation after a stroke; mouth-activated call bells for patients with impaired mobility; reading glasses for the mobile library; traditional Aboriginal foods (including elk, bison, salmon, and berries) for healing ceremonies; and chairs that convert into beds for family members to stay close to their loved-ones.

In another significant achievement, the Foundation was pleased to support Providence Health Care in becoming a founding member in Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster. The Supercluster is designed to accelerate innovation by building partnerships, pooling resources and data, and creating meaningful projects beyond the reach and ambition of any single organization. Other founders include national leaders in health care, telecommunications, computing, and academic research.

This kind of collaborative environment is new for Canada. By participating, we will learn and share ideas across regions and industries, solve problems, and capture opportunities to advance patient care at an accelerated pace.  Work is already underway to develop projects that will improve patient care pathways and develop individually-tailored therapies for a variety of conditions.

As we look ahead to next year (and beyond), we truly have so much to celebrate. With your generous support, we will continue on our journey to an incredible new era in care for patients, families, and caregivers right across British Columbia.