PURPOSE

Advocacy is essential to advancing the vision and mission of the association. The purpose of this committee is to advise and assist the Board of Directors in the development an implementation of advocacy initiatives.

• More specifically, CAPO’s Advocacy Committee has been committed to upholding CAPO’s formally adopted Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Policy in all its endeavours. The Committee’s work is anchored in the guiding principle that all voices of equity seeking groups have an opportunity to be heard, including women, indigenous peoples, racialized people/visible minorities, persons with disabilities and 2SLGBTQIA+.

We commit that our approach to advocating specific issues or topics is agreed upon collaboratively with relevant stakeholders who provide key perspectives from underrepresented groups of the larger cancer community with an important focus on individuals affected by cancer.

To this end, last year we had committed to operationalizing our advocacy plan further and taking actionable steps to, for example, increase EDI and integrate patient and family voices in our work. The new members significantly strengthen the committee’s work through their enthusiasm as well as new, diverse, and patient-centered ideas.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Identify and make recommendations concerning advocacy strategies, tools and approaches that promote CAPO’s goals and missions
2. Explore and implement different advocacy and communication strategies/mechanism to ensure the inclusion of and access to quality psychosocial services across Canada.
3. Create and disseminate advocacy messages targeted to various stakeholders, groups, policy makers, partners and politicians
4. Identify resource requirements to advance advocacy plans
5. Identify and seek partnerships with allied stakeholders with interests in advancing access to quality psychosocial oncology services
6. Identify and recruit champions from various stakeholder groups and partners at all levels.

OUTCOMES AND DELIVERABLES

• Report to the Board of Directors, during regularly scheduled board meetings, on advocacy initiatives.
• Provide a written and verbal annual report to the Board of Directors.