Your digest

Save the date — live Q&A with our CEO:  Please join us on Tuesday, August 11 at 1 p.m. ET for the next live event with our CEO. With just two weeks to go, planning is underway to choose a guest speaker who will join Graham to discuss topics and answer questions that are top of mind for employees. Let us know what topics are important to you by emailing us at communications@blood.ca with the subject line “LIVE EVENT.” An Outlook invite will be sent to you in the coming days with the details on how to participate. We look forward to seeing you all there and to continue these important discussions.

‘Surprise’ baby gives hope to patients: This month, Trisha Crowder-Morrell of Brampton, Ont. became one of the first mothers to donate cord blood after a pause in collections due to the pandemic. Little baby Connor was Trisha’s third opportunity to donate. “It’s just very fulfilling knowing that you can save someone’s life, just with something you have inside of you,” says Trisha. Connor was a bit of a surprise to his parents, since his older brother was just 10 months old when Trisha learned she was pregnant — in mid-March. But Trisha took this pandemic pregnancy in stride. “It’s just a blessing, because I had to do fertility [treatments] with my first two, and then this one was a surprise.” Read Trisha’s story at blood.ca/stories.

Stories from our frontline: Ken Walker is a donor services representative in London, Ont. He came to Canadian Blood Services 12 years ago after working in customer service at a bank. “I enjoy talking to everybody,” says Ken. “If someone is a new donor and a little nervous, I can often get them laughing with me.” Ken enjoys the in-person interaction with donors and takes good customer service seriously. “If we’re miserable or have a bad attitude, they’re going to feel that all the way through their visit.” Read more about Ken’s story at blood.ca/stories.

Cord blood researcher helping to fight blood cancers: Since 2014, Canadian Blood Services has supported researchers across the country with more than 1,000 cord blood units to promote advances in the fields of transfusion, cellular therapy, and transplantation medicine. Dr. Marjorie Brand, a senior investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a professor at the University of Ottawa, is one of those researchers. Umbilical cord blood donations fuel her study of blood diseases and cancers. “The research that we do in my lab will most directly impact patients with blood diseases,” says Dr. Brand. “But we hope that the general principles we are discovering will go beyond specific diseases to impact the scientific community and patients at large.” Read more on blood.ca/stories.

Question of the day: I don’t consider myself ‘diverse’, why should I complete this survey?

While you may not belong to the Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities, there are many aspects of one’s identity which goes beyond the colour of their skin. For example, one’s gender identity or expression, socio-economic status, role and so on could impact their experience at Canadian Blood Services and may lead to them being treated differently.

The purpose of our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is to create a more equitable and inclusive organization for everyone so that those who are impacted by discrimination in any form can thrive. So, regardless of how you choose to identify yourself, whether Black, Caucasian, Indigenous, people of colour, sexual identity or religion, your participation in this assessment will help these efforts.

The assessment closes on July 31 and we are asking every employee to take advantage of this opportunity to participate in the assessment.

To complete the survey visit deisurvey.blood.ca or to schedule an interview with Feminuity click here. 

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About your digest 

This digest will highlight the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.     

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Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca