Your digest

Celebrating Black History Month:

Black history is Canadian history. Every February we celebrate Black History Month and the many contributions of Black Canadians to this country. Without their work and dedication — often left out of the historical record — our country wouldn’t be what it is today. This month, we are honouring the rich history and accomplishments of Black Canadians and exploring the experiences and contributions of Black employees, donors and patients to Canada’s Lifeline.

Learn more about Black History Month, its continued importance to our country and health-care system, and dive into this important topic with external resources such as articles and documentaries on Connect. You can also check-out new and existing stories celebrating Black heritage and connections to Canadian Blood Services on blood.ca/stories, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn — like Anika’s.

Anika McDonald, an event coordinator at Canadian Blood Services in Vancouver, B.C, spoke with our team to reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how drastically a society can shift in response to a crisis — a lesson she would like to see applied more broadly. “If we fight the pandemic of racism and injustice the way we’ve done COVID, our world and our country will be better for it,” she says. Read more about Anika’s work, her background and what Black history and heritage mean to her on blood.ca/stories.

Bell Let’s Talk live event recordings are now available: Thank you again to everyone who joined us for Bell Let’s Talk Day to discuss and share your experience with mental health and to learn more about supporting one another’s well-being through conversation. If you couldn’t join us live or would like to tune into sessions you didn’t catch, recordings are now available on Connect. We are also in the process of compiling questions we were unable to get to during the live sessions with the goal of having them answered on Connect later this week. Stay tuned to Your Digest for more information on how to access that information. Remember, resources to support your mental well-being are available. If you have questions or need further guidance on accessing these resources, reach out to thrive@blood.ca.

Question of the day: I am struggling with supporting my child’s e-learning, can I take time off during the day and log back on at night so I can support them?

Undoubtedly, the stress of e-learning has been hard on many of you. Over the past year, caregivers have had to face abrupt and frequent changes to childcare and schooling — making it difficult to manage the responsibilities of being a parent, a colleague and often an educator.

To help, flexible work arrangements and financial leave are available to support employees who need to balance work and caregiver responsibilities.

If you need to utilize flex time to help manage your work and home life, we encourage you to speak with your manager/supervisor so they can better understand your needs and flexibility requirements. We are working with leaders to help them better understand and be able to help employees manage the additional responsibilities and stressors brought on by the pandemic and lockdown restrictions.

In addition, we’ve put the following resources in place in response to the caregiver focus groups last fall: free drop-in virtual therapy, flexible and virtual work guidelines to support caregivers who need to balance work and care, and a support group for caregivers that meets weekly (email thrive@blood.ca for more details and/or to be added).

For more information on all of the resources available to you to manage your wellbeing, visit connect.blood.ca/employeesupports.

 

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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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