Chilliwack General Hospital

image credit: Cornelia Naylor

When the Chilliwack Hospital and Health Care Foundation (CHHCF) launched in May 2012, it cast itself as a whole new kind of health-care foundation, one that would work to improve the health of local residents by focusing on local community-based projects instead of hospital equipment and bricks and mortar alone.

We want to facilitate new programs or ones that are existing that are preventive, that keep people out of hospitals, then-executive director Donna Dixson told the Times two years ago.

The organization set out four pillars in its mandate to improve local health: children and youth, seniors, hospital initiatives and community health.

Despite enthusiasm and local buy-in for that mandate from a wide range of community partners, however, the foundation announced this month it had decided to get back to focusing its fundraising efforts on the hospital.

At the recent strategic planning session, the CHHCF reconfirmed that Chilliwack General Hospital is a vital part of our community, and must remain the primary mandate of the CHHCF, a March 5 press release stated. A natural outcome of this decision was to restructure the CHHCFs focus on fundraising to provide increased support of our hospital.

As part of the restructuring, the CHHCF announced it had offloaded its Healthy Kids Initiative to the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice, a non-profit society that represents local family doctors.

Dixson was at a loss to explain what prompted the move, which also eliminated her position.

I really cant answer that question. I dont know, she said. We had achieved amazing things in a very short period of time. We were the envy of many organizations, and the partnerships we established were just nothing short of amazing, and anyone that worked with us couldnt believe what we were able to do. But perhaps it wasnt the right organization to be doing it. I think thats what we have to keep in mind. Thats why Im so excited that the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice is willing to take on the health promotion.

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Chilliwack Hospital and Health Care Foundation narrows mandate