End of Year Newsletter from Matt Sacheli, Manager, BC Brain Wellness Program

With the festive season in full swing, I find myself reflecting on the success of the BC Brain Wellness Program over the past year. I am grateful for all of the hard work and dedication of the staff, instructors, volunteers, and students who make this program possible. I am also thankful for the enthusiasm and commitment of all of the participants, and I applaud you on embracing a healthier lifestyle. We are here because of you and would not be here without you!

2022 was an exceedingly busy year as an organization. We offered nearly 1200 hours of free program and educational events, to nearly 1000 participants, over 4 semesters. We launched our biweekly newsletter Neuron News, which has a viewership of over 2500 people. We were also featured once more by the Faculty of Medicine for UBC’s Giving Day, which generated over $25,000 in donations directly to our program.

The summer season brought some changes to the program with our Research Assistant, Cheyanne Head, moving onto medical school and Emily Gerson joining our team. In July, we celebrated World Brain Day by hosting our 3rd Annual virtual Brain Health conference. This year’s theme was “Brain Health for All”, which allowed us to reflect on what brain health means to us, and featured our Co-Founder, Dr. Silke Appel-Cresswell, and UBC’s, Faculty of Medicine Vice Dean of Education, Dr. Roger Wong (a recording of the event: https://youtu.be/ZCsEbOgeyKA). As summer wrapped up, we welcomed the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion of Canada, to campus to highlight the Enabling Accessibility Funds that we were awarded earlier this year. Thanks to the hard work of Katy Chen and Stephanie Quon, we were awarded both the Workplace and Community grants. These funds allowed us to launch a small lending library and retrofit the teaching kitchen at UBC in hopes to offer some nutrition classes in the future.

Fall not only brought the changing of colours in the leaves, but also changes to our website and registration system to keep up with our growing organization. While we are still working through some of the kinks in the new system, thanks to our dedicated staff and the Participant Advisory Committee, we are well poised to handle the continued growth of our program into the future.

Academic and community conferences also made their return in 2022, with the BC Brain Wellness Program being the lead partner for the 14th Annual Canadian Music Care Conference – Music & Wellness, presented by Room 217. The event featured a musical performance by Music Canada’s 2022 Humanitarian Juno Award winner Susan Aglukark, as well as other fantastic keynote speakers (view the highlight video here: https://youtu.be/O2NpRtXzIYw).

As we reflect back on the past year, and look towards 2023, I am continuously reminded about how lucky I am to be involved with this program. The stories, feedback, and experiences of the participants are incredibly inspirational, and they remind me of the importance of this program. I am immensely thankful to the donors who have made this program possible. The BC Brain Wellness Program is funded solely by donations and, without your generosity, we would not exist. I am excited about the prospects of 2023 when we will be launching our strategic plan to expand the BC Brain Wellness Program throughout the province and change the way British Columbians live and age with a chronic brain condition. We look forward to your support and achieving this vision together. On behalf of the BC Brain Wellness Program, I wish you a warm and festive holiday season.

Happy Holidays,

Matthew Sacheli Manager, BC Brain Wellness Program

PS If you would like to make a donation to support the efforts of the BC Brain Wellness Program…here is the link (www.bcbrainwellness.ca/donate). Please note all proceeds donated go directly to the BC Brain Wellness Program