Better at Home “Communities of Practice” Share a Passion for Supporting Seniors

Monitoring, evaluation, and learning are tremendously important to the success of Better at Home. Our local programs depend on opportunities to reflect, learn and share knowledge to support their program development and improve service delivery. The Better at Home Provincial Integration Project (PIP) encourages these priorities, and supports the sharing of local best practices and collaborative activities to ensure the best possible outcomes for seniors (for more information on PIP, see here).

In furthering PIP’s objectives, twelve “Communities of Practice (COPs)” have formed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the seniors? sector, and discover where Better at Home fits into that continuum. Additionally, each COP will make recommendations to improving and enhancing both their local program and Better at Home as a whole.

A successful COP has three key ingredients: a community (a set of people), a domain (what they care about or do), and their practice (their body of knowledge). In 2016-2017, Better at Home COPs are taking on tasks such as drafting escalation protocols, refining intake and referral policies, reviewing the roles of local Advisory Committees, discussing knowledge transfer and succession planning systems, and recommending future coordinator training opportunities.

Through meeting and sharing program achievements, but also, collective challenges, they find purpose in their work.