Empowered caregivers give back to community through volunteerism

Cassie Tinari, executive director, Social Responsibility, and Whitney Haggerson, vice president, Health Equity and Medicaid, participate in SeaTac Immersion Day.

The Providence family of organizations’ Global and Domestic Engagement (GDE) department energizes and empowers caregivers to serve their communities as volunteers. GDE works with caregiver-led committees in six regions across Providence that make up Activation Networks. The networks are tasked with planning and leading community engagement initiatives for fellow caregivers.  

Activation Networks encourage participants to volunteer and communicate about volunteer opportunities that help advance a culture of service across Providence. In 2022, this included their participation and promotion of service campaigns, most notably the “Spread Cheer, Volunteer” campaign.  

Through this campaign, 500 caregivers across the family of organizations donated their time during the holiday season to assemble more than 6,200 hygiene kits for people experiencing homelessness. In addition to assembling kits, some caregivers looked for ways to spread cheer in their communities by writing personal notes of hope and comfort and volunteering to serve hot meals.

Beyond the Activation Networks, GDE organizes direct community service experiences, known as service immersions, for small teams of caregivers to address a community health priority.  

Each immersion experience consists of a half or full day of direct community service, an education component led by a community partner, and time to reflect on the experience through group discussion. In 2022, Providence organized 12 immersions across the family of organizations.

Service activities are tracked using the Action Hub, an online tool that measures community impact. Last year, 3,204 caregivers logged more than 41,000 volunteer hours.