51猎奇入口

How do you measure compassion and connection? As the director of health promotion and projects at BC Children鈥檚 Hospital, Char Black uses evaluation to find answers.

Before joining 51猎奇入口Continuing Studies鈥� program, she had very little experience with evaluation. She recalls taking one related course while completing her master of public health: 鈥淭hat was like reading a giant textbook. The learning felt very black or white, very cold.鈥�

Despite this, her work requires evaluation. 鈥淥ften, health promotion is unseen work,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f fewer people go to the hospital, it means we鈥檙e doing a good job, but no one knows we鈥檙e doing that. I find evaluation is so important because we can show outcomes and impact.鈥�

After hearing about the Continuing Studies program from a friend, Char enrolled in one course that seemed practical. To her surprise, she liked it so much that she immediately tackled another one.

After that, she says, 鈥淚 decided I couldn鈥檛 stop!鈥� Even with two young kids and a full-time job, she felt the program鈥檚 flexibility was a perfect fit. Char enrolled in the Evaluation for Social Change and Transformational Learning Certificate program in 2021.

鈥淚 thought it would support me to become a stronger leader鈥攐ne that would challenge the status quo and ask the hard questions,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his program made sense to me and fit within the model of my work in a way other evaluation approaches never did.鈥�

Char also serves as co-director of the BC Children鈥檚 Hospital Centre for Mindfulness, which she helped found in 2019. The Centre鈥檚 vision is to create a culture of compassion for everyone at the hospital, including children, caregivers and health professionals. For example, the Centre released a mindfulness app called Breathr and cultivated mindful spaces around the hospital.

Despite the Centre鈥檚 progress, Char and her team have faced challenges demonstrating its impact: 鈥淲hat are your outcomes? How do you measure feelings of community?鈥�

Before the certificate program, she assumed evaluation would oversimplify鈥攖hat it couldn鈥檛 capture culture change within a hospital. She was surprised to find that evaluation could help make sense of complexity rather than flatten it.

For her capstone project in 2025, Char wanted to go beyond reporting clicks, downloads or enrollments. She set out to evaluate connection and community. To capture both individual and collective impact, she interviewed members of the Centre鈥檚 Mindfulness Council. Simply conducting these interviews proved powerful.

鈥淚 built stronger connections with the council members,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd the interviews brought both self-awareness and motivation to those members. The interviews were a way to reveal and honour the past, present and future.鈥�

Char used the findings from these interviews to update the Centre鈥檚 Evaluation and Monitoring Framework, giving her team a clearer way to measure progress toward a more mindful hospital.

The program鈥檚 impact went beyond her capstone project. After each course, Char shared what she learned with her team (鈥渁n infusion of new knowledge,鈥� she laughs). She also appreciated the instructors鈥� emphasis on Indigenous ways of knowing.

One of her biggest takeaways is that evaluation can benefit anyone in any workplace. Her courses brought together learners from a wide range of industries.

鈥淭he program was about much more than evaluation,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 learned about myself, leadership and how to view the world as a rainbow of colours rather than black and white.鈥�  

By Colleen Bryon