Weaving a new blanket together: lessons on compassionate leadership and engagement from a virtual regional summit on early childhood wellness in northern communities of British Columbia, Canada
Open accessAbstract
Background: Early childhood is a critical period of development for infants, young children, and their families. An array of services, programs, and interventions exist to support families during this life stage, often delivered by a diverse range of professionals. Overlap in early years services exists between healthcare, social care, childcare, education, and not-for-profit organizations. Such diversity in services has the potential to add a rich experience to early childhood development, or without collaboration, widen service gaps, risking providers’ ability to meet the needs of families. Methods: In northern British Columbia (BC), Canada, a group of individuals came together to approach building relationships and engagement across sectors in early years services using compassionate systems leadership (CSL). A virtual summit was hosted with early childhood service providers including peer support workers and parents/caregivers using a hybrid model of pre-recorded asynchronous sessions combined with a live workshop. The purpose of the event was to find common ground, celebrate local success, and build understanding of how to work collaboratively across the region to identify and address early years priorities. Results: The event was successful in engaging 121 providers across early years services from a broad geographic region. Applying CSL principles for engagement allowed the team to examine how all partners could address silos in early years services across northern BC. Using a reflexive thematic approach, four key themes were identified at the Summit: (1) early years services are a patchwork but there are dreams of weaving a new blanket together, (2) an ideal model of service is family-centred and inclusive, (3) all sectors are needed at the table, and (4) compassion is the thread that weaves this work together. Conclusions: The application of CSL principles can be used to guide engagement and develop supportive spaces for open conversation about creating systems change. In facilitating a space that allowed for vulnerability and relational ways of engaging across sectors we discovered commitment and a willingness for those present to consider new ideas and partnerships that would allow for greater integration of early years services in northern BC.
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Through using the CSL framework, participants built strong connections, engaged in innovative dialogue, and fostered new understandings.
“Through using this framework, the researchers found participants built strong connections, engaged in innovative dialogue, and fostered new understandings (Koopmans et al., 2022).”
From Education Leadership in K-12 Systems from a Métis Worldview: Infusing Education Leadership with an Understanding of Wâhkôhtowin (2025) · cites this paper as Koopmans et al., 2022
The CSL framework requires personal mastery (self-leadership), interpersonal skills (leading relationally), and systems thinking (connections between individuals, groups and the wider community).
“The CSL framework requires 'personal mastery (self-leadership), interpersonal skills (leading rela tionally), and systems thinking (connections between individuals, groups and the wider community)' (p. 3).”
From Education Leadership in K-12 Systems from a Métis Worldview: Infusing Education Leadership with an Understanding of Wâhkôhtowin (2025) · cites this paper as Koopmans et al., 2022
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- Authors
- Koopmans, E., Provencher, L., Irving, L., & Sanders, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Northern British Columbia (CA)
- First Nations Health Authority (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Koopmans, Erica
- Venue
- Research Involvement and Engagement
- Published
- 2022-10-20
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 56-56
- ISSN
- 2056-7529 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9585787
- OpenAlex
- W4306950514
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5
- FWCI
- 1.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Research Involvement and Engagement (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Interprofessional Education and Collaboration
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Community Health and Development
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Child and Adolescent Health
- Keywords
- early childhood services, intersectoral collaboration, service integration, Northern British Columbia, family-centered care, service gaps, systemic change, stakeholder engagement, peer support workers, parents and caregivers
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