Three years since we started Queering Cancer, it’s time to take a beat to see how we’re doing…
We just had our 3rd anniversary (yay!) and a lot has changed. When Queering Cancer launched in 2020 we were focused primarily on the website, we had multiple peer support forums to manage and our engagement with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and other advocacy groups was minimal. Three years on and most of our engagement is through social media (especially Instagram), we no longer have the forums, and along with an educational pillar for HCPs we have supportive and generative relationships with many other organizations. This is all good! However, we are still very limited in what we can do as a very small volunteer-run group with no external funding (yet!). Currently we are at maximum capacity and we receive more requests for presentations, collaborative initiatives, research partnerships and information than we can handle. Examining what areas of Queering Cancer have the most impact and what we should focus on will enable the improvement or scale-up of existing activities and allow us to strategically plan for the next few years. It will also give us baseline data for future funding applications.
Last year we successfully applied for a CIHR grant (Community-Led Projects on LGBTQIA/2S Wellness through an Intersectional Lens) which has allowed us to develop an evaluation plan. We’ve been developing the plan and data collection tools for the last few months. Although this evaluation does not constitute traditional research, we received a full ethics review from ARECCI (an Alberta Innovates program for quality improvement and evaluation projects) which informed how we will collect, analyze and report the data.
Evaluation objectives
The focus of the evaluation is to involve the community in the assessment of the impact and future development of Queering Cancer. More specifically, our objectives are:
- To provide an important benchmark of our current impact since the launch of our website and campaign
- To improve Queering Cancer’s current website and social media engagement
- To identify community needs to enable strategic planning to scale up Queering Cancer’s work in a meaningful and relevant way
Data collection
We’re using a number of methods for the project:
- A quantitative community impact evaluation using an electronic survey.
- Qualitative Zoom interviews with select highly engaged stakeholders (estimated five to eight) to delve further into the survey topics.
- Website and social media engagement evaluation looking at website and social media analytics.
How you can help!
You can complete the survey and pass it along to anyone you know who has engaged with Queering Cancer (e.g. through the website, our social media platforms or in person). We’d like as much information as possible so that means a lot of responses!
Anecdotally, through comments and connections with patients, healthcare professionals and other community cancer organizations we know we have already made a difference. We’re hoping this evaluation provides us with some data to prove it, and to help us plan for the future.
Thank you for your support!
