Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller

MOTTO
Pro Fide, Pro Utilitate Hominum
(For Faith, For Service to Humanity)

MISSION
To create and deliver benefits for the Lord’s sick and poor in both a material and spiritual sense.
In keeping with the Order’s mission, the Vancouver Commandery supports and helps to deliver hospice and palliative programs and services to British Columbians.

VISION
To make British Columbia a province where palliative care is provided to every resident who wants it, where a hospice is available in every community with the population to support it, and where a natural death is dignified, peaceful and in keeping with our Lord’s love for his children.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
The Vancouver Commandery will continue to work in partnership with organizations that are active in hospice and palliative care. The Commandery will strive to effectively utilize the skills, experience, networks and resources of the members, to realize its charitable objectives. To that end the Commandery shall:

Sponsor the B.C Hospice Palliative Care Association’s work to promote and advocate hospice palliative care throughout British Columbia and to assess and evaluate their needs.

Continue to direct financial awards to provincial hospices to help develop their capacity to deliver services.

Provide orientation and training in hospice and palliative care to members in the Vancouver Commandery.

Grow the permanent endowment fund in the Order of St. John Palliative Care Foundation.

Lead in the development and opening of a new hospice facility on the West side of Vancouver.

Review the needs for hospice and palliative care in the Metro Vancouver area and make recommendations to the membership of the Commandery with respect to the development of a second facility.

PRINCIPLES
The Vancouver Commandery believes:

In order to be successful in its community work it must strive to access, utilize and engage the skills, experience, networks, volunteer time and resources of all members in the Commandery.

In addition to the financial resources that the Vancouver Commandery can generate, it also brings an entrepreneurial and business orientation that is an added value to its charitable work in the community.

In order to create a greater organizational capacity to achieve its charitable purpose, the Commandery must invest in orientation training and education of its membership.

In collaborative relationships among members, volunteers and other organizations.

The Vancouver Commandery will work in partnership with government in the creation of hospice and palliative care in British Columbia, but will not supplant the government’s responsibility in this area.