In honour of International Women's Day 2025, Adriane Beaudry, Manager, Volunteer Resources at Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH), shares how her work breaks down barriers and creates opportunities for women through volunteerism.
Volunteering creates valuable opportunities for women considering careers in healthcare, helping them explore potential paths, build professional networks, and potentially discover their future employer of choice. However, expenses such as uniforms can be a barrier to becoming a volunteer, says Beaudry.
"Some volunteers have the resources and connections to minimize or absorb these costs but not all do," she explains.
To address these financial obstacles, Volunteer Resources now provides vests for volunteers to use throughout their volunteer commitment at no cost.
"By removing these barriers and ensuring universal access for all who want to volunteer, we are levelling the playing field in a respectful way to all who want to join our team," she notes.
Beaudry believes volunteer engagement is fundamentally about inclusion. "As a profession we tend to be the ones to look at a problem and find a dozen ways to solve it. We're visionaries, mobilizers, motivators and doers. Volunteering is at its heart, about including people into your mission, the good work you're doing—finding a place for everyone."
Beaudry’s commitment to a culture of inclusion, trust, safety and well-being earned her JBH’s first Respect for Diversity Award.
The influential women in her life have shaped her approach to leadership. "Some of the women I've had mentor me in the past have taught me to look at what's going on in the world, have taught me compassion, vision, humour, to see the best in people, to be coachable, to be kind and to always be learning."
Coming from generations of strong women, Beaudry works to instill these values in her daughters.
While acknowledging how far women have come, she recognizes there's still progress to be made.
"The best way forward is to be allies to each other, to build each other up, to support and encourage, to mentor, to coach, and to adopt a mindset of always assuming goodwill," she reflects. "At the same time as we support, encourage, mentor and coach, we need to also be coached, mentored and encouraged. Lifelong learning will always lead to growth and success."
A quote that has resonated with her over the years comes from Erin Hanson “What if I fall? Oh my darling, but what if you fly?” This International Women's Day, she encourages everyone to check in with each other and celebrate how we can all fly.