Greetings ,

The February issue is your essential guide for patients, families, and healthcare professionals.

Save the date for our upcoming Informal Conversation on March 19th 12pm ET.

With thanks,

The IPFCC Team

Save the Date

Upcoming Informal Conversation

March 19^th, 12-1pm ET

Thank you to our PFCC.Connect Sponsors!

IPFCC at Work

Reflecting Our Community: A Toolkit for Strengthening PFACs

IPFCC staff developed this toolkit that focuses on strengthening Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) so they better reflect the communities served by hospitals, and health systems. The toolkit addresses how to evaluate PFAC representativeness, support equitable recruitment, create a sense of belonging, and engage PFAs as partners in health equity. It includes a PFAC assessment to identify strengths and areas of opportunities, an action plan for improvement, promising practices and examples, and practical tools to support meaningful patient and family partnerships. Access the toolkit here. 

RISE Healthy Communities Summit

Pam Dardess, MPH, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Operations will be presenting a workshop at the RISE Healthy Communities Summit being held in Orlando, FL on March 23 – 25, 2026. The workshop is titled, “From Intent to Impact: Creating a Roadmap to Engage People with Lived Experience in Your Work.” The workshop will explore INSPIRE’s framework for engaging PWLE to build successful person-centered design, delivery, and evaluation approaches for health and social care programs. Access more information about the workshop here. 

IPFCC’s YouTube Video Library

If you want to learn more about the work that IPFCC does, check out IPFCC’s YouTube channel. Currently, the Informal Conversation recordings are uploaded to the library. You can access them all here. 

Resources and Opportunities

FREDLA Offering Two Learning Communities for Peer Support

Join the Family-Run Executive Director Leadership Association (FREDLA) for its two (PPS) Learning Communities on Parent Peer Support. One Learning Community is for PPS Providers and the other is for PPS Supervisors. The Provider Learning Community offers a series designed for PPS Providers with a focus on the practice of Parent Peer Support and learning from the field. The other Learning Community is specifically designed for PPS Supervisors, offering strategies, best practices, and peer learning in supporting PPS Providers and managing PPS programs. Each Learning Community is comprised of six bimonthly sessions at 60 minutes each, formatted for optimal learning and covering relevant topics presented by experts from the field. The series start on February 12th and February 13th. Register now for the Parent Peer Support Provider Learning Community or the Parent Peer Support Supervisor Learning Community. More information for February 12th here and February 13th here.

AHA Community Health Improvement, Healthier Together Conference

The American Hospital Association (AHA) Community Health Improvement is hosting the “Healthier Together Conference” in Dallas on May 12-14, 2026. The conference will focus on innovative strategies and solutions to expand access to person-centered care, strengthen hospital-community partnerships and bolster resilience in health care. Learn more about the Conference here. 

Putting Care at the Center 2026 Conference

This conference, co-hosted by Kaiser Permanente and Camden Coalition, “Putting Care at the Center: Sustaining Progress, Building our Future” will be held in Oakland, CA on October 14-16, 2026. This year's theme reflects the complex care community's shared commitment to advancing hard won gains in policy and practice and recognizing that the field continues to evolve. Learn more about the Conference and how to submit an application to share what you have learned. 

Co.Design4All Toolkit

Co.Design4All, an Australian organization, developed a four phase framework with a toolkit which makes co-design easy. It starts with identifying who is involved in your service or situation. Tools are provided to explore what is perceived as unmet needs and identify available resources. It then helps teams to move into planning how to work together to decide what should be produced. You will be supported to develop an implementation plan and evaluation strategy. Reflection tools help you grow as a facilitator and change agent. Learn about the toolkit here. 

Family as Faculty Program Open for Registration

Holland Bloorview’s system-leading “Teaching and Facilitation Course for Family as

Faculty” equips patient and family partners with the skills to co-design educational curriculum, co-teach and co-facilitate workshops, sharing their unique experiences and insights to enhance healthcare education. Family as Faculty play a vital role in teaching other families, staff and students at Holland Bloorview across a wide variety of teams.

This innovative series of workshops is a professional development opportunity for patient and family partners to develop the skills and confidence to take on teaching roles at your

organization, helping to build knowledge of the lived experiences of disability communities and enhance family-centered care competencies among staff and students. Co-teaching family workshops with Family as Faculty allows for authentic connection and peer-to-peer learning from someone who has lived experience in the healthcare system.

The course is held virtually and mandatory classes run on the following dates:

Wednesdays: March 4, March 11, March 25, Apr 1, Apr 8, Apr 15

12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EST



Learn more here.

2026 IPFCC PINWHEEL SPONSORSHIP – Renew, Upgrade, or Join Now! 

We invite you to renew, upgrade, or join as a Pinwheel Sponsor today by completing the online Pinwheel Sponsor Application. If you need more information, please contact Liz Hansen ehansen@ipfcc.org.

Pinwheel Sponsor designated leads will receive complimentary registration for our quarterly Pinwheel Sponsor Leadership Forum, an informal discussion among these leaders about current challenges, successes, and related strategies. They also receive 10% discount on IPFCC publications and event registrations, and increased visibility for their leadership in PFCC.

Thank You to Our 2026 Pinwheel Sponsors!

PFCC.Connect

University Health

Kaiser Permanente

Health System

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Hospital/Organization

Akron Children’s Hospital

American College of Radiology

Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Children’s Specialized Hospital

IWK Health Centre

Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center

MHA Keystone

Moffitt Cancer Center

Nationwide Children’s

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Center

University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital

University of Miami Health System

Wellstar MCG