2022 Community Accountability Report

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2022 Community Accountability report

Who we are

As the largest provider of benefits in Alberta, we impact people’s lives for the better. We believe all communities should thrive and are committed to serving as a champion for wellness by supporting the health of our customers and communities.

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Introduction

At Alberta Blue Cross^®, our customers and communities are at the heart of our Blue For Life^® Vision. We are proud of our deep and long-standing commitment to the communities we serve. As we launched our refreshed Blue For Life^® Vision in 2022, accompanied by a new 10-year corporate strategy, the positive impact we have on our communities continued to be top of mind for our organization.

Through both our Vision and Corporate Strategy, we reaffirmed our commitment to continuing to expand our involvement in the communities we serve. This commitment recognizes that driving impact in our communities has a reciprocal benefit for Alberta Blue Cross^® in advancing wellbeing for our customers and communities while strengthening the meaningful connections between us.

At Alberta Blue Cross^®, being accountable to the communities we serve means not only advancing our commitments to wellbeing and living our social purpose, but ensuring our community involvements are indeed impactful. Whether that impact is through our touchpoints with the Indigenous communities we serve; through our commitments to advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; or through our many health and wellness partnerships across the province—we want our community initiatives to create positive outcomes.

Committed to vibrant communities

One of the cornerstones of our community impact initiatives is providing programs to help Albertans thrive in the communities where they live, work and play.

Built Together program

In 2022, we received 102 applications for the Built Together program and were pleased to award grants to 5 projects in Edmonton, Calgary, Devon, Barrhead and the Paddle Prairie Métis Settlement. Also in 2022, in consultation with the Alberta Centre for Healthy Communities, we completed a review of our Built Together program and confirmed its value and long-term impact on the communities supported. Since introducing the program in 2013 and with total funding exceeding $2 million, we have supported more than 40 infrastructure projects for active living across the province.

COVID Community Roots program

As we brought our popular COVID Community Roots program to a close in 2022, we reflected on this significant impact it had in supporting rural and remote communities through the pandemic. The program awarded a total of $412,000 to 112 diverse projects across Alberta between 2022 and 2022 with recipients ranging from public libraries and Indigenous communities to municipalities, seniors’ groups and youth support organizations. All projects had a common thread in supporting the mental, physical and social wellness of community members through the pandemic.

Committed to health equity

Alberta Blue Cross^® works closely with dozens of organizations across the province to collectively make a positive impact in our communities and ensure Albertans have access to programs and services to support and promote their health.

Addressing food insecurity

We recognize access to healthy food is a key determinant of health and, for this reason, we support a variety of initiatives across the province that address food insecurity. Our support ranges from sponsorship of the Fresh Routes program in Calgary and the Free Play for Kids healthy snack program in Edmonton to funding the creation of community gardens in rural communities through our COVID Community Roots program. Leading up to the 2022 holiday season, we were also pleased to provide a $25,000 donation to Food Banks Alberta to help address the issue of food insecurity across our province.

Supporting the wellbeing of Alberta’s youth

A key focus of our community support is health promotion for children, based on the understanding that healthy kids become healthy adults. We engage extensively in wellness promotion at Alberta schools through a multitude of involvements that impact tens of thousands of students in hundreds of schools across the province, including in Indigenous communities. Some examples of our invovlements included sponsorsing the Alberta Medical Association Youth Run Club, providing free snacks to kids through Free Play for Kids and sponsoring the Lung Association’s Breathe Smart program to educate children on the risks of vaping and youth smoking.

Promoting wellbeing for older adults

Promoting the welling of older adults is a growing area of focus for us as we advance the concept of wellbeing at any age and support Alberta’s aging-in-place strategy. We worked again in 2022 with the Alberta Injury Prevention Centre and Finding Balance to promote the Keeping Well resource and help prevent falls among seniors. We also sponsored the Alberta 55 plus Provincial Winter Games and the Top 7 Over 70 Gala, which recognized exceptional contributions of older adults in our community.

Promoting wellbeing among Métis and Indigenous communities

We are committed to authenticity in our relationships, to positively impacting the communities we serve and to working together to advance wellness. Our Indigenous Pathway that guides our involvements is overseen by a steering committee that includes representation from leaders in the Métis and Indigenous communities of Alberta. A key focus of our commitment is advancing youth empowerment and physical activity.

In 2022, we sponsored several Indigenous events, including the Rise Up Forum, the Still I Rise ᓰᐱᐦᑭᓯᐤ Summit and the Forward Summit. Among the many organizations we were pleased to support in 2022 through the COVID Community Roots program was the Dene Tha’ First Nation Recreation and Cultural Society where we funded their program that organizes various games and non-competitive activities for the community’s 100 children and youth. We are alse proud to be a founding sponsor of the Keep Tobacco Sacred Collaboration, a community-based initiative with collaborative leadership and broad participation from First Nations communities across Alberta working to advance commercial tobacco use prevention among Indigenous communities.

Advancing mental health and diversity, equity and inclusion

As a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion, we have a wide range of involvements across the province that focus on health equity. In 2022, this included sponsoring initiatives of YW Calgary and YWCA Edmonton, whose missions are to advance gender equity by responding to urgent needs in communities through advocacy and grassroots initiatives. We continued to sponsor YW Calgary’s transitional housing program to help women in crisis or and sponsored YWCA Edmonton’s counselling services and GirlSpace youth program.

In our ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the importance of mental health, we support National Depression Screening Day (NDSD) every October and sponsored the initiative in 2022. We supported Momentum Counselling YEG in recognizing 17 outstanding nominees for their Mental Health Awards in 2022. As an ally of the Alberta LGBTQ2S+ community, we were also pleased to continue our support of the 2022 Calgary PRIDE festival.

In 2022, our Transitional Housing program provided more than 320 women with housing and case management support. Alberta Blue Cross^®’s focus on client engagement wellness activities had a significant impact on the mental health and overall wellbeing of many of the women who came through our program.”

Salwa Naalu
Manager, Housing and Outreach,
YW Calgary

Committed to removing financial barriers to education

Post-secondary education opens doors to youth to lead better lives and improves the health and wellness of our communities. Through this scholarship program, we are committed to easing some of the financial barriers for students in Alberta.

Scholarship program

Our scholarship program supports more than 80 awards each year for full-time students based on academic achievement and financial need. The awards are administered directly through accredited post-secondary institutions across the province.

Indigenous scholarship program

Through our Indigenous scholarship program, we work to address the education inequity faced by Indigenous peoples in Alberta by making post-secondary studies more financially accessible. The $1,500 awards are based on scholastic achievement, financial need and community involvement. In 2022, we awarded 3 scholarships to Indigenous students who were completing their high school education and entering their first year of post-secondary study, as well as 3 scholarships to mature students entering their first year of post-secondary education.

Meet an Indigenous scholarship recipient, Luke Klug

Luke, a member of the Chipewyan Prairie First Nation band, is a kinesiology student at the University of Alberta. After completing the Personal Fitness Trainer program at NAIT, he became inspired to become a physiotherapist and help people move without pain. He operates a personal training business and has spent countless hours researching and speaking with physical therapists and medical professionals to be able to provide the best results for his clients. Luke intends to apply for the University of Alberta's Rehabilitative Medicine program and eventually open his own physical thereapy clinic.

Receiving this amazing award has allowed me to devote more of my time to my studies and less to working, so I don’t have to stress about paying my rent and supporting my son,” said Luke.

Committed to a better world

Alberta Blue Cross^® is committed to reducing our environmental footprint in the realization that our actions as an organization impact our environment and that together, we can reduce our impact.

Business process evolution

As we continue to promote direct bill and online claims submission for providers and plan members alike, we are seeing a significant reduction in paper claim submissions. Between 2020 and 2022, our total number of paper claims scanned dropped from 2.57 million pages to 1.22 million pages—a reduction of more than a million pages.

Impact of work styles

While our shift to hybrid workstyles through the pandemic has been a factor in our ability to reduce our environmental footprint, we continue to focus on business practices such as reducing paper consumption through increasing digitization. This has resulted in our paper costs being cut in half from 2020 to 2022.

Thinking globally, acting locally

We recognize that as an organization, we have a responsibility to reduce our footprint and increase our energy efficiency in the interest of climate action. Through 2022, we continued to focus on operational efficiences to reduce our energy consumption.

Committed to being champions for our communities

At Alberta Blue Cross^®, our team members share our passion for making a positive difference in the communities we serve and play an active role in our community involvements. Our team members are true champions for our communities.

Employee giving campaign

In the fall of 2022, we evolved our employee giving campaign to provide our team members with greater personal choice in giving while being more inclusive of our team members' differing interests and priorities. We also introduced a new employee giving advisory committee in 2022 to provide year-round input and support for our team member-led charitable endeavours. Our reframed employee giving campaign began in mid-October and concluded November 30, raising more than $60,000 and supporting 85 different charitable organizations.

Hearts of Blue

Our Hearts of Blue employee-led charity continues to support dozens of grassroots organizations across Alberta through donations of needed items and volunteer support. We support organizations ranging from homeless and women’s shelters to organizations that support children and Indigenous communities. In 2022, our team members donated more than $46,000 to support 55 different charitable organizations across Alberta.

From the bottom of our Alcove hearts, what amazing gifts for the women of Alcove Addiction Recovery Centre. Currently we have 16 women in residential treatment, and they were over the moon to have received the gifts of arts and crafts so they can have access to creative outlets and the ability to express themselves in artful ways. We thank Alberta Blue Cross^® for this wonderful gesture.”

Alcove Addiction Recovery Centre for Women,
2022 Hearts of Blue donation recipient

So many of the residents, clients, family members, staff and volunteers enjoy being out in the courtyard. The flowers add so much peace, comfort and beauty! Thanks so much, Alberta Blue Cross^®.”

Loreen Chapman,
Volunteer, Pilgrims Hospice Society,
2022 Hearts of Blue donation recipients

Want to learn more?

Engaging in the communities we serve to support all Albertans in living their best lives is a fundamental aspect of how we live our commitment to our social purpose.