Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

During the early days of my career, I worked in a community-based rehabilitation position. I observed the challenges people faced in managing their health conditions without much external support. Many of the individuals I worked with were dealing with chronic diseases. While I aimed to make a positive impact on health and well-being, I found it quite challenging to do so once individuals were already ill. After shifting my career focus to prevention, I started my business with a primary emphasis on health promotion and a plan to work with populations of people rather than just individuals. Unfortunately, during those early years of my business, my mother's health declined rapidly, and she passed away at a much younger age than she should have. Many of the health issues that my mother suffered from in the last ten years of her life could have been better managed or even prevented with simple lifestyle changes. Since then, Cardea Health Consulting has been entirely dedicated to supporting healthy aging. We have also developed a specialized focus on women's health in aging. Working with women earlier in the aging process (midlife) and at the workplace allows us to have a bigger impact on prevention. We work to improve the course of aging so more women can live longer, more fulfilling lives with better health throughout. We also focus on the intersection of gender and age and how women can be disproportionately impacted by things like ageism and caregiver support in the workplace.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

For the last 14 years, our business offices have been located in Gastown and on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. We have volunteered and donated to organizations supporting vulnerable and unhoused community members. For many years, our founder served in a front-line volunteer role and on the Board of Directors for Beauty Night Society, a charity that builds self-esteem and changes the lives of women and youth living in poverty on the Downtown Eastside (unfortunately due to funding issues, the charity closed this year).

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

We are dedicated to reducing barriers to better health whenever possible. In addition, we have developed a significant amount of free educational material to make learning about the aging process, chronic disease prevention, physical activity promotion, and more accessible and easy for individuals and organizations. Much of our age-friendly planning work has been focused on rural and remote communities, where vulnerable, marginalized, or isolated older adults often encounter barriers to accessing services or programs. Through our efforts to support municipalities, we have placed special emphasis on reaching out to these older adults who may not traditionally have a voice in planning efforts that directly impact them. We are proud that our work in this area has directly impacted thousands of older adults across the province. As an organization, we are unwavering in our commitment to improving people's lives and health through evidence-based practices to optimize the aging process, particularly for women. For the past 25 years, all of our work has been entirely devoted to enhancing the lives, working conditions, and health of Canadians.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

We commute almost entirely by transit or by foot. Many people we work with know us as "run commuters." Using an app, we have estimated that over the 14 years of running or walking to the office, we have saved 2184 kg of CO2. We have also worked as mentors and fieldwork supervisors to provide work experience for health promotion students starting their careers.