BETTER Women

Did you know that about 1 in 5 cancer cases can be prevented by eating well, being active and maintaining a healthy body weight?

The Canadian Cancer Society recognizes that making healthy behavior changes can be difficult to achieve alone. That’s why we are working in partnership with Women’s College Hospital to provide support to women aged 40-65 to take control of their health so they can prevent chronic disease, including cancer.

BETTER Women is a health promotion program that offers women free access to a volunteer peer health coach who is trained to help them reach and maintain their health and cancer screening goals. The goals are created by the participant and a peer health coach will be there along the participant's journey to provide additional motivation and help them stay accountable.

Ongoing Recruitment

We are accepting applications for each site on an ongoing basis.

Your application will be kept on file for when volunteer positions become available. For all other position descriptions, please click here.

Apply Here

• Who is a Peer Health Coach?

  Peer health coaches are CCS volunteers who are responsible for assisting women to meet their heath and screening goals. Peer health coaches act as a vital support network, being there every step of the way to help women feel empowered through their journey to get screened, move more, eat healthier, quit smoking, and/or reduce alcohol intake.

  All peer health coaches will be women between the ages of 40-65 who have lived experiences setting personal health goals i.e. getting active, eating better, quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake and/or staying up to date on recommended screenings. Peer health coaches will all have completed the BETTER Women peer health coach training program, a 24-hour program in which they will receive a certification.

  For Summerville Family Health Team, peer health coaches will be South Asian women with lived experiences as described above.

• Become a Volunteer Peer Health Coach

  Are you a woman aged 40-65 who understands the challenges of setting and maintaining health goals? Are you looking for an opportunity to empower and encourage other women to take charge of their health and well being? Become a volunteer peer health coach with BETTER Women today!

  The application process for the peer health coach role follows these steps:

  1. Submit an application form. All applications will be reviewed by a designated Canadian Cancer Society staff member.
  2. If you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be asked to participate in a phone interview.
  3. Select candidates will be asked to participate in an online video interview. Additional screenings, including a criminal police check and reference check, will be conducted at this time.
  4. If selected for the program, you will be notified by a Canadian Cancer Society staff member and asked to complete an initial onboarding and orientation session.
  5. All selected candidates will complete the BETTER Women peer health coach training program. This comprehensive 24-hour training program will be carried out over 5 weeks.
  6. Once your training is complete, you’ll join a community of peer health coaches and be paired up with 1-5 participants to support.

  We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous persons, people from racialized communities, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and people who identify themselves as LGBTQ+. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive volunteer population that reflects the communities we serve.

  If you are interested in becoming a volunteer peer health coach and want to be informed when recruitment goes live, please contact us at BETTERWomen@cancer.ca.

• Become a BETTER Women Participant

  The program is being launched at three primary care sites across Ontario:

  • Women’s College Hospital Family Practice (Toronto)
  • Summerville Family Health Team (Etobicoke and Mississauga)
  • Barrie Community and Family Health Team (Barrie)

  If you belong to one of these primary care sites, please contact us at BETTERWomen@cancer.ca for more information.

• Contact us

  If you are interested in learning more about BETTER Women or becoming a volunteer peer health coach, please email BETTERWomen@cancer.ca for more information.

BETTER Women is a partnership between the Canadian Cancer Society and Women's College Hospital. BETTER Women is made possible through joint funding from the Canadian Cancer Society, the Peter Gilgan Foundation, Women’s College Hospital Foundation and the Public Health Agency of Canada.