Dear friends and partners, Since our start, Global Partners in Care (GPIC), has adapted to meet the needs of those we serve. Building on our past, we are embracing our future as we enter an important new chapter in our development. After considerable discussion with our many stakeholders and careful reflection on our place in the global palliative care field, we are sharpening our focus.
Specifically, our focus related to the contribution GPIC is uniquely positioned to make: connecting people, ideas, organizations, skills, and resources so that partnerships can flourish and innovation can take root.
This is a clearer expression of how GPIC can best advance our commitment to expanding access to palliative care worldwide.
As we reflected on our past and considered our future, we returned to three questions: What does GPIC do especially well? Where is there an unmet need? And how can we add value without duplicating work that others are already doing effectively? Again and again, the answer was partnership and connection.
Our refined mission is to connect people, ideas, and organizations to foster collaboration and catalyze innovation in palliative care worldwide.
GPIC’s strength lies in a broad, trusted network that crosses countries, disciplines, institutions, and communities. We listen as partners define their priorities, help supporters identify constructive ways to contribute, and bring together the people and resources that can move a promising idea forward.
How we make those connections matters. Our work will be further grounded in mutuality, equity, and authentic partnership. Engagement must begin with locally defined needs and not with the assumption that U.S. expertise is always the solution. The strongest partnerships recognize that knowledge flows in many directions and that professionals and organizations in the U.S. also have much to learn from colleagues around the world. Indeed, we all have much to learn together.
Our refined focus provides clearer structure while preserving the flexibility that has long enabled GPIC to build meaningful relationships. Sometimes the most valuable contribution may be a thoughtful introduction or help with communications. At other times, it may be meeting facilitation, technical advice, or access to strategic guidance. These practical forms of assistance can and do create the foundation for lasting progress.
Our programs will evolve accordingly. We will continue GPIC’s U.S.–international twinning program while creating additional pathways for individuals and organizations to engage in global palliative care. These opportunities will emphasize responsible global engagement, reciprocal learning, and alignment with partner priorities.
We invite organizations and supporters to share their interests, skills, and capacity, allowing GPIC to match those contributions with genuine needs. We also invite global and regional partners to bring requests to GPIC, enabling us to leverage our network to identify collaborators, funders, facilitators, technical experts, or other resources.
Collaboration will also shape how we deliver and sustain this work. Our partnership with colleagues involved in the Cicelys initiative, which seeks to advance palliative care through creative communications, offers one example of what is possible when organizations combine their expertise, reach, and resources. Working together allows each partner to contribute unique strengths toward a greater collective impact. Similar collaborations will allow us to support ideas and initiatives that no single organization could accomplish alone.
We also recognize that connective and capacity-building work can be difficult to fund. Donors often gravitate toward direct service delivery because the results are clearly visible. Yet relationships, communications, leadership development, and organizational infrastructure are what allow many effective programs to begin, grow, and endure.
We must tell that story more clearly. Sustainable access to palliative care depends not only on clinical services, but also on the partnerships and systems that make those services possible. People who need care cannot receive it without the networks, resources, and collaborations that support its delivery. Strong partnerships are essential to building sustainable systems of care.
As we move forward, we will measure progress not only by how much activity we generate, but by the quality and results of the connections we help create. Are partner-defined needs being matched with the right people, skills, organizations, or funding? Are collaborations becoming stronger and more sustainable? Do partners experience the work as useful, responsive, and reciprocal? Are more people learning how to engage globally with humility and purpose? These are the measures that will keep us accountable to our mission.
GPIC exists to make the right connections possible. We believe there is a distinctive and urgent need for us to listen across borders, link people and ideas, and help resources reach the places where they can be most useful. No single organization can transform global palliative care alone. Together, however, we can create the relationships and momentum that make meaningful change possible.
We invite you to join us in this next chapter as a partner, supporter, learner, connector, or advocate. Bring us your ideas. Bring us the needs you are hearing. Bring us the relationships and resources you are willing to share.
Together, we can connect what matters and strengthen palliative care worldwide.
With gratitude,
John and Lacey
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