For many people, entering long‑term care means adjusting to fixed routines and schedules with little room for personal choice. Now imagine growing older in a place where you can decide what’s on your plate and linger over your morning coffee. At Providence Living at The Views, this is what reimagined, publicly funded long‑term care looks like – and it’s accessible to those who need it.
That vision is being advanced thanks to the leadership of the Conconi Family Foundation, whose $2 million gift to St. Paul’s Foundation is supporting Providence Living’s Home for Us model of care alongside research that informs its expansion.
About the Conconi Family Foundation: Funding for impact
For over two decades, the Conconi Family Foundation has invested in health care, social services, and education. Their goal is to drive lasting change and improve the quality of life across communities in British Columbia.
This significant gift builds on a history of support from the Conconi Family Foundation. Previous contributions include $600,000 to the Centre for Healthy Aging at the new St. Paul’s Hospital and $500,000 toward first‑of‑its‑kind research on the Home for Us model of care at Providence Living at The Views and other Providence Living care sites in Vancouver.
They were drawn to St. Paul’s Foundation and Providence Living by the promise of the Home for Us model and its potential to transform care within the public system.
“The idea of a made-in-BC initiative to improve care for older adults in publicly funded long-term care was very appealing,” says Victoria Conconi, board member of the Conconi Family Foundation. “We should all be lucky to age, and we have a vested interest in creating the best environments for older people to thrive, even as circumstances change.”
About Providence Living at the Views and the Home for Us model of care
When you walk through the doors of Providence Living at The Views in Comox, you don’t step into an institution. You step into life. This is where seniors and older adults are thriving with choice, independence, and dignity.
The Views is Canada’s first publicly funded care village shaped by Home for Us, a model Providence Living created by drawing on best practices from around the world.
“The Home for Us model brings the everyday back into long-term care,” says Dr. Jennifer Gibson, Providence Living’s executive director of Quality, Practice, and Program Development. “We call them life’s daily pleasures, which make the everyday life experience joyful.”
At The Views, everyday pleasures take many forms: private rooms residents can personalize, welcoming household kitchens where meals happen on residents’ schedules, a café open to the community, a bright art studio for tapping into creativity, a full-service hair salon, and lively courtyards and gardens where residents barbecue, garden, and spend time with family.
That freedom has made a meaningful difference. Since opening in the summer of 2024, Providence Living at The Views has seen measurable improvements in residents’ well-being.
Jean, a resident who once spent most of her time alone in her room, now fills her days attending activities and spending time with the friends she’s made.
“Feeling love – that’s what makes The Views home,” she says.
This approach to care isn’t limited to private settings. At The Views, Home for Us shows what’s possible within a publicly funded long‑term care system. With the support of partners like the Conconi Family Foundation, the model is being studied so it can expand across the province.
What the Conconi gift is making possible
Over the next five years, Providence Living is bringing Home for Us into new long‑term care settings, including urban communities and existing care homes. Through their $2 million gift, the Conconi Family Foundation is helping move the Home for Us model into lasting culture change in long-term care.
Of this investment, $1.25 million will directly support the implementation of the model. This includes new, key roles that strengthen day‑to‑day life in the home — such as Indigenous Cultural Advisors who help advance cultural safety and belonging, Expression and Action Coaches who build deep connections with residents to support their unique needs, and Change Initiatives Specialists who work alongside staff to help apply the model sustainably.
Learning from this work is as important as delivering it
At the same time, the Conconi Family Foundation recognizes that for enduring change to extend beyond a single care home, it must be grounded in evidence. The remaining $750,000 of the gift supports research led by Dr. Amy Salmon, who heads the Seniors Research Group at the Centre for Advancing Health Outcomes at the University of British Columbia and is the Conconi Family Foundation Distinguished Scholar in Seniors Care.
Since 2021, researchers have been studying the Home for Us model through interviews with residents, families, and staff, observation of daily life in care homes, and the analysis of clinical and administrative data.
“The evidence that’s generated through our research is intended to provide real-time feedback for care providers and decision-makers today, and it will help people to make decisions about scaling up,” says Dr. Salmon. “As the Home for Us model of care will be implemented at five new care homes in Prince George, Vancouver, Quesnel, and Smithers, our work supports decision-makers with knowledge about how to implement this model at scale, and highlights where the most important investments in this change can be made with the goal of maximizing resident’s quality of life and wellbeing,”
With the Conconi Family Foundation’s support, researchers can continue this data collection, analysis, and feedback loop to help ensure that what’s working can bring a more compassionate future to residents in long‑term care across the province.
“This is resource-intensive work and challenging to fund, so it’s a perfect place for philanthropy to make a difference,” Conconi says.
Home for Us is currently being implemented and refined throughout the province. At Youville Residence in Vancouver, Providence Health Care is working in partnership with Providence Living to apply elements of the model by adapting how Home for Us functions within the home’s existing second and third floors. More recently, a six‑person household has opened on Youville’s first floor to explore how the model operates in a space designed specifically around its principles.
Together, these efforts reflect a commitment to understanding how Home for Us can be implemented across a range of care environments — and that meaningful change in long-term care is as much about culture, relationships, and daily practice as it is about physical space.
A bright future ahead
Through their investment in the Home for Us model, and in the research needed to expand it, the Conconi family is helping shape a hopeful future where long-term care is grounded in dignity, connection, and choice.
“I hope people no longer have an immediate sense of dread, fear, or isolation when they think of entering long-term care. We want people to have the best possible experience, where residents are seen as individuals with full life stories, not just recipients of care,” Conconi says.
St. Paul’s Foundation and Providence Living are deeply grateful to the Conconi Family Foundation for its leadership and lasting commitment to seniors’ care.
Today, there’s an opportunity for you to be part of this change. The Conconi Family Foundation is matching all gifts to St. Paul’s Foundation up to $1.5 million. Together, we can help all British Columbians in long-term care feel known, loved, and at home.