ORGANIZATION HOSTS VIRTUAL EVENTS TO SUPPORT THOSE WITH BREAST CANCER

Shannon Zaleski, LSCW, OSC-W, is the associate director of clubhouse programs for Gilda’s Club Chicago. Gilda’s Club Chicago has been hosting programs virtually due to COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Shannon Zaleski
Shannon Zaleski, LSCW, OSC-W, is the associate director of clubhouse programs for Gilda’s Club Chicago. Gilda’s Club Chicago has been hosting programs virtually due to COVID-19. Photo courtesy of Shannon Zaleski

Organization hosts virtual events to support those with breast cancer

BY TIA CAROL JONES
     October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and there are individuals with breast cancer who still need a support system during COVID-19 where meeting in person can be a challenge. To continue to support those who need it, Gilda’s Club Chicago has created virtual programming.
     Shannon Zaleski, LSCW, OSC-W, is the associate director of clubhouse programs for Gilda’s Club Chicago. She said the organization has been committed to providing support and resources, online and virtually, during the pandemic. Zaleski said prior to COVID-19, Gilda’s Club wanted to host virtual meetings, but the pandemic ratcheted up the timeline.
     Gilda’s Club works with people who are immunocompromised and wanted to make sure those individuals stayed safe and healthy.
     “The couple [of] weeks leading up to Illinois shutting down, we were in conversation with our affiliates across the country, as well as the hospitals we work with in the city,” she said. “We were really taking our lead from what our hospital partners were saying and precautions they were putting in place.”
     Zaleski said Gilda’s Club Chicago maintained its programming up until Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker closed down the state. She said all of Gilda’s Club Chicago’s partner hospitals – Advocate Christ Hospital, Northwestern, Mount Sinai and Lurie Children’s – came to the consensus that it wasn’t safe to have in-person programming. As a result, the organization made the decision to move to a virtual platform.
     Zaleski said prior to COVID-19, Gilda’s Club Chicago hosted about 400 programs in one week across the city. Now, there are 150 programs which are being hosted virtually. Most of those programs have been rolled into one.
     “We continue to provide services, much needed services,” said Zaleski, who added that even prior to COVID, anybody going through cancer treatment, anyone living with cancer, needed that support and needed that outlet. But then, you layer COVID-19 and the isolation precautions that people had to undergo, and it’s another “layer of needing that community,” she said.
     Zaleski said that while people going through cancer treatment are still receiving that treatment, they are not getting the support and are going through it alone. Sometimes that means going to treatment alone.
     “Being able to connect with people online is a really valuable tool and it’s something that we’re grateful to have because you look at 10-15 years ago, this wouldn’t have been an option. Even then, how do you translate that community into an online presence, and I think that is an ongoing learning game,” she said.
It’s a really nice mix of people who participated during in-person programs and new people who participate in the virtual programs, Zaleski continued.
     “One of the best takeaways from this is having people from across Chicagoland and even across Illinois, come together in these groups,”
     Zaleski said. There used to be a divide between the South and North sides, she added, where people from the South side went to Advocate Christ and people on the North side went to Northwest. But now, “everyone comes together,” she said and added that they’re seeing “a much more diverse population.”         
     Zaleski said the nice thing about that is there’s a new group dynamic. People who didn’t have time to participate in a group are doing so because they can log on from home. She said one ongoing workaround is technological training because some people didn’t know how to connect or didn’t have the internet. She said the goal is to make sure everyone is able to have a connection and to be able to participate.
     Zaleski said one population that has increased in participation is the younger adult population. She said it might be because they are more tech savvy and more comfortable being online, so the transition to virtual programming was easier for them.
      “Whereas young adults tend to be a harder population to engage in supportive programs, we’ve seen more of them come on board since we’ve been virtual,” she said.
     Zaleski said being virtual has allowed Gilda’s Club Chicago to interact with other affiliate programs in other cities too, which has been a good way to expand on the program offerings.
For more information on Gilda’s Club Chicago, visit www.gildasclubchicago.org.

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