Throughout the symposium, operators reaffirmed the critical role we play in championing a paradigm shift across our sector — beginning with CHAA operators. We committed to transitioning from a purely competitive environment to more collaborative approaches to addressing staff recruitment and retention challenges.

As a close-knit community of like-minded, values-driven operators, CHAA has the potential to demonstrate the value and benefits of increasingly collaborative efforts to solutions that will support all operators, and not simply enhance some operators’ ability to compete against others for the same pool of staff.

CHAA operators identified 24 actionable initiatives and demonstration projects. Some are within the scope of CHAA operators to begin immediately through a collaborative, cross-operator effort. Others need varying levels of collaboration and leadership by system partners, funders, post-secondary institutions, community organizations, and other stakeholders. We anticipate the most promising initiatives will begin within the 2023-24 year.