Our work

Four pillars. One mission.

Pain care in Ontario is fragmented, under-funded, and stigmatising. We organise the work to change that across four pillars that move together — connection, education, research, and advocacy.

Pillar one

Connection.

Linking people with pain so no one navigates alone.

  • Pain Connect: an online community space for people with pain, families, and the people who care for them.
  • Peer support and care-navigation guidance grounded in lived experience.
  • Provincial network of clinicians, researchers, and community partners who actually talk to each other.
  • Practical referrals to pain clinics, mental-health supports, and patient organisations across Ontario.
Pillar two

Education.

Plain-language information, evidence reviews, and resources you can trust.

  • Curated resource directory for people living with pain, caregivers, parents, and clinicians.
  • Plain-language explainers on how pain works, how it is treated, and what to expect.
  • Continuing-education collaborations with clinical training programs in Ontario.
  • Lived-experience curricula co-developed with people who live with chronic pain.
Pillar three

Research.

Partnering so the evidence base reflects who actually lives with pain.

  • Patient-oriented research partnerships with the Chronic Pain Network and Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP).
  • Knowledge translation: turning trial findings into things clinicians and patients can use.
  • Equity-focused research priorities: paediatric pain, sickle cell disease, Indigenous pain care.
  • Recruitment supports for studies that are designed with, not just for, the communities they serve.
Pillar four

Advocacy.

Policy work that pushes Ontario to take pain seriously.

  • Briefs and submissions to provincial and federal governments on pain care, disability, and health equity.
  • Election platforms and MPP engagement on chronic pain priorities.
  • Public coalition-building around the Action Plan for Pain in Canada.
  • Media work and op-eds that name the systems shaping pain care, not just the symptoms.
How we work

Principles, not just topics.

The four pillars are how we describe the work. These are the rules we hold ourselves to while we do it.

Centre lived experience.

People with lived and living experience are at every table where decisions about our work get made.

Name the structures.

Racism, poverty, ableism, and colonialism shape pain care. We say that explicitly in our briefs, our research, and our public communications.

Disagree out loud.

We work with clinicians, researchers, and policymakers, and we tell them when we think they’re wrong. Equity language doesn’t get diluted to make funders comfortable.

Compensation.

Compensate expertise, including people with living/lived experience, caregivers, community partners, and artists.

Work with us

Have a partnership in mind?

Whether you’re a clinician, a researcher, a community organisation, a policymaker, or a person with lived experience — we want to hear from you.

Get in touch
4Pillars. Connection, education, research, advocacy. Each is a doorway in.