In this episode of “On Your Own Terms,” we meet Changemaker Anne Campbell. Anne shares her “Homegrown Solutions for a Patchwork World” including her efforts to work with others to build a comprehensive hospice facility in her home community of Blacksburg, Virginia.  

Watch the video of our conversation, listen to the podcast, and read the summary here!

Homegrown Anne 

Born and raised in Blacksburg Virginia in the United States, Anne Campbell took a huge step leaving the family nest for 10 years to pursue her education and career as a nurse.  She envisioned herself working in a larger research hospital, but returned to her home community with her husband, attorney Greg Campbell, to set up his law practice there.  She went back to school for a degree as a Nurse Practitioner and worked for many years in Obstetrics and Gynecology helping women prepare for healthy childbirth.   

Anne's work ethic and commitment to community were instilled in her from a very young age.  Her father was raised in Maine and was the first person in his family to attend college. Financing his own education, he earned a Ph.D. and came to Blacksburg, Virginia to teach Horticulture at Virginia Tech.  

Dad had a motto that was consistently reinforced in Anne's childhood home.

“You must be a contributing member to society.”

Anne's mother was raised on a farm in Ohio. She went to secretarial school, taught piano, and was highly active in their church.  Like her father, Anne's mother was community-oriented and stressed the importance of kindness in relationships. 

Anne carried this work ethic and way of being into her studies, her career in nursing, and her own community efforts.  As the last child of six, Anne was the primary caregiver for her parents when their health began to fail later in life. 

During her time in university, Anne was inspired by the work of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross.  Ross gave a speech on the topic of death, grief, and the experience of patients in their final days. Anne relied on what she learned as she cared for her parents in the last phases of their lives. Hospice care became an important part of the family's caregiving community.

From her career as an OBGYN Nurse Practitioner, Anne now turned her attention from beginning-of-life care to end-of-life care.  She joined a community effort to provide more education on hospice care so that others could receive the many benefits of thoughtful and intentional support at this natural phase of life.

Anne quickly realized the many challenges that can stand in the way of adequate end-of-life care for families.  Many families and homes are simply not well equipped to provide the kind of care that is needed.  Cultural expectations and “death averse” attitudes can be part of the problem. Hospitals may have the necessary equipment, but staff there are trained to save lives at all costs, not to assist with easing a natural and comfortable dying experience.   

Together with a group of 10 people, we decided to work on a place where people who can't have hospice at home could find relief and support.

Anne and her community team worked hard to form a 501(c)(3) in support of an inpatient hospice facility where people could stay during terminal illness. They named their project “The Sojourn Center.” Over the years since its inception, the group has faced many challenges including regulations that require a licensed hospice agency to operate the clinical facility. 

No matter how difficult the challenge, Anne and the team have continued to strive toward their vision of better access to hospice care in their community.

We approached a number of hospice agencies and went through years of research, networking, and conversation.

The Sojourn Center Project relies entirely on the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers each bringing their unique skills and perspectives to the project. Misconceptions about hospice care abound among some families and cultural groups. Some families do not feel comfortable having others come into their homes to provide guidance on caring for their loved ones. The moments before a loved one's passing are deeply emotional and personal for all involved. This reality requires a gentle openness to diverse needs and perspectives on the dying experience. 

Sojourn means a journey along the way. What a great name for that end-of-life journey.

A local comprehensive retirement community named “Warm Hearth Village” rose to the top as a potential partner for the Sojourn Center.  Warm Hearth Village already had plans to expand into hospice care as part of their long-term strategy. They also had the potential to become the clinical operator of the Sojourn Center. To ensure it was a good fit, the Sojourn Center hosted a feasibility study.

The study was conducted to determine the feasibility of this local retirement community becoming a hospice agency and the likelihood that they would be able to run an inpatient hospice facility like the Sojourn Center.

“The results were very sobering.” 

With the advent of COVID-19, many changes occurred within the hospice care industry. There are workforce shortages and challenging Medicare regulations. Unfortunately, the results of the feasibility study led Warm Hearth Village to opt out of the partnership. 

This was a tremendous disappointment after all the years of diligent work to bring the Sojourn Center to life.  They have a 5 million capital campaign, land for the building, and an architect committed to the project. But without the hospice agency, they simply cannot move forward at this time.  

The Sojourn Center project has been my life for over a decade. It has been gut wrenching. I have had days of lots of tears. I've had days where I just am not going to think about it as if it didn't happen at all. It's been a really personal kind of spiritual time. I still feel absolutely committed. Our entire board feels absolutely committed to how our community could benefit from building the Sojourn Center.

Changemaking work like that of the Sojourn Center project is often a journey of creating something from nothing and sometimes creating that something is really difficult. Nevertheless, Anne and the rest of the team at Sojourn Center are as committed to creating this facility as they were when they started over 10 years ago.  

Perseverance is one of the key attributes all effective changemakers have in common. Anne thought about what her life might be like if she quit. Maybe she could spend more time on her own hobbies. But when she remembers what the Sojourn Center could do for her community, she refuses to stop.  Anne envisions a place where the dying find great comfort and families celebrate the life of their loved one as their journey comes to an end. That vision ignites her passion to keep pushing forward, no matter what.

Anne's journey is about what is possible. Stories of perseverance through challenges inspire us to realize we, too, can endure in our efforts to make the world work better for everyone. Anne and her colleagues in The Sojourn Center project continue to persevere through legal, financial, and bureaucratic hurdles.  They are not giving up.   No matter how many setbacks come along, Anne keeps showing up for her community.  

She has two pieces of advice for Changemakers:

1.  While life might be easier if we quit when the going gets tough, change will never occur if we “throw in the towel” when we face setbacks. Keep going. 

2. You don’t have to take immediate action all the time. Take the time needed to regroup and reflect on the challenges at hand.  You will find a way forward. 

Support for The Sojourn Center is always welcome and appreciated.  Go to their website here to make donations and get involved.   

Sojourn Center – Hospice House for the New River Valley

As you can see, Anne's inspiring story as a Changemaker exemplifies many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Her work embodies Goal #4 – Quality Education, Goal #11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, and Goal#17 – Partnerships for the Goals.  What others do you see?

Get in touch to let us know what YOU and people you know are doing to realize these Global Goals by the year 2030.  We can do it if we all work together and take our place as Changemakers doing what we can – on our own terms – to make the world a better place for all of us at every stage of life.  

CHECK OUT our CHANGEMAKER YOU course to help you get started today! (Hint:  Perseverance, like Annes, is one of the skillsets we teach in our programs at Blue Roads Education.)