Remonia Chapman is committed to community, relationships and finding new ways to advance the Donor Registry
Relationships are fueling a significant partnership initiative with some of the state’s largest businesses and organizations. Remonia Chapman and her colleagues are asking them to share the donor registration link with employees along with the message that donation saves and transforms lives.
Remonia, Gift of Life’s director of public education and community relations, explains how workplace partnerships work, why this initiative is so critical right now, and how your workplace can help save lives.
LifeLINES: Most Michiganders add their name to the Donor Registry during Secretary of State office visits. How have changes there affected donor registrations?
Remonia Chapman: The Secretary of State is a wonderful partner. They’ve recently made some changes that mean residents don’t need to go to the branch offices as often.
So, Gift of Life has to be creative and find other ways and other places to help Michigan residents sign up if they want to be donors. You go to the Secretary of State once a year, maybe now every 12 years. But you go to work daily or weekly. That’s an opportunity that we’re trying to maximize.
LifeLINES: What is the Workplace Partnership program?
Remonia: It provides another touch point for Michigan residents to receive important information. Work is where we spend much of our time, either in person or virtually. Workplaces are like our second home and where we discuss some life-changing topics.
Through the workplace partnership program, employers can email hundreds or even thousands of employees to share the link to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.
That’s important right now because the Donor Registry is growing very slowly because of those changes and other factors at the Secretary of State. We’re trying to find new ways to make it easy for residents to register to be a donor someday.
LifeLINES: How do our corporate partners benefit from it?
Remonia: I think it ties in with the type of mission they already have within their organization, to be good stewards to the people they serve.
They also get an opportunity to promote the message of health to their employees. We give them an opportunity to do that.
This message of organ and tissue donation ties into those health and wellness initiatives.
To get your company or organization involved go to golm.org/partners.
