In partnership with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Austin area hospitals, and local faith communities, Cancer Connection recruits and trains volunteers who each have had a cancer diagnosis or cared for a family member with cancer. After extensive training, Connection volunteers are matched with referrals according to cancer site, age, gender and family situation. Our volunteers offer free, one-on-one, long-term emotional support to cancer patients and their families. The service is unique in that the relationship between volunteer and referral is informed by shared experience. Hope for the individual with cancer is personified by the volunteer who shows up and says, "I had the same type of cancer you have. I am a survivor living a full life now, and I am here for you."

Because we believe that a cancer diagnosis inevitably introduces ultimate questions about life and death, we train our volunteers to be open and responsive to the spiritual components of the disease. Cancer Connection is an interfaith organization and inclusive of all faith traditions. We value the richness of religious diversity. Because we believe that faith can be a powerful weapon in the cancer battle, we seek to nurture each person's own individual faith resources.