New collaboratives receive funding to reduce social isolation of seniors!
May 18, 2016
In 2015, Innoweave announced the launch of Seniors SI, in partnership with the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP). Through Seniors SI, Innoweave supports collaboratives of organizations across Canada to generate, implement, and scale socially innovative community level approaches to reduce the social isolation of seniors.
Throughout 2015 Innoweave and the Government of Canada worked to help communities prepare and submit plans for generating this change for seniors. Over the past month, the Government of Canada has announced several collaboratives that have received funding to implement their community-level plans. Innoweave is excited to continue working with these collaboratives to achieve their intended impact and benefit seniors in their communities across Canada.
As the communities continue their work, Innoweave is providing implementation support for the collaboratives of organizations, including collective impact coaching, population impact surveys, and developmental evaluation coaching. We will be working with them for the next few years to make real, lasting impacts on social isolation for seniors.
Metro Vancouver Impact Plan – the full press release can be found here
Four organizations, the Burnaby Community Services Society, the South Burnaby Neighbourhood House Society, the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and Family Services of the North Shore, are combining efforts to reduce the social isolation of seniors aged 75+ in the Metro Vancouver area, with a focus on seniors living with disabilities, seniors who have low resources and/or seniors who face language or cultural barriers.
Through initiatives led by each of the organizations, local seniors will have a range of supports, including:
- increased access to transportation,
- Welcoming Spaces sites for social activities and connection to services in their native language, and
- community Senior Hubs Training events for volunteers and service providers who work with seniors that will help them better identify, understand and connect socially isolated seniors with resources.
Pan-Edmonton Group Addressing Social Isolation (PEGASIS) Impact Plan – the full press release can be found here.
Seven projects that make up the Pan-Edmonton Group Addressing Social Isolation (PEGASIS) Impact Plan will increase community participation among seniors while connecting them to essential social services and support. Seniors in Edmonton, including immigrant seniors and seniors with mental and physical disabilities, will directly benefit from services that include:
- assisted transportation
- community resource guides
- nutritional assessments
- door-to-door visits, and
- community-based English as an alternate language classes.
The overall impact of this concerted effort will have far-reaching benefits for Edmonton-area seniors affected by isolation and for the collaborating network of Edmonton seniors-serving organizations.
These collaboratives join the Toronto ENRICHES Collaborative, which began its work in late 2015. The Toronto ENRICHES plan targets isolated seniors who are caregivers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)—a highly populated and culturally diverse area. Partners in the plan’s six socially innovative projects will work collaboratively to deliver measurable results to reduce social isolation in this population. The overall impact of their concerted effort will have far-reaching benefits for metro seniors who are caregivers and for the existing network of GTA seniors-serving organizations.
Innoweave is excited to work with these collaboratives, and others soon to be announced by the Government of Canada. Watch this space as we showcase more socially innovative collaboratives across the country in the coming months.