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Adopt a Grandparent

ADOPT A GRANDPARENT
Real Seniors, Real Worries, Real Hope

Anne can't get to her doctor appointments. She is all alone and has no one to help her. Shirley is worried she will have to surrender her dog Jack because she can't walk him anymore. Linda needs help with her shopping but can't afford it. Carl is in crisis and needs urgent social work intervention.

These are real seniors with real worries and you can provide real hope.

Adopt a Grandparent is the largest fundraiser for Calgary Seniors. Our programs and services for low-income and isolated seniors would not exist without the support of our generous and devoted donors and supporters like you.

There are several ways to get involved and Adopt a Grandparent this year:

1. Donate: Your donations provide the caring volunteers who help seniors with the little things that really make a big difference.

2. Adopt a Grandparent as a gift for a loved one: Looking for a special holiday gift? Adopt a Grandparent in honour of a friend/family member as your gift and they will receive a letter and special story about how your donation provided hope.

Participate in Adopt a Grandparent and we will keep you up to date on the progress of Mary, Charlie and Stacey, along with many others, so that you can see the difference you are making for seniors who are living in isolation, poverty and fear in our city.

Aging is something that is often dreaded, or even feared, but growing old is inevitable. When we get there, we hope that we will be financially secure enough to pay for any support we need. We hope we will still have friends and family around us that care and help us. We hope we will be able to age with dignity and are treated with respect and kindness. And, we hope we will be able to get any assistance and care we require.

Unfortunately, today, more and more seniors face increased financial hardship, isolation, transportation and mobility challenges, mental health concerns and even abuse. They are facing these issues with less and less family and social support. Children move away, neighbours are disconnected, and community services and seniors' supports are in jeopardy of being cut. These seniors are struggling in silence and need our help. Requests for our services grow every day and we struggle to keep pace with the demand. We urgently need to recruit, screen, train and match new volunteers to keep up with these calls for help.

Calgary Seniors, through our Volunteer Services department, is one of the only organizations that provides programs at no cost to assist less fortunate seniors who need support with day to day living and social companionship. We want the future to be better, brighter, healthier and happier for our elders. They deserve it. They earned it. That is why we do this work.

Your donations provide the caring volunteers who help seniors with the little things that really make a big difference. Donations provide friendly volunteers to visit with them when they are lonely, give them rides to medical appointments when they have no way to get there, help them with their shopping when they are too frail to manage it all, or provide assistance with their pets when they can no longer properly care for them but can't bear the thought of surrendering their beloved companions.

Adult Day Program

Your donation will go towards our Active Seniors Programs such as Community outings on our buses, Zumba classes and music therapy. These programs are important in keeping seniors active and social and enhancing their quality of life.

OUR VISION
To Be A Leader In Providing Community-Integrated Services For Older Adults.
ASK provides 6225 spots per year for older adults to attend the Adult Day Program.

OUR VALUES
The Individual & the Community, Accountability, Respect, Honesty, Integrity, Caring, Dreaming Dreams, & Having Fun!

FUN
Having fun is one of our basic values. We find ways to have fun and laugh each day. Fun adds interest to life and gives us a feeling of well-being.

FITNESS TRAINING
We offer the following fitness programs on a regular basis.
ï‚© Strength Training
ï‚© Yoga
ï‚© Zumba Gold
ï‚© Tai Chi

NUTRITION
Poor nutrition affects health status. We offer:
ï‚© A full balanced meal at noon
ï‚© Take home meals
ï‚© Dietary supplements
ï‚© Weight monitoring
ï‚© Graduated meal sizes

PERSONAL CARE
We offer assistance with personal care.
ï‚© Podiatrist services
ï‚© Regular manicures
ï‚© Mealtime assistance
ï‚© Toileting assistance

HEALTH MONITORING
We monitor health and report changes to each participant's health care team.
We also keep a current record of each participant's weight and we monitor blood pressure for those at risk.

MENTAL HEALTH
We are alert to issues that affect mental health. Staff members are trained to listen and give appropriate support.

We offer:
ï‚© Laughter Therapy
ï‚© Memory Games
ï‚© Music Therapy
ï‚© Reminiscing
ï‚© Friendship circle
ï‚© Life Review
ï‚© Horticulture Therapy
ï‚© Community Outings
ï‚© Therapeutic programs for those who are coping with dementia

FRIENDSHIP
All of these services are provided in a friendly home-like environment where individual needs and interests are honoured and respected.

ELIGIBILITY
The program is designed for people who have a chronic health problem or who have difficulty meeting their own social needs.

TRANSPORTATION
We arrange suitable door-to-door transportation to and from the Centre and offer many interesting community outings.

We work hard to make our programs reflect the interests and needs of our participants. We conduct an annual program review to invite participant and caregiver feedback. Our therapeutic programs are always growing and changing to reflect the changing needs of our participants.

Dementia Link fundraiser

The Dementia Link program helps increase visibility for dementia, as well as creating more dementia friendly communities for people living with the condition. It has an educational component, designed alternately for people living with dementia, their caregivers, professionals, or community members. It also has a Dementia Friendly advocacy component, encouraging the community to welcome and support people living with dementia in their day-to-day lives.

Don't Walk The Journey Alone

Home Hospice Association-North Chapter "Don't Walk The Journey Alone" is building a stronger foundation for those diagnosed/dying age 65 or older at end-of-life stage. Our mission is to be able to provide quality end-of-life care to seniors in our Northern communities. Funds raised in the GIVE65 platform will allow options in care for those individuals wishing to have the best death possible wherever they lay their head, this could be long term care facilities, home, hospital, senior residence or community for those less fortunate due to circumstances. Funds raised with the GIVE65 platform will bring those dying a quality end-of-life care and services such as Personal Support Workers, Nursing, Death Doula's and also enhance volunteer programming such as Bello Project and Compassionate Care Volunteers making sure that the complete circle of family and friends are supported, including the dying's beloved pets.

Education - Breaking Down Stigma

Our Public Education Coordinator is breaking down stigma and dispelling myths about dementia by providing accurate, helpful information to the community. Targeted towards audiences' needs, our tailored sessions provide valuable information on brain health and diseases of the brain. As our population ages, the number of people diagnosed with dementia increases and so does the need for accurate information about disease progression, caregiving strategies and available community supports. Reduction of risk factors and preventative education are key components to helping people stay healthy.

To meet our communities growing need we have to expand our Education Program to create an online option for those who are unable to attend an in-class session.

Endowment Fund

A gift to the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation of Canada's General Endowment Fund is an investment in the future of the Foundation. Your gift to the Foundation's Endowment Fund provides long-term sustainability as we continue to work to enhance the lives of aging adults and those who care for them.

Fellburn Care Centre

We are your trusted partners, shaping the future of health care at Burnaby Hospital and Fellburn Care Centre. With the help of forward-thinking donors, we are raising funds to support programs, activities, and facility upgrades at Fellburn that create comfort, and a home like space for residents and their families. We show our caring through relationships respecting individuality, diversity, and honouring the whole person. We strive to add quality to the lives of the people in our community through healthcare, recreation, and spiritual support. We believe in resident-centered care and individual choice. We encourage people to make decisions through collaboration using open and respectful communication.

Help Kelowna Seniors This Christmas!

Help us help seniors this Christmas season and in the year ahead! Some seniors are struggling to keep the rent paid and food on the table. Others are choosing between prescribed medication and food, Some reduce medication because they cannot afford the required amount. With high rental costs, even a seemingly small problem can propel a typical senior on a downward spiral. We recently helped 'John' find secure housing, as he was staying in a corner of a basement that he needed to move from. Even though we were able to help him find affordable housing in a lovely new unit, he had nothing to make it a home. Whatever money he had was spent on good used furniture, and a damage deposit, which left him with no food and no basic supplies, like dishes, linens, cutlery, pots, dish cloths, soap, etc. Because of donations, we were able to help him get some basic supplies from community thrift and dollar stores, to help get him settled in his new home. We helped him with basic food supplies so he would have more to eat than the 7up in his fridge. That is all the help he wanted, just to get through the month, due to the extra costs of moving, and he is confident that he will be fine on his own after that. We see many seniors throughout the year in similar crisis situations, and ask you to generously donate so we can make Christmas merry for local seniors, and so we can continue to help them in the coming year. The Give65 Foundation of Canada will provide matching funds, to maximize the value of your gift.

Hospice Halifax - Final Mile

In April 2019, we opened the doors of our ten-bed palliative care residence to patients and families in need of their support at the end-of-life. Built by the generosity of our community, Nova Scotia's first hospice will serve over 150 patients and families every year. All services are provided completely free of charge through a funding partnership between Hospice Halifax, the provincial government, Nova Scotia Health Authority and the generosity of donors (like you) from the local community who recognize the importance of end-of-life care.

To date, we have raised $6.1 million to fund construction and we are in The Final Mile of our $7.5 million capital campaign.

With your support we can help meet the goal of raising the final $1.4 million towards The Final Mile.

Intensive Case Management for Seniors at Risk

The Intensive Case Management for Seniors at Risk at CFS has been offering services for vulnerable seniors in the Hamilton community for over 30 years. The program has an outstanding reputation and is well known for its proactive work to address situations of elder abuse, neglect and self-neglect of vulnerable, often marginalized seniors.
Research confirms that social isolation often contributes to creating opportunities for exploitation and abuse, especially financial abuse, frequently resulting in consequent neglect of the person.
The Seniors program is proactive, recognizing that education and social inclusiveness are key to the prevention of elder abuse.
Our program has highly educated staff, offering services in 9 different languages. We were able to identify a highly vulnerable senior population in Hamilton in need of ongoing social, recreational, educational services. Hamilton has a significantly diverse seniors population, one of every five people was born outside of Canada. Seniors are often sponsored by their children to Canada, but they remain isolated due to language barriers and limited or no information about how to connect to others in the community.
The Intensive Case Management program was able to set up a group program 5 years ago, in 2014, offering a meeting place for a by-weekly 3 hours activity filled, exciting, group sessions that promoted a holistic healthy lifestyle. The sessions were organized and aimed at " Nurturing mind, body and soul" a holistic approach to improve health and overall well being, resulting in improved quality of life. With funding running out, the attending seniors have been asking if we can bring this program back again.
We had regularly 45 - 50 seniors attending the group. All of these seniors are very low income, some of them recent immigrants, or refugees from war-torn countries. Learning about their new home country, about resources available, and including them into the community, helps them to settle and integrate into our society. Our staff member who speaks several Asian languages provides translation/interpretation services and will organize speakers for education topics, fun outings, exercises and healthy refreshments. The program was hugely successful. The attendees were members of the multi-cultural community, mostly from the Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Arabic, Syrian, and South- East Asian communities, but everyone is welcome to join the group.
According to data based on the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton 2016 statistics, Hamilton's Asian population is close to 20.000, and 16 % of those are over the age of 65.
The fundraised money would allow us to continue offering this group session on a regular basis, twice a month benefiting approx.. 45-50 seniors. We do have a location provided by a partner organization for free, but we would need to utilize the funds to pay for transportation, refreshments, celebrating cultural events, organizing speakers, fun and games, and exercises such as tai chi, yoga etc.
We appreciate and are grateful for any support we will potentially receive.

MacGillivray Guest Home Foundation Bus Campaign

The residents at the RC MacGillivray Guest Home in Sydney are trying to raise funds to purchase a new wheelchair accessible bus so they can continue to enjoy being a part of their community. Our residents enjoy shopping, lunch outings, attending community festivals, concerts, picnics, and going for a drive on a sunny afternoon. Please help them stay linked to their community by donating today!

Minds in Motion

Minds in Motion® is a community-based program that incorporates physical activity and therapeutic programming for people living with early to mid-stages of dementia and their care partners. Minds in Motion® unfolds as new friendships are formed and stories are shared. The program runs once a week, for 8 weeks in a community-based program centre. The 2-hour program focuses on brain health by offering both gentle and easy to follow physical activities as well as fun social activities that stimulate the brain and focus on building personal skills while forming relationships.
Physical activity can help you feel better, reduce stress and maintain health. It helps to prevent muscle weakness and health complications associated with inactivity. It can also promote a normal day-to-night routine and may improve mood.
Participating in social activities is beneficial and fun. Throughout the 8 weeks, we explore different themes and topics to create conversation and to build on personal skills. By building these skills and utilizing an individual's strength, participants will be reacquainted with or learn new abilities intended to improve their overall well-being. Cognitive engagement will occur in a variety of different ways through active and positive interactions with participants and facilitators, by following instructions, by solving puzzles with the group and by engaging in conversation.
Benefits for the person with dementia include:
• Improved balance, mobility, flexibility and alertness
• Increased confidence and comfort with their own circumstance.
For the care partners, it's an opportunity to focus on their own health, rather than focusing on the needs of the person with dementia.
Other benefits include:
• Seeing the person they are caring for enjoying themselves.
• Mutual support and learning from trained facilitators and other care partners.
• Opportunities to learn about additional support systems that are available through the Alzheimer Society and the community.
Together, the participating couple can benefit from:
• Sharpened mental functioning, sometimes lasting 2-3 days
• Reduced senses of isolation
• Spending quality time with each other and others

Neighbourhood House on the Go

The "Neighbourhood House on the go" project is to support the social participation and inclusion of seniors. The "Neighbourhood House on the Go" project reaches isolated and marginalized older adults by bringing Neighbourhood House activities and resources to the streets and yards of older adults, creating greater accessibility to services, and building strong neighbourhood-based intergenerational relationships. The first barrier encountered by older adults in accessing services is often the physical barriers of reaching resources: securing transport and having the physical capacity and confidence to go to a new and unfamiliar place. Many issues may prevent older adults from regularly leaving their homes; physical challenges that may come with aging, issues of depression and mental health, loss of social networks, losing the ability to safely drive, or lack of confidence in using public transit. "Neighbourhood House on the Go" (NHG) begins to address issues of social participation by creating mobile services offered in the community through a "Neighbourhood House" bike cart and building community relationships. NHG bike cart is powered by staff, local youth and other volunteers who will reach out to isolated older adults. Senior volunteers will join bike cart volunteers to facilitate activities at the cart which will engage seniors and others to participate in street and yard based activities, creating a warm and welcoming presence and the opportunity to build new relationships at a block level. Activities include free coffee and conversation, information and referral, veggie/plant/recipe exchange and delivery, seed library, art activities and games.

Pawsativity at St. Peter's Hospital

St. Peter's Hospital has really gone to the dogs! We're pleased to announce a brand new program in partnership with Zachary's Paws for Healing to support our patients; Pawsativity at St. Peter's. Building on the success of our Pet Therapy activities, volunteers will be running a weekly program to provide opportunities for positive engagement to enhance patients' strengths and abilities. Pawsativity will complement the host of programs our Therapeutic Recreationists already run each week.

Pawsativity at St. Peter's will allow patients to participate in activities with therapy dogs - from taking the dogs on walks around St. Peters' beautiful grounds and 'racing' through obstacle courses, to playing games like musical chairs. This will provide weekly interaction for patients across St. Peter's Hospital's 4 units, giving them the opportunity to get some physical and mental exercise with a friendly and furry companion. In the last year, more than 1,000 seniors were treated at St. Peter's Hospital, accounting for 79% of all patients. Interactions with pets have been seen to lower stress levels and improve communication between patients and caregivers as it allows for participation in a shared positive experience.

With the support of the GIVE65 Initiative, proceeds will be used to purchase supplies to launch Pawsativity at St. Peter's. From dog leads and treats to facilitate bonding between patients and animals, to materials for games and activities, all proceeds will be used to create opportunities for engagement and fun for patients across St. Peter's Hospital.

Pay It Forward to Seniors and Adults with Disabilities

As many of our seniors are living below the poverty level and find it almost impossible to be able to get out and about our Campaign helps to bring support to those individuals. (We strive to protect the dignity and privacy whom find themselves in these positions)
Our Campaign (Paying It Forward) will help to support needed food, transportation, access to take in some activities that would have been out of their finical reach. As well as help to purchase accessibility products or hygiene items that help to reduce isolation.
One such goal is to help seniors get their hair cut and or their nails/toenails cut as it is a difficult and is expensive to get this done.
*(For men getting their hair and nails are a large group that often gets overlooked or neglected)

Pet Assist

Last year, we helped over 3,000 lonely, less fortunate seniors who had no one else to help, and had nowhere else to turn. The seniors we work with are some of our communities' most vulnerable. They are struggling to get by. Many have mobility issues or mental health concerns. Many face adversities. They may be abused physically, emotionally or financially. Most are alone and without any social or family connections.

Our volunteers visit seniors when they are lonely; advocate for seniors when they have no one else; give seniors rides to medical appointments when they have no way to get there and are feeling apprehensive; assist seniors with their shopping when they are too frail to manage it all; and step up to help seniors when there are no other options.

But what about their pets? What about the senior who can no longer walk their dog, or clean up after them due to mobility issues? What about the senior who cannot afford to pay a vet bill when their cat is in distress? What about the senior who has to move in to long-term care and cannot take their beloved pet with them and it needs to be re-homed?

As with how many of our Volunteer Programs were created, Calgary Seniors identified a significant gap in services and we stepped in to fill that gap. Our Volunteer Services Team was seeing a significant number of seniors in need of assistance with their pet. These seniors needed support in appropriately caring for their pets to not only help keep senior and pet together, but also ensure pets are properly cared for.

When pets are neglected, the living environment can become unsafe for both the animal and the senior. The senior/pet relationship is very valuable, but the animals can become a burden and even a safety/health risk if not taken care of properly (feces in home, aggressive behaviour, unplanned reproduction etc.).

Having identified this missing link between pet ownership and vulnerable seniors' quality of life, we piloted a new program called Pet Assist that saw volunteers providing pet support for low income and isolated seniors. Pet Assist provides seniors with their pet care needs, thereby enabling the pet and senior to stay together as long as possible.

In 2017, our volunteers and community partners helped keep almost fifty (50) animals in caring homes. Forty-nine volunteers logged almost 600 hours helped clients with such tasks such as transportation to the vet, basic grooming, dog walking, changing cat litter, purchasing food and food delivery.

Calgary Seniors has also secured formal partnerships with Pawsitive Match, MEOW Foundation, Canine Oasis and Vets to Go for emergency veterinary support.

The seniors who are recipients of Pet Assist have no one to help them and no financial aid to help them with their pets. There are no other services of this kind in the city and too often the only option is to surrender the pet. There is a strong bond between a senior and their pet. They are very attached to their furry family members and the pets give them a reason for being (getting up in the morning, going outside, companionship, love etc.).

The goal for the Pet Assist program is to have both the animal and the senior remain healthy and happy and together for as long as possible.

Due to the high demand for this program and the heartwarming success stories, we are seeking community donations to help us keep this program running so that more pets, and their seniors, are cared for. Pet Assist costs Calgary Seniors $47,883.00 annually to run. Your support will help us reach our fundraising goal for the program, which will enable Pet Assist to run at full capacity, as there is currently a waitlist.

Your donation will help pets by:
• Fewer pets ending up in local shelters
• Better health care for pets
• Exercise, social inclusion and companionship for the pet

Your donation will help seniors by:
• Receiving the loyalty, affection and unconditional love from their pets
• Decreased anxiety and depression
• Exercise, social inclusion and companionship for the senior
• Bringing joy and laughter to daily life, which in later years is often uneventful

Your support would help us reach our goals for 2018, ensuring that over 100 seniors and pets stay together!