Supporting Seniors to Age at Home
August 6, 2021The Economic and Social Council of Ottawa Carleton (CÉSOC), in partnership with Jewish Family Services Ottawa and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, offers supports for immigrant francophone seniors to enable them to safely age at home through the program Healthy Aging.
It comprises of culturally and linguistically appropriate services offered by volunteers, community relations workers and case managers; provided in collaboration with many partners such as: Ottawa Sikh Community Services, the Somali Centre for Family Services, the Southeast Ottawa Community Health Center, Jewish Family Services, Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization, and the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre.
Among the services accessible, seniors can find social activities like cooking, embroidery, sewing, and conversation tables in English and French to help them connect with other members of the community while developing new skills or learning a new language.
Information and training sessions are also available, enabling participants to learn or improve their technological skills through computer and software courses, along with workshops designed by experts to promote a healthy living, covering key areas like nutrition, hygiene, and physical exercise.
Furthermore, seniors can benefit from partnering with volunteers for friendly home visits or/and phone calls to create new friendships, as well as accompaniment for appointments (like medical or tax appointments).
The beginning of the pandemic greatly affected the contact with our seniors, because a large part of them do not have IT devices or they do not know how to use it. Luckily, using phones, CÉSOC has been able to stay in touch with them daily. In order to reduce the harmful impact of Covid-19 on the daily life of our beneficiaries and thanks from funding received from City of Ottawa, from United Way and from Ottawa Black Mental Health Coalition, we have been able to provide:
- 45 tablets
- 35 phones
- 180 food hampers
- 85 gift cards worth $200 each
The number of weekly activities has increased during the pandemic, showing, once again, the importance to provide services to a group extremely vulnerable.
More information can be found at https://www.cesoc.ca/ or by calling 613-248-1343, extension 301 or 1-888-402-1359.