Seniors Community Grant Program 2023-24

This project aims to increase awareness for seniors in Oakville on multiple forms of abuse, such as elder abuse and systemic abuse, by educating them on the different types of abuse they are vulnerable to, how to recognize it and what resources are available to them if they are facing it. This will be accomplished by facilitating multiple workshops, focusing on in person and online abuse, as well as an introspective activity that familiarizes them more with the systemic abuse faced by the First Nations People of Canada.

Project Description:

Approximately 8-10% of seniors experience some form of elder abuse each year in Canada (Elder Abuse Ontario, 2023). This abuse can consist of physical abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and systemic abuse. It can also come in the form of external sources such as phishing scams, emails, phone calls and text messages. Our project goal is to empower 100 seniors to understand and
recognize the various forms of abuse that they may face. This will be achieved by facilitating a series of workshops which will educate seniors on these issues and provide them with a solution to dealing with such situations. Seniors will be given a short quiz post workshop to determine their understanding of the concepts being discussed. Further to this, seniors will be provided with the opportunity to increase their
knowledge of Indigenous people in Canada and the systemic abuse that they have experienced, and continue to face today. This will be facilitated through a Kairos Blanket exercise which will take seniors on a historical journey of the story of Canada from an Indigenous perspective. After experiencing these sessions, seniors will be provided the opportunity to visit the Six Nations of Grand River Reserve to spend a day learning about indigenous heritage and culture. Each senior that attends will be asked to write a one page reflection of their
experiences with the Kairos Blanket exercise and their visit to Six Nations Of Grand River. This project will be led and managed by Sukhdev Chatha and will serve one hundred senior citizens based in Oakville, Ontario. The target audience will be reached via phone and email from our club database, which currently consists of over one hundred senior citizens.

Elder abuse affects over 200,000 seniors in Ontario ( Elder Abuse Ontario, 2023). The purpose of this project is to increase the awareness of senior citizens of the various forms of abuse, including elder abuse and online abuse, as well as preventative measures and resources for help in situations where they are experiencing or witnessing abuse. It will also provide seniors with experiential learning of the history of Indigenous people in Canada and an understanding of the systemic abuse they face. This project will increase seniors' knowledge of abuse with the purpose of empowering them to take action against any personal or online abuse. It will benefit the community by raising awareness about elder abuse, as well as other forms of abuse, and decrease the stigma associated with it. This will empower senior citizens at risk of, witnessing, or experiencing elder abuse to be better equipped to address the issue and solutions to deal with what they are facing so that it does not persist. In addition to this, it will educate them on systemic abuse within the First Nations People of Canada, fostering a deeper understanding within them of the impact of abuse on their community. This project will provide long term benefits to the community as senior citizens will be better able to recognize different forms of abuse and be emboldened to reveal the issue if they come across it. Furthermore, through this project seniors will be made aware of the systemic abuse faced by the First Nations People of Canada. This experience will provide them with a better understanding of how to identify and address systemic abuse if they come across it. This is especially useful as a majority of seniors reside in senior living facilities.