Supporting Seniors Independence through Personal Planning

As you will know, Nidus is the grateful recipient of a Scotiabank & United Way Community Spirit Award. You can help us celebrate by checking out and sharing our news announcement and photos of the event!

As part of the award, CTV—a community sponsor of the Community Spirit Awards—made a promotional video about our program and a senior’s experience with Representation Agreements. Nidus would like to extend a huge thank you to the New Vista Society for allowing us to film at their care facility; you went above and beyond to make us welcome and at home!

You can also access the video on our video page.

Receiving such recognition immediately reminds us of the many individuals and groups who have supported our efforts through the years and particularly with this program to reach out to seniors/older adults. We want to take this opportunity to thank you too…

Community partners and founding members of Nidus

• Alzheimer Society of BC
• Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations

Program participants

Our program, ‘Supporting Seniors Independence through Personal Planning,’ would not go far without all the amazing groups and organizations that we’ve been lucky enough to work with to date, so a big thank you to:

• Burnaby Seniors Outreach Services Society
• Confederation Seniors Centre
• Gordon Neighbourhood House
• Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
• MOSAIC
• North Shore Seniors Peer Support Volunteers
• Richmond Multicultural Services
• South Granville Seniors Centre
• South Vancouver Neighbourhood House – Chinese Seniors Program
• Surrey Come Share Seniors Connectors
• Vancouver Public Library Firehall and Kensington Branches
• Volunteer Richmond Information Services
• West End Seniors Network

Key volunteers

• Hugh McLellan, Barrister & Solicitor, McLellan Herbert – reviewer of Nidus fact sheets and our knowledge expert on personal planning and adult guardianship.
• Jennifer Chew, Barrister & Solicitor, DuMoulin Boskovich LLP – our supervising lawyer for the ProBono law student program and allowing Nidus the help of a law student. volunteer.
• Sylvia Yong, volunteer law student (2013-2014), through the UBC Pro Bono program.

Funders and donors

We want to thank the United Way of the Lower Mainland for funding our program, and in particular, Beverley Pitman in her role as Planner, Strategic Initiatives (Seniors).

Groups in the non-profit sector rely on grants and donations to do their important work, and the United Way funding has been crucial for Nidus. We are also grateful to the corporations, unions and individual staff/workers who help fundraise in their workplaces. The United Way did a terrific job of recognizing its donors on March 11 at the Community Spirit awards event.

These contributors and the efforts of other individuals and organizations who donate to groups such as Nidus are more important than ever. The downturn in the economy is requiring major adjustments. The United Way is having to make hard decisions too; grants for seniors programs will not be available after March 31, 2015. They will continue with the Better at Home Program (providing non-medical home support to seniors), which receives some funds from the provincial government. Fortunately Nidus has one more year in our 3-year grant and we plan to make the most of it!

Our program ‘Supporting Seniors Independence through Personal Planning,’ funded by the United Way has helped us reach out to seniors in a number of ways including:

• Presentations at seniors/community centres
• Monthly webinars for seniors and organizations throughout the province. We currently offer a monthly Q&A webinar for anyone who wants to attend (not just seniors).
• Make & Register Workshops to help seniors who have attended presentations take the next step and make their own Representation Agreement.
• Chinese Fact Sheet through collaboration with Chinese seniors and community groups.
• Training for volunteers and staff who work with seniors about personal planning and Representation Agreements

PHOTO CAPTION FOR ABOVE: (Left to Right) Tegan Bethune, Program Coordinator of United Way project; Joanne Taylor, Executive Director & Registrar of Nidus; Christine Gordon, President Board of Directors.