Over the past 18 months, we have been fortunate enough to work on an OTF funded seed project to help make an impact at an LMCH community. Like all of you, our work was impacted by the global pandemic, however we worked hard to adapt and continue to serve older adults in London.
I would like to thank OTF for their support, and their flexibility in allowing us to adapt our project to meet the current environment; without their support, our latest project, SeniorHub.ca, could not have been possible.
We look forward to continuing to expand this platform beyond the life of the grant, and we hope that you are all staying happy and healthy in 2021.
This global pandemic has impacted all of us, and forced us to rethink one of our most exciting OTF pilot projects.
In 2019, we began the process of working with London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) to bring our programming and workshops to its residents. The aim was to not only increase learning options for residents, but to also foster work and volunteer opportunities, while helping to combat a significant issue: social isolation.
Within the building, many residents felt lonely or disconnected from each other. There were some great community champions, and as a whole reisdents did care about their building and wanted to see genuine change; they just needed a bit of support.
The residents had launched an onsite food bank, which we were glad to support. In addition, we created specialized workshops and had an onsite community engagement specialist, to gather their feedback and stories.
As the pandemic hit and forced a lockdown, we were left unable to deliver physical services. After a pause to ensure the safety of residents, project partners and our team, we re-initiated with a virtual model that could benefit even more people.
This is not the result we envisioned, but this pandemic is clearly beyond anyone’s control, and we look forward to the next chapter in this project. And as always, we are grateful for the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, especially during these challenging times.
With the pandemic impacting so many communities around the world, we would like to take this opportunity to reflect on a positive end to our OTF Grow Grant.
In 2017, Over 55 Skills At Work was awarded an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow Grant. The $397,000 was invested into our organization to help it grow and diversify its operations and membership, with a special focus on recruiting more female and ethnocultural Associates.
A core component of this project also reflected on offering increased training opportunities to our Members. All new members now receive access to intake training, and in addition, were able to offer the following workshops for the first time in our 30+ year history:
Small Business Workshops, including marketing, digital marketing and small business finance
Technology training – E-Mail, smartphones and more
First-Aid
Working At Heights
WSIB
Customer Service & Conflict Resolution
While the COVID-19 pandemic did impact our efforts, we were able to enjoy significant growth and impact with the valuable support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation. This 3 year period allow us not only to grow our organization, but it also allowed us to expand outside of London, with Guelph and Chatham-Kent on our roadmap for 2020. It also led to several community partnerships, including our management of Neighbourhood Watch London.
Unfortunately, this pandemic also forced us to cancel our planned OTF recognition event, which was to be attended by OTF Staff, local MPs/MPPs, local media, and our team. We have created a short video highlighting some of our OTF achievements, and hope that the community recognizes OTF for its support of our, and many other organizations.
This global pandemic has caused our economies to contract and change, with effects that will be felt for years. While over the short-term this has impacted our operations, we are confident that we can create long-term entrepreneurship, training and employment opportunities for individuals age 55+ in our communities.
While this OTF grant has ended, we will continue to work hard to create opportunities for mature entrepreneurs, and to serve seniors in our community.
We are excited to announce our new Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) project, which is being funded under the Seed stream.
This project brings us into an exciting new partnership with London Middlesex Community Housing (LMCH) to pilot a program which will engage residents in an existing LMCH building. Our focus will be to work with residents to build a stronger sense of community, while also increasing opportunities for learning, employment and volunteering.
In April of 2017, we were thrilled to announce that the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) had chosen to support Over 55 through a Grow Grant. The $397,000 awarded to our organisation has already had a significant impact in growing our membership base, as well as social enterprise revenues. 2018 Represented a record growth in the number of our Associate Members – individuals age 55+, who work as entrepreneurs delivering important services to the community. With the support of OTF, we hope to do something that we have never done before: to achieve over 100 active senior entrepreneurs on our membership roster.
As we begin to enter the final year of our OTF Grow grant, we are also excited to expand to other communities, with our first pilot being in Guelph.
In closing, we would like to thank OTF, our community partners, staff, volunteers, and our Associate Members, as we look forward to the next phase of growth for Over 55 Skills At Work.
