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Scaling Up Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention: Finding Home

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Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC (ANHBC)

Scaling-Up Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention

This project scaled up an existing Elder Abuse Awareness and Prevention program by engaging community members. Tools and resources are freely available.

Project Objectives:

  • Create a model and social infrastructure for sustaining and expanding the reach of the Finding Home Community Capacity Building Dialogues for elder abuse awareness and prevention.
  • Create strategies for engaging seniors’ leadership and building partnerships across a wide range of community sectors to address elder abuse, and support initiatives led by seniors from all ethnocultural communities.

Key Partners:

Activities:

  • Designed and facilitated:
    • 3 seniors focus groups with Afghani seniors; South Asian seniors; multicultural seniors
    • 1 focus group with host agency coordinators
    • 2 focus groups with agency and organizational leaders at Vancouver Foundation
    • 1 Aboriginal Leaders focus group at Musqueam First Nation
    • Sustainability workshop (testing tools with agencies identified through the focus groups).
  • Identified champions and focus group participants interested in further collaboration.
  • Interviewed and filmed nine seniors who volunteered to be in the promotional video.
  • Created a model of partnerships and presented to six planning and advisory tables.
  • Developed and tested the Readiness Self-Assessment tool for agencies.

Outcomes:

  • Three non-profit organizations have self-assessed readiness to sustain elder-led activities.
  • The following communities and organizations indicated interest in using the tools and Finding Home™ approach to support elders-led abuse prevention dialogues: South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, MOSAIC, Century House.
  • Engaged financial institutions and funders in dialogue to brainstorm a funding model that would sustain an elders-led community development network.
  • Established new relationships and collaboration.

Tools and Resources:

Focus groups and interviews generated information that led to the creation of sustainability tools.

  • Developed a website dedicated to the scaling-up project with tools and resources

https://www.interculturalstrategies.ca/

  • Tools are currently being updated and will be offered as a PDF download when ready. In the meantime, consider attending #TogetherInAction to see this project presented! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Lessons Learned:

  • Further resourcing is needed to adapt the Asset Based Community Development Checklist for Aboriginal communities.
  • Seniors are not interested in fundraising directly.
  • Agency leaders are concerned about seniors being exploited.
  • To better engage with the business sector, should have a working group member with a corporate community investment portfolio be part of the project, and a business student intern have a practicum to carry out the business sector engagement and research.
  • Need to present the Finding Home™ program at business sector meetings and gatherings.
  • Should have kept scope of research phase smaller, rather than adding more focus groups.

Challenges:

  • The business sector was the hardest to engage. Several were invited to the sustainability focus group but did not attend. Consequently, three one-on-one interviews were conducted.
  • How to resource a Finding Home team to support and train communities throughout B.C. on this effective prevention approach to elder financial abuse.

For Sustainability:

  • Looking for a way to house Finding Home as a team approach to support communities who want to use this process within a resourced, provincial body.
  • Will engage in a social media campaign to drive stakeholders and others to access the tools available on the website. E-newsletter and blogs will include all stakeholders involved in the project, as well as the thousands of others that subscribe to the blog and follow on twitter.
  • BCCRN, if needed, offered to support the Finding Home process and disseminate training opportunities via its website and mentors.