Our Impact

Facts: Helping Seniors

United Way of the Lower Mainland provides hope and opportunity for seniors. When seniors suffer from isolation, poverty, and homelessness, we all lose. In supporting seniors services, the seniors community, and allowing older people to stay active and live independently, we lessen the impact on our health system and benefit from a lifetime of experience.

Helping Seniors: Our Impact

In 2008, United Way funded 42 organizations that used the funds to deliver 74 seniors programs benefiting over 49,600 seniors and nearly 700 of their caregivers. United Way also funded 48 programs and initiatives at 33 agencies across the region that target a broader population, of which seniors are a part. In 2008/09 through our seniors priority area, United Way invested $1.8 million in a number of strategies to support seniors and their caregivers. We worked with many in the community, especially seniors themselves, to identify and address issues, find solutions, and take action to ensure positive results.

In 2009, thanks to the funds raised in the 2008 campaign, United Way will invest approximately $2.7 million to reach more of the seniors’ community.

Our aging population faces challenges

Did you know?

  • We are at the tipping point of a massive demographic shift; in 10 years, seniors will outnumber children in many Lower Mainland Communities. By 2021 the seniors’ community in the Lower Mainland will nearly double, reaching 494,000 – one in six people will be over the age of 65.
  • Seniors represent the fastest growing population accessing food banks.
  • One in five seniors lived below the poverty line in 2006.
  • In 2009, research funded by United Way revealed an alarming shortage of programs and services for seniors, particularly in suburban areas. By 2027, the senior population in Vancouver is expected to decrease by 53% as seniors move to the suburbs - yet 45% of seniors’ services are located in Vancouver.
  • In the Lower Mainland, more than half of those over the age of 75 live with a disability.
  • Three in 10 seniors live alone and, as people age they’re more likely to find themselves socially isolated.
  • In 2005, seniors represented 15% of the street homeless in the Lower Mainland.
  • Homelessness amongst the over 55 population in Metro Vancouver increased by 24% between 2005 and 2008.
  • Over 60,000 Canadians 70+ give up their driver’s licenses every year.
  • 90% of care for seniors is provided by family or friends, predominantly women, who are most likely managing their own work and family obligations. Some 65% of caregivers for seniors are themselves seniors.

Impact Highlights

No one understands the needs of a community better than the community itself. Planning tables help United Way strengthen the network of non-profits by bringing together a cross-section of community leaders and local residents to create solutions to key issues. To 2009, and with annual investments of $175,000, we’ve convened seniors’ planning tables in seven communities: Semiahmoo Peninsula, New Westminster, Delta, Surrey, Burnaby, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows/Katzie and the North Shore.
 
In 2008, we held a first Seniors Forum. The event drew more than 200 people involved with the seniors community in the Lower Mainland. The forum also polled seniors on their top issues. United Way subsequently held a series of workshops to share knowledge on potential solutions and create collective action.
 
In addition to investing in the forum and workshops, United Way invested a total $125,000 in pilot projects in 2009/10 that resulted from discussions at the  seniors’ workshops. Solutions for Seniors Seed Grants were awarded to BC Seniors Services and Housing Information Society to provide non-medical home supports for seniors; Gordon Neighbourhood House for an affordable housing initiative; Westside Food Security Collaborative sponsored by Kitsilano Neighbouhood House for a food security initiative for seniors; Voices of Burnaby Seniors for an accessible and affordable transportation project.
 

Research guides investments to help seniors

In 2009, United Way released new research that projected demographic growth in the seniors’ population across 24 Lower Mainland communities, overlaid on the geographic location of current services. This research demonstrated a significant gap both in our current and future ability to serve the increasing number of seniors in the Lower Mainland. It will help to guide future United Way investments.
 
United Way of the Lower Mainland is taking the lead when it comes to helping to house some of our community’s most vulnerable citizens – homeless seniors. The Temporary Housing Program (THP), offered in partnership with BC Seniors Services Society (SSS) and members of the real estate industry, who partially fund the program, provides a furnished apartment and support services to older adults who would otherwise be on the streets. Working with other service agencies, hospitals, Ministry of Health Services, Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, housing providers and families, as well as seniors who self-refer, the THP provides shelter, food and counseling services for up to three months. As of mid-2009: THP on schedule with 14 units available for homeless and at-risk seniors; since 2008, 18 seniors have been housed by the project and average length of stay is under three months.
 
The Community Action for Seniors’ Independence (CASI) project is a partnership between the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport and United Way of the Lower Mainland. CASI is focused on the community-driven design and delivery of non-medical supports for seniors. In 2009, the Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport is contributing $700,000 toward the implementation of services to frail seniors in the pilots, and staff resources. United Way of the Lower Mainland is contributing $250,000 for the project team and community engagement costs in the first year.  United Way and the provincial Seniors’ Healthy Living Secretariat are working with stakeholders in five B.C. communities - Dawson Creek, Osoyoos, Maple Ridge, Surrey’s Newton area and the Renfrew-Collingwood district of Vancouver – to create a coordinated approach to help seniors live longer in their own homes.