Project Overview

The Surrey Intercultural Seniors Social Inclusion Partnership (SISSIP) Network Project is a Collective Impact that aims to address barriers to social inclusion and engagement for seniors 55+ to make Surrey a more interculturally inclusive and engaged community.

The Network consists of 6 organizations – Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society (PICS) is leading the project as the Backbone Organization along with City of Surrey, Seniors Come Share Society, SOURCES, Semiahmoo House Society and Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association (FRAFCA) as Collaborating Organizations.

The project supports:

Seniors 55+
Seniors with disabilities
Immigrant Seniors
Indigenous Seniors
LGBTQ2+
Seniors with Addictions and Homelessness

The SISSIP Network will aim to:

Build the collective capacity of Collaborating Organizations to recognize and address barriers to social inclusion faced by seniors
Collaborate with other Community Organizations to leverage each other’s service strengths and expertise
Improve access to information, programs and services to enhance social inclusion within the community
Increase awareness and acceptance of different cultures and strengthen relationships with other population groups
Support action research to understand and implement effective approaches to increasing the level of social inclusion of seniors in their communities
Develop innovative approaches to engage seniors through ongoing, sustainable systems.

COVID 19 Responses

In Quarter One (April to June) of 2020-21, the project is focused on supporting the immediate needs of seniors through existing services and ‘Social distance’ friendly sub-project initiatives. The teams are working to adapt their projects to an online platform and implement new enhanced measures. The project has successfully launched three sub-project initiatives in April 2020.

These are:

The Seniors Centre Without Walls by Seniors Come Share Society – a telephone-based initiative which happened to be a ‘intuitive’ idea and opportune at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program offers an array of programming, available from Monday to Friday.
Surrey SHARES by Semiahmoo House Society – a story telling project which features both a speaking coach and life coach. As part of the COVID-19 Response Plan, the first cohort is online to ensure the health and safety of all participants.
Connecting Generations – This initiative creates opportunities to engage in dialogue and to explore differences and similarities of generations. Through developing relationships in a supportive environment ‘Connecting Generations’ strives to reduce the stigma of ‘age’ perceptions of seniors and youth, and focuses on social inclusion, diversity and multicultural perceptions.

The Network is continuing to support seniors by providing the services listed below.

PICS

PICS is supporting seniors through its Better at Home Program which offers:

Grocery shopping and delivery
Prescription pick-ups
Wellness calls
Laundry service
Transportation
Meal prep and delivery

PICS has also partnered up with IKEA who is generously supporting the vulnerable by donating 400 kits for distribution to families in Vancouver and Surrey. These kits include everyday household goods and toys.

For more information call: 604-596-7722.

City of Surrey

Currently, all City of Surrey facilities are closed and updates are available on its website. The following initiatives are available for seniors:

Telephone Tree program which offers wellness calls in multiple languages
YouTube videos for the community on various subject matters ranging from nature to fitness
The Seniors Engagement Task force team is working with seniors to encourage them to participate in various programming
Surrey Flattens the Curve – project asks families to share their experiences on what they’re doing to stay busy during this pandemic. Objective of this project is to take a fun and engaging approach to support the community.

Seniors Come Share Society

Seniors Come Share Society is continuing to support seniors through its Better at Home program and COVID-19 initiatives. The services include:

Meal deliveries
Reassurance calls
Art supply packages
Essentials care packages
Grocery delivery, etc.

Sources

Sources is providing support to seniors by:

Providing wellness calls through its Legacy Shop by Phone program
Partnering up with Seniors Come Share Society’s Better at Home program
Assisting seniors with medical appointments for critical conditions – i.e. cancer treatments, dialysis, specialist appointments etc.
Offering its Volunteer Income Tax Clinic from Wednesday to Friday at Maple Street from 9:00am to 1:00pm. For more information call: 604-542-4357
Offering Food Bank services on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s with delivery services available for seniors living in the South Surrey/White-Rock area
Providing trauma counselling through its mental health resource line. Fore more information call: 604-541-4826

FRAFCA

FRAFCA is focusing on helping Indigenous elders living in Surrey by focusing on their 3 major needs:

Food security – providing weekly personalized shopping and food baskets
Mental Health – providing wellness checks
Recreation – purchasing and distributing tablets to seniors as well as teaching them how to use the technology.

Semiahmoo House Society

To better accommodate people that receive services including seniors, Semiahmoo House Society has made the following changes to its programming:

The Culinary program, CULA, is creating meals for first responders and as a way to stay connected with people that are a part of Home Share
North Campus and South Campus day services are being offered online via the new SHS Online Campus.

Mission Statement

Working together to break down cultural biases and create greater awareness, appreciation and acceptance of different cultures, to make Surrey an intercultural and socially inclusive community for seniors 55+.

Collaborating Organizations

A partner organization within the Network, that shares responsibility for ensuring the Collective Impact plan objectives are achieved.

Community Partners

Organizations that provide support to the project by assisting in the development of neighbourhood based seniors support networks, providing senior referrals as well as supporting various pilot social inclusion initiatives including addressing systemic barriers.