Latest News

“SAY NO TO FRAUD: Financial Fraud Prevention for Seniors.”

2012-05-23T15:30:26Z

Project Wisdom will be holding the first “SAY NO TO FRAUD: Financial Fraud Prevention for Seniors” session. The session will be held on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 from 10:30am to 12noon. It will take place at the office of Immigrant Services of Guelph-Wellington. CST. Sherry Pettapiece and CST. Phil Perrins will be there to educate seniors about how to identify financial fraud, how to prevent it and where to find resources. Please spread the word about this exciting event.

Please contact us if you will be attending: projectwisdom@is-gw.ca or (519) 836-222 ext.257

Phase 3 of Project Wisdom has begun!

2012-05-14T15:47:21Z

Project Wisdom has entered phase 3. This phase will build upon the last phases and continue to develop efficient and innovative ways to empower seniors and increase awareness about elder abuse. We will continue to develop community groups, where seniors can come together, share their knowledge and develop supportive relationships. Having a support system will help seniors gain confidence and self-sufficiency. This will also help at-risk seniors better integrate into mainstream society. Research also illustrates that social support systems play a powerful role in preventing and reducing stress, depression and other health issues. The supportive community groups formed throughout this project will be used to develop guidelines on how agencies can use community groups can better help serve seniors at risk in their communities.

We are very enthusiastic about this phase of the project. We hope you can join us in supporting “Project Wisdom: Empowering Seniors through Mutual Help”. Keep checking the website for updates.

Final Gathering of Project Wisdom

2012-04-02T17:27:00Z

March 29, 2012, Project Wisdom officially wrapped up and we celebrated the success of Project Wisdom with our volunteers and committee members. This final gathering had two purposes: to celebrate and to plan for the future.

Lorna Schwartzentruber, Executive Director of Onward Willow Centre facilitated the gathering. The gathering started with a short introduction and moved on to an interactive discussion. Lorna asked the attendees to look into the future envisioning Guelph as “the city to be” for seniors.WOW! The seniors came up with such wonderful insights. Some of the ideas /suggestions they came up with included;

Field trips (short nearby visits)
Peer groups
Intergenerational teaching
Craft groups
Outreach services to isolated seniors
Affordable transportation options (including free bus tickets once a week/month)

Our guests, Jeff DeRuyter, Ryan Pettipiere, Cathy-Sturdy Smith, Sheli O Connor (also our Advisory Committee members) Ella Henderson, Lynne Briggs, joined us for lunch. During lunch one of our senior volunteers summarized some of the ideas he wanted to be shared with the guests.

It was a great session of interaction and discussion of ideas!!

We also took this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the Advisory Committee members, for their support and time, Ella Henderson for all her hard work throughout the development of the project and all our senior volunteers who participated in the training and who became the face of the project in this phase.

Roya Rabbani, Executive Director of Immigrant Services had some good news for the Project Wisdom team. She announced that federal funding for the project to continue has been approved!!The gathering did become a celebration but now for a different reason!

Seniors building Community

2012-03-01T18:24:00Z

Three of our volunteers who participated and completed the training have initiated seniors groups. We congratulate their efforts and are proud of the commitment and dedication they have shown in taking this step. We wish them all the very best in their efforts and will continue to support them in this new endeavour. We will also keep all of you updated on the group’s activities.

Changes to the Project Wisdom Team

2012-02-01T17:00:00Z

In February, 2012 we had some changes to the Project Wisdom team. Ella Henderson, our program coordinator accepted a new position with the City of Guelph. She did a wonderful job for Project Wisdom and the team will miss her. Although we are sad to see her go, we wish her all the vey best in her new position. Priya Sridharan will be our interim coordinator and will continue to work on the project until the end of March when the project officially wraps-up.

Celebrating Success and Continuing the Conversation

2012-02-01T14:44:51Z

On January 31, 2012, we celebrated the end of our volunteer trainng program with a potluck lunch; a chance to recognize the hard work and commitment of all of our volunteers, and to continue our conversations about how voluteers can support their peers in the challenges they face.

We were very happy to be abel to invite the Harmony Interactive Theatre Troup of Kitchener-Waterloo to join us for this event. The Harmony Troupe is a seniors-only volunteer threatre troupe that offers short interactive plays followed facilitated discussions about elder abuse. This was truly a wonderful opportunty for seniors to talk with seniors about elder abuse. The performance touched many Project Wisdom volunteers very deeply and they were then able to talk about their reactions to the abuse in the play with their peers from our training and with the characters in the play. The talented Harmony facilitator guided our discussion which brought together many issues that were talked about in our earlier trainnig sessions including how to approach a situation when you suspect abuse, what to do to support someone who is facing abuse, and who you should call for help.

Following the performance and facilitated discussion, the conversation continued over a delicious pot-luck lunch. Our volunteers are now truly launched on their way to building groups for older adults in their communities, bringing with them the lessons from our training and the new connections they have formed with each other. We wish them luck and wisdom in their work.

Here are some photos from our final gathering together:

Training is Complete!

2012-01-19T20:51:20Z

January 17 marked the final day of training for our intrepid band of volunteers. We have come a long way as a group since the beginning of this training. We have talked about planning meetings, sharing leadership, planning and implementing outreach, developing our ideas into reality, and how to help our friends and neighbours who may face abuse or mistreatment. We have learned from eachother and learned through our conversations in the training.

What's Next for these energetic and commited volunteers? They will go out into the wide world and work to bring seniors together in ethnocultural communities. They will try to create more ways for seniors to connect to eachother and through eachother, to connect to the broader community. For the next few months, volunteers will work one-on-one with the project coordinator on their own projects.

Look for new opportunities to get involved soon! Or, contac the project coordinator for more information: Ella Henderson, 519-836-2222 ext. 257.

Here are some photos from our training session on January 3.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T20:16:48Z

A very Happy New Year to all!

Project Wisdom's hard working volunteers have only two more training sessions before they are ready to test their wings in their communities. Over the past three training sessions in November and December, volunteers have developed some wonderful ideas for groups to start for older adults in their apartment buildings, places of workship, languages, and neighbourhoods.

During January we will polish these ideas while we continue to discuss how best to support older adults in our communities. Topics to be discussed in Devember include how to share leadership, and how to recognize and help a person suffering from elder abuse.

To all our volunteers: keep up the excellent work. To all other community members: keep a look-out for a new group in your area and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the project coordinator (ehenderson "at" is-gw.ca).

Here are a few photos of our training so far:

WELCOME to new volunteers!

2011-11-24T20:16:07Z

Thank you to everyone who came to our information session for interested volunteers on November 10. We had an excellent turn out. We calculated that among all of the people present, we had over 200 years of experience in community and volunteer work!

From November 29 to January 31, our motivated group of older adults will participate in training on community development to add to their already impressive experience working to support others in their communities. Among them, our volunteers speak a total of 14 languages!

Project Wisdom is extremely pleased to welcome our new volunteers to the project. We are looking forward to sharing your experiences and Wisdom in the training and to developing ideas to create new ways for older adults in our ethnocultural communities to come together.

Calling all adults 50+: Volunteers needed!

2011-11-02T17:53:09Z

Project Wisdom is looking for volunteers and we need you! We are looking for older adults who are motivated to create postitive change for their peers.

If you are 50 year old or more, fluent in English and your native language, and interested in helping other older adults in your community, then this is the opportunity for you!

Join us for an information session for all interested potential volunteers on Thursday November 10 from 5:30 - 7:30 at Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington (926 Paisley road, units 4-5, 519-836-2222 ext. 257)

We look forward to seeing you there!