December 19, 2023 Mississauga, Ontario Employment and Social Development Canada
Every senior deserves to age in health, in safety, and in dignity. Everyone should have the choice to age at home, in their communities. The Government of Canada created the Age Well at Home Initiative to help more seniors do this. This program supports community organizations to pilot new approaches, scale up effective, existing ones, and mobilize volunteers to help seniors age at home.
Today, the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Kamal Khera, announced up to $465,841 in funding for Seva Food Bank in Mississauga for their project Meals for Seniors. This project will deliver volunteer-based practical support services to help low-income and otherwise vulnerable seniors age at home in Mississauga and Brampton, Ontario.
The Meals for Seniors project was selected after an open call for proposals held in Summer 2022, under the In-Home Support Pilot Projects stream of the Age Well at Home initiative. Up to $39.6 million in funding will be provided for 71 pilot projects across Canada that will mobilize volunteers to give support to lower-income or otherwise vulnerable seniors in their homes. Under the Scaling up for Seniors stream of the initiative, up to $22.2M in funding will be provided to 21 organizations to scale up services that are already helping seniors age in their own homes into new provinces and territories.
The seniors-serving organizations receiving this funding make a real difference in the everyday lives of Canadian seniors. Through their projects, organizations will help seniors with meal preparation, light housekeeping or transportation, and help them navigate and access other available services in their local area. These projects will also support the unique needs of diverse groups of seniors, including seniors who have a low income, are Black or racialized, Indigenous, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, seniors who live in rural and remote settings, are members of official language minority communities, newcomers and seniors who speak a language other than English or French.
