The Earthwise Seniors Community Program is growing thanks to a funding grant from the federal government.
In front of a seniors group from Wexford Senior’s Home enjoying their lunch after a morning tour of Earthwise Garden Tuesday, Delta MP Carla Qualtrough announced $20,000 will be provided to the Earthwise Society from the new federal Horizons Seniors program.
“One of my favourite parts of my job is to get that email approving funding for a group in Delta,” said Qualtrough. “This is a highly competitive program, so I’m very pleased that Delta has received some funding that will ensure that our seniors get access to these quality programs, and are able to remain active in the community. I am a strong believer in active living to transform lives and build healthy communities.”
Qualtrough said Earthwise has an amazing track record of providing wonderful programs and services to the community.
“This is a fantastic organization. It is really the efforts of this group and their passion and commitment to the community and in this case, the seniors’ community to provide spaces for them to come and enjoy everything that this garden has to offer,” she said.
Earthwise executive director Patricia Fleming said the funding is partly about creating more rest stations for seniors and others who come to visit the garden, but a lot of the funding will go to support engaging seniors and keeping seniors active.
“This is a volunteer-led program. We have a wide diversity of seniors in the community who are recently retired, have lots of energy, experience and a lot of value for program delivery, so we want to encourage seniors like that to take a leadership role,” Fleming said. “We also have a lot of seniors in the community who are isolated and don’t have a chance to get out as much, so we bring those two groups together in this program.”
Fleming said one of the target groups they are trying to engage with are seniors who are caregivers of other seniors.
“Often there are not many programs that reach out to caregivers or don’t necessarily recognize the stress and the isolation that caregivers have or experience, so again, these types of programs allow them to enjoy gardening, meet other people, and relax in a natural setting.”
To learn more about the program, contact [email protected] or call 604-946-9828.
