A2S FINAL REPORT June 2015

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From Age-ing to Sage-ing
Shireen Mears, Project Evaluator Shelley Sabo, Community Animator June 2015

From Age-ing to Sage-ing Report, June 2015
Page1
Overview
From Age-ing to Sage-ing (A2S) is a promising community development project that encouraged
seniors to explore their ‘gifts’ and how they could offer them to support children living in poverty
in their neighbourhood. This one-year project took place in the Beverly area of Northeast
Edmonton. It was hosted by the Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton (Sage) and funded by
a $25,000 federal New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) grant between March 2014 and
May 2015. Sage contributed $5,000. Residents and community partners contributed significant
in-kind support.
The A2S project made three initial assumptions: 1) It is good for one’s health to be of service; 2)
The wisdom and caring of a senior can help build resilience in a child and a neighbourhood; and
3) A skilled community animator can support collective action at the neighbourhood level.
As anticipated, seniors are a powerful resource to tap into. Many have the time, patience, and
life experience to help a child see their own worthiness. This project demonstrates the
tremendous value of engaging seniors on their own terms. It also demonstrates a practical
process to mobilize collective action in a very complex neighbourhood. It is hopeful work with
tangible results.
Inspired by the book Abundant Communities: Awaking the Power of Families and
Neighbourhoods by John McKnight and Peter Block, this project created space for senior citizens
to discuss how to they might address child poverty in their neighbourhood. Seniors generated
many ideas. New neighbourhood connections were made and project ideas supported by the
community animator1
.
An independent researcher who scanned the project in its early stages stated:
“In Edmonton, intergenerational programming is most vibrant in older neighbourhoods where
there are pressing social needs among seniors and youth, where there are higher degrees of
poverty, where there is high risk of intergenerational and/or multicultural conflict, and where
community spaces are in decline. Knowing this, there could be merit in sharing information on
the benefits of intergenerational programming with city departments and community-led
initiatives involved in community revitalization.”2
This is a hopeful community development approach to support neighbours to support each
other. It can surface hidden resources, ways of knowing, deep caring and a sense of belonging,
which is so essential to our collective well-being.
1
Community animator, mobilizer and developer are used interchangeably. This position can host processes, make
connections to larger systems and find resources to support self-organization in a neighbourhood.
2
Building an Age-Friendly Edmonton the Intergenerational Way: A Discussion of Intergenerational Programming and
Inventory of Intergenerational Programs in Edmonton. Environmental Scan written by Heather Lissel for the City of
Edmonton Community Services Branch, Dec 2014.

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Project Introduction
A2S invited older adults 55+ to engage in meaningful, intergenerational community development
projects in their neighbourhood. To some seniors, particularly the very elderly and frail, the idea
that they could be a valuable neighbourhood resource was new to them. Sage chose the diverse
Beverly area of Edmonton because of its high number of underserved seniors and high number
of children living in poverty.
The project team hosted seniors’ conversation cafes at seniors’ apartment buildings and at the
public library. Project ideas were discussed in church basements, coffee shops, at community
events, and at area interagency and interfaith meetings. One-on-one conversations took place.
Focus groups with community members and social service agencies were also hosted.
This project was developed on the premise that “Every living person has some gift or capacity of
value to others. A strong community is a place that recognizes those gifts and ensures that they
are given” (Building Communities from the Inside Out, Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight,
1993). Specifically, this project recognizes and values the gifts that seniors are able to bring to
communities and sought ways to make this happen at a neighbourhood level. This project also
demonstrated that seniors’ assets can positively impact the child poverty agenda through
intergenerational relationships between older people, schools, other agencies, and children in
the community.
Through A2S, seniors explored the following activities:
Gardening together through the Little Green Thumbs program
Reading with children in an elementary school. A literacy specialist shared
effective reading and coaching strategies with the senior readers
Teaching children how to knit and crochet
Deep listening – being fully present with the child
Donating socks, winter boots, clothing and food
Organizing the backlogged school library – this is a major on-going project
Planning and volunteering at the year-end celebration for the school
An initiative that will support children to self-regulate is also being developed. Seniors are
teaching students and staff to self-regulate through Aung Qi Gong3
breathing patterns and
visualization exercises. The principal, staff and students have used these simple exercises with
great success. Students are also using Qi Gong on their own to calm themselves, focus, and to
fall asleep. Some students are teaching family members. The school was already participating in
a mindfulness project.
Longer-term aspirations are also evolving:
3
For more information on Dr. Steven Aung, go to: http://www.lieutenantgovernor.ab.ca/aoe/education/steven-
aung/index.html and http://www.aung.com

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Coaching parents as they determine the choices they need to make for
themselves and their family’s well-being
Supporting grandparents who are raising their grandchildren
Community planning – seniors are helping with a community visioning process to
support the new K-9 school to open in Rundle in September 2017
Community Development and Engagement Definitions
The project team chose to use the community development definition developed by the
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority which states:
“We value hope. We believe that community development and change begins with
individual people and that they must have hope that things change through collective
action. We believe that community development is an on-going, dynamic process of
social change that can lead to sustained improvements in people’s lives.”4
There are several definitions of community development and engagement, many of the latter
relating to how not-for-profit and community agencies involve their users and other people in
their work. One example of an agency-led definition of community engagement is: “The actions
that agencies take to enable them to consult, involve, listen and respond to communities through
ongoing relationships and dialogue. Communities participate with partners to develop solutions,
shape and design policies and programs, and services.”5
However for the purposes of A2S a more
simplistic definition was required that puts the community, in this case, seniors, at the forefront
and focuses instead on the process of ‘how’ we engage. Therefore a more useful definition of
engagement for this project is: “a strategic conversation with the “community” to facilitate
learning, change, and commitment”6
. What A2S did was citizen-led community development –
working with individual seniors living in the community.
Instead of a community-based service delivery approach which is often called community
development, i.e. putting a Meals on Wheels freezer in the community hall, it engages people’s
head, heart and hands to create new ways to support each other informally. This approach is
described in Edmonton’s Abundant Communities Initiative:
“Local residents have gifts, skills, abilities and knowledge and they are willing to contribute these
assets to improving their neighborhood…creating more connections among neighbors through
shared activities and interests would increase relational networks, grow the neighborhood’s
positive sense of self and, in so doing, increase its ability to work together towards a common
good. If assets were connected, and neighbors formed new groups and associations, the rise in
4
http://www.wrha.mb.ca/community/commdev/values.php
5
Urban Forum and National Association of Voluntary and Community Associations (2009). Developing your
Comprehensive Community Engagement Strategy – A Practical Guide to LSPs, United Kingdom.
6
Metapraxis Consultancy (2009). Community Engagement: A Process of Learning and Change, Critical
Questions for a Successful Engagement Outcome, Presentation prepared for the Central Local Health
Integration Network, Markham, Ontario.

Page4
neighborliness would improve public safety and health, increase inclusion, boost the local
economy and create new opportunities for neighborhood children and seniors”. 7
The A2S project created a focused conversation on what gifts seniors could offer to support
children living in poverty. As a result, citizens were able to engage in tangible projects in a
shorter period of time. As one senior stated, “The work provides hope and can have a ripple
effect for wider engagement”.
The City of Edmonton Community Sustainability Task Force in its Elevate Report (2012) includes
as one of its six guiding principles to “search out focused, made-in community recommendations
ensuring liveability and enhanced learning opportunities for children and their families.”8
It also
identifies that mature neighbourhoods can play a significant role in the planning of infrastructure
including the planning of new and vacant school sites. There is potential in Beverly to harness the
skills and insight of seniors and others living in the area.
Why Beverly?
Much thought was given to selecting the geographical area for this project. It was agreed that
the Beverly communities in northeast Edmonton provided a strategic place to carry out this
work. Key neighbourhood indicators for this decision included:
Relatively low income area and higher than average unemployment9
Relatively higher percentage of population 65+
Relatively percentage of migration in and out of community
Well established social services and not-for-profits and a new Parent Link (family
resource centre) identified for the area
Opportunity to engage seniors in a new K-9 school opening in September 2017
Higher than average percentage of children who are not ready for Kindergarten
Culturally diverse population
In terms of children’s readiness for school, the data collected by the Early Childhood Mapping
Project in Alberta (ECMap)10
shows us that children living in this area face significant
disadvantage.
The table below shows the percentage of children living in Beverly11
neighbourhoods who are
developing appropriately (i.e. are ready for Kindergarten) across all five developmental domains
and compares these with average scores across Edmonton Northeast and the province:
7
See more at: http://seekingcommunity.ca/content/abundant-community-initiative-
edmonton#sthash.sGpHzh8e.dpuf
8
Elevate, The Report of the Community Sustainability Task Force, City of Edmonton, February, 2012, pp. 10.
9
A number of maps have been created by Mapping and Planning Support Alberta Capital Region of the local
neighbourhood statistics for City of Edmonton (Social Atlas) including low income, unemployment, percentage of
population aged 65+, and migration can be found at http://mapsab.ca/SocialAtlas_Edmonton.html
10
The ECMap data was released in Spring 2014 and can be found at www.ecmap.ca
11
The Beverly communities are most closely represented geographically by sub-community G in the Edmonton
Northeast ECMap data.

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Table 1:
Developmental
Domain
Beverly (Sub
Community G)
Edmonton Northeast Alberta
Physical Health and
Wellbeing
54.0 65.6 75.9
Social Competence 60.1 65.6 75.2
Emotional Maturity 61.1 64.3 73.9
Language and
Thinking Skills
71.2 71.5 76.8
Communications and
General Knowledge
59.1 59.1 68.6
Taken as an average across all five developmental domains, only two-thirds of Kindergarten aged
children (aged five to six) are ready for school in Beverly. This data is particularly concerning,
especially when considering the context of child poverty for this project. According to UNICEF
“Children experience poverty as an environment that is damaging to their mental, physical,
emotional, and spiritual development. Therefore, expanding the definition of child poverty
beyond traditional conceptualizations, such as low household income or low levels of
consumption, is particularly important.” 12
Project Scope
Sage applied to and received $25,000 from the Government
of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program, contributing
a further $5,000 of its own funding to this project. A2S
began in March 2014 with the appointment of a creative
team of experienced community developers – one to act as
the main project animator (with significant experience in
working with seniors), and the other to provide evaluation
support to the project utilizing a developmental and
collective impact approach. The evaluator was available to
provide ongoing support and provide feedback from the
evaluation findings to the coordinator throughout the
project. An evaluation and monitoring framework was
completed in April 2014 to help guide the project over its
duration.
12
UNICEF (2005a), “Defining child poverty”, accessed 21 February 2005 at http://www. unicef.org/sowc05/english/
povertyissue.html.
Figure 1- A2S Project Team, Shireen Mears,
Project Evaluator (left) and Shelley Sabo,
Project Animator (right)

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Initially, the project team hosted several
focused conversations with the community
on how seniors could support children living
in poverty in their neighbourhood. They
listened for past history, current activities,
and common themes. This slow and steady
approach built a solid foundation upon which
ideas could be nurtured and acted upon. An
intentional community development
approach was used by the animator. It was
understood that although this project was
short-term (one year), this type of approach
was needed to ensure the project was
apprised of any issues, existing work, and other key community activities. This early awareness
and sensitivity helped ensure successful project delivery and engagement of seniors and many
community partners. This approach uses the analogy of a flywheel, where although it may take a
while to get going, all the ‘groundwork’ helps to build the momentum for the project, and
hopefully keeps it going longer. The ‘groundwork’ comprised research and several meetings with
key stakeholders in the community, including identification of senior community champions.
From the early stages of the project it became clear that many seniors would like to create
meaningful connections within their community. Many stated that they didn’t want to play cards
or bingo, but wanted to be of service in a meaningful way. They asked “Where can we go and
what can we do to make a real difference?”
These relationships and connections eventually led to natural places within the community
where opportunities for seniors to volunteer and share their skills became apparent. Initially, it
was not easy to get seniors involved in the project to consider how they could impact the child
poverty agenda. Tackling this agenda collectively was too big a place to start. Instead, it made
more sense for some of the seniors to think about how they could help just one or two children
at a time. One participant said she would like to purchase a coat for a child, others were happy
to make mittens to distribute to children in need. This led to discussions with a local school and
host to the new Parent Link centre about involving seniors.
Senior leaders thought that one-on-one interactions with children at the local elementary school
could make the biggest impact. They also had the impression that schools did not want them.
Two senior leaders met with RJ Scott school principal, Pat Sachse, to explore collaboration and
were delighted that the principal welcomed them with open arms. The school had a 100%
turnover of teachers in the past year. There is currently no parent council due to low parental
involvement in the school. The seniors also wanted to encourage teachers to stay as they may be
one of the few constants in a child’s life. They wanted to show the teachers that the community
is there to support them to do their very important and challenging work.
Figure 2 - Community Conversation Meeting held at Penny McKee
Library, September 2014

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The principal and
classroom
teachers
supporting this
project have
witnessed the
calming presence
seniors bring to
the school. One
school board
consultant
observed that the
children at this
school “were
starving for adult
attention” and
remarked on the
quality of one-on-
one attention
seniors are able to give to children. Seniors are able to listen to children in a non-judgemental
and compassionate way. This quality of attention may help a child to believe in herself.
When seniors initially thought about child poverty, it was overwhelming for them. However,
when they thought about how they could make a difference in the life of one child, they became
hopeful. And working as a group in a school and seeing the difference they were making
collectively, they become even more hopeful.
Thus, R.J. Scott School became the venue for the majority of volunteering and mentoring
opportunities for seniors to connect with and have a positive impact on children, many of whom
live in poverty and/or face significant disadvantage in this community. According to the school
principal, there is a high Aboriginal and Somalian population and 90% of the children had
experienced some kind of trauma. Seniors come to the school twice a week to support learning
by sharing their skills and mentoring children, helping in the library and teaching Aung Qi Gong.
Twenty seniors have regularly taken part in these bi-weekly sessions and over 80 children have
directly benefitted. Volunteering/mentoring activities include a Little Green Thumbs Gardening
program where children learn about growing and eating healthy food including salad making and
sampling, a learn to knit/crochet table, and a reading buddy program where seniors and
students can read and listen to one other. Concerned with behavioural issues, seniors are
involved in delivering Qi Gong and teaching the teachers simple exercises. Fourteen seniors
attended a literacy session by an EPSB consultant to learn how to support young readers. Six
people are undergoing a major project to learn a new library system and catalogue hundreds of
Figure 3 - Grandma Mary teaching knitting and crocheting at R.J. Scott School.

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books that have been waiting to go
into circulation. They have drop in
work bees every Tuesday and Friday
afternoon.
In addition to its connections with the
school, the project worked with the
Candora Society and others to
organize a physical culture session
with over 60 participants. Physical
culture is a creative, stimulating and
safe method of exercise to music and
is an excellent intergenerational
community engagement activity.
Three facilitators at Candora Society
have been trained through this project
to continue to deliver this program in
the community. Discussions have also
been held with the public library
about providing their program room
for use by seniors to self-organize
themselves and use the space as they
wish.
Project Monitoring and Evaluation - A Developmental Evaluation and Collective Impact Approach
Developmental evaluation can be described as a dynamic and emergent process. It applies to an
“ongoing process of innovation in which both the path and destination are evolving”.13
This type
of evaluation is well suited to work in highly complex situations, and when working on early stage
social innovations. A2S was both highly complex (i.e. engaging and involving seniors in tackling
child poverty) and a new intervention for the Beverly community. Therefore, developmental
evaluation was determined to be a good fit for A2S.
Developmental evaluation can also be defined as holding two types of thinking in balance -
critical thinking (evaluative process) and creative thinking (developmental process). This is done
by the evaluator being positioned as part of the team that is working to conceptualize, design,
and test new processes. In A2S, the evaluator worked very closely with the project
coordinator/animator, walking ‘alongside the project’ to collect data, provide support, and
evaluation feedback. The evaluator also attended and helped the community animator facilitate
a number of community conversations, meeting with many project partners and community
13
Gamble, Jamie A. A., A Developmental Evaluation Primer, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, 2008, p. 15.
“I want to use music to bring people together.”
Russ originally came to two of the first A2S community
conversations held in the local library in September 2014. He is a
talented entertainer and event organizer who was interested in
connecting the community through music. Through A2S Russ
attended and performed at the Candora Society’s Winter
Wonderland event at Abbottsfield Recreation Centre in
December and has certainly made some connections. When we
followed up with him in May 2015, we discovered that Russ is
helping to organize regular jam sessions for over 80 people who
want to listen to music and socialize, but who aren’t interested in
going to a bar. Russ is a fantastic example of the potential of
seniors in our community, who with a little support are doing big
things for community building.

Page9
champions. Developmental evaluation also allows for flexibility in project delivery and enables
change to be an accepted part of the process.
Understanding the dynamics of collaboration can also be achieved through developmental
evaluation which makes it well suited to be used with a collective impact evaluation process.
According to Jamie Gamble, developmental evaluation can help collaborators recognize and
work through differences in perception that may otherwise fragment the work and hamper
ongoing developments.
“Collective Impact is a framework that can be used to tackle deeply entrenched and complex
social problems. It is an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across
government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organizations and citizens to achieve significant
and lasting social change”.14
The five key elements of collective impact were applied to the evaluation framework created for
the project and are outlined below:
At the outset of this project, it was thought that
collective impact would be a useful approach to
base the evaluation framework for this project
upon. It was also thought that the Wilder
Collaboration Tool would be utilized to compare
the effectiveness of collaboration at the start and
end of the project. It was envisioned that the
project would report to a steering committee
composed of a variety of collaborators or partners
in the community, although a seniors-led
community development process was understood
to be of utmost importance.
However, it was quickly determined that the
project could be purely seniors-driven without creating a formal steering group. Agencies were
identified as partners to collaborate and build relationships with throughout the project. The
project animator was responsible for connecting these various agencies and stakeholders
through continuous communication. This persistent communication, based upon building
positive relationships and focussing upon strengths, developed a culture of collaboration without
the need for a separate steering group and the traditional meetings associated with such a
group.
The focus of the project to start with seniors and help them to identify where they wanted to
make an impact in the lives of children living in poverty changed the focus of the evaluation from
measuring the collaboration aspects of collective impact (i.e. operational agreements between
collaborating agencies such as common agenda and shared measurement) to the impact
14
http://www.collaborationforimpact.com/collective-impact/
Figure 4 - Five Conditions of Collective Impact, John
Kania and Mark Kramer, Stamford Social Innovation
Review, Winter 2011.

Page10
individuals could have within their community. It was also agreed to not complete the Wilder
Collaboration Survey as it was not a good fit for this project at this time. The developmental
evaluation approach enabled the project evaluation to be flexible and allowed these changes.
However, although some aspects of the five conditions of collective impact were not relevant, a
positive change in organizational attitudes of how project partners regard seniors within this
community was assessed.
In the end collective impact evaluation was not a good fit, as this project was not about bringing
together or aligning organizations to tackle an issue within the community, instead it strove to
be senior-driven, listening for the gifts and talents they are willing to share as citizens in their
community. It is this process of being senior-led that makes this project different from other
community development initiatives.
In addition to the evaluation framework, a simple monitoring template was created by the
evaluator at the start of the project. This spreadsheet was completed by the project coordinator
and returned on a monthly basis. These monitoring reports provided a structure for regular
update meetings along with a review of the original collective impact evaluation framework. By
using a developmental approach, these reviews also made it possible to revise and restructure
the methods used to deliver the project as it evolved.
Near the end of the project, the evaluator developed a set of evaluation questions to guide
interviews and focus groups with project participants and community partners. Two focus
groups were held, one focused on seniors and the other on project partners. A further telephone
interview was held with a key agency partner, a face-to-face interview with two community
champions (both seniors), and an interview with project management took place. In total, 16
people took part in the end of project evaluation. Further feedback was sought from school
administrators and the children who participated in the project with the seniors at R.J. Scott
School.
Reporting of project findings were presented to the University of Alberta’s School of Public
Health and to Sage staff. Plans are in place to continue to showcase learnings in order to attract
sustained investment for strategically mobilizing seniors and others who want to support
children living in this diverse neighbourhood. It is envisioned that overtime this model will be
used in other parts of the Alberta Capital Region.
Project Activities
As mentioned above, a monitoring template was created to record project activities. This was
completed each month by the project coordinator and sent to the project evaluator. This helped
effectively document all of the connections, interventions, and activities – ‘all the things we did’ -
by the project over the year. This data included who attended project activities (both volunteers
and participants) and the approximate age of the participants. Names of community partners

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and champions were also collected which provided an awareness of ‘what else is going on’ in the
community, including other senior-driven activities, that could impact the project.
Recording and describing the work of this project was very useful as sometimes it is hard to
define what is actually being done in community development. It is often difficult to measure the
significance of all of the little conversations and connections when working to affect change in
community. The reporting helped to demonstrate progress and create momentum for the
community animator to continue to build connections, as even the small things were seen as
valuable steps in the journey.
The project monitoring took place from April 2014 to May 2015, and continues informally as
seniors continue to be involved in this project. A report for the federal funding program, New
Horizons for Seniors Program was completed and submitted in April 2015. The chart below
shows the types and frequency of information collected (interventions, connections,
conversations, etc.). It is important to note that majority of these interactions happened with one
part-time community developer, a part-time project evaluator, and a budget of only $30,000 over
one year.
Community Partners
Thirty-five community partners were identified and connected with between April 2014 and May
2015. The majority of these partners (16) were from community or not-for-profit agencies.
Table 2:
It was important to build rapport with and between these organizations, and their staff and
volunteers, in order for the project to gain credibility quickly. Many community partners, notably
the two community leagues, Greater Edmonton Foundation seniors housing, and Candora
Number of Partners Identified by Sector
Community and Not-for-Profit (17) Education (6)
Businesses (1) Government (6)
Individuals (2) Other (3)

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Society, encouraged their program users and volunteers to come along to community
conversations and find out more about the project.
Some Examples of Local Project Partners:
Edmonton Public Schools – RJ Scott
Parent Link – Norwood Family Resource Centre
Edmonton Public Library - Penny McKee Branch
Beverly Town Community Development Society
Beverly Towne Historical Society
Beacon Heights and Beverly Heights Community Leagues
Candora Society
Local Churches – Beverly United
Greater Edmonton Foundation seniors housing in Beverly
Communication and Publicity
Communication was key to this project’s success. At the outset of this project, the coordinator
quickly began to identify the key stakeholders and community partners who would be important
to connect with and keep abreast of how the project progressed. The local interagency group
also provided an opportunity to share information about the project.
A list of contacts was created as part of the project monitoring. Contacts were emailed monthly
with an update about the project. Project partners effectively shared information with their
senior users about the upcoming ‘conversation’ meetings held by the project. This was
particularly effective in attracting new seniors.
Building rapport with the local Beverly newspaper was important as the paper reaches many
seniors in the community. The project submitted regular advertisements to recruit seniors and
separate articles to update the community about the project. Posters were also created and
placed in local shops on 118 Avenue.
The project relied upon community champions identified through interactions with community
partners or who came to the project themselves after seeing it advertised locally. These
community champions were able to engage their friends and neighbours to come along to find
out more about the project. These methods of communication and publicity were effective in
involving both older people living in senior’s facilities and those living in their own homes.

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What Have We Learned?
At the start of the project
three hypotheses were set
for what results we wanted
to see achieved. These
were:
Seniors and other
community
members recognize
themselves as
resourceful
contributors in our
communities,
Senior’s self-
perception will
evolve from
‘burden’ and objects
of care, to valuable
and valued by the
community
Seniors and other
participants
understand the
‘bigger picture’
The project team believes
that the project has begun
to validate these
hypotheses. However, there
is still more work to done to
change attitudes within the
community of the role
seniors can play as active
citizens and in how seniors
see themselves. Many of
these results are surprising
given that the project
duration was so short, and
shows the amount of work
and effort by the project
animator.
Noma’s Wisdom
Seeking out and involving senior community champions like Noma
Morrissey was one of the touch points of success for this project. Some
of Noma’s own words about the project are shared here:
My husband Cliff and I raised 7 children in this district. They attended Rundle,
Lawton, and Eastglen Schools. During their growing up years, we were
fortunate to have been a part of an exceptional community league and all the
children experienced ball, hockey, soccer, music and many other activities
which kept their parents on their toes. As they all grew up, we lost touch with
our local schools. Therefore, I was very surprised by the poverty seen in R.J.
Scott School, even though I live within easy walking distance.
It has been fun volunteering and we were made very welcome. The project
took several directions. The community, when approached, donated socks,
boots, blankets, and many other items. Seniors signed up to volunteer to listen
to children read, visit and play in the gymnasium. We were given an in-service
by an EPS special consultant to help us understand how young readers are
taught today. This was very helpful. Reading with the children is very fulfilling
for all who take part. The children wrote that “seniors need friends too”, as
well as thanking seniors for the reading assistance. We all feel happy bonding
with all those beautiful young people. Both seniors and children developed
relationships which they will cherish. The library needed some help getting
numbers on books and stamping them. Several seniors are helping getting that
done. It feels good, as a senior, to be an active part of such a needed service in
our community. Presently we are looking forward to be a part of the year end
picnic in Rundle Park.
From Age-ing to Sageing is genius in my mind! Shelley is a perfect leader who
enjoys combing the various energies to bring out the very best in everyone. I
am excited by the fact that this project probably will be continuing into the
fall. This project encourages people in the community to give me support to
the school and cut down barriers. It will hopefully give the students, teachers,
seniors, school and community a sense of well-being. My hope is that the
students will go forward into this world accomplishing their goals and our
project might help them shoot for the stars, even though it is a low income
school. Seniors here like to feel they are contributing and this is happening.
Sage needs to be congratulated for this very forward thinking project. Shelley
Sabo –Thank you for such terrific leadership. Pat Sachse, principal at R.J. Scott
School – thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule and also for
putting such a tremendous effort for our Beverly students.

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The top ten most significant results are listed below:
1) This project achieved and surpassed its original funding objectives to promote volunteerism
among seniors and other generations. The NHSP defines volunteers as those who planned,
organized or delivered the project. A target of 20 senior volunteers was set and a total of 35
volunteers were involved.
Twenty of these seniors also acted as 'mentors' (those who share their knowledge, experience
and expertise) mainly in their work directly with school children at R.J. Scott.
2) The number of beneficiaries for this project totalled nearly 330. The most significant number of
beneficiaries are those under 18 years of age. The benefit to children, especially those at R.J.
Scott School is important given the initial intention of the project to harness the skills of local
seniors to tackle child poverty.
3) This project has created a successful seniors-led model for how older people can support their
local elementary school to share their gifts with children living in poverty. Dedication and
persistence by seniors can make a real difference and does not need to take a lot of work. A
talented community connector is required to match the skills of seniors with the needs of the
children. This process/model can be replicated and shared with others wanting to harness the
assets of seniors in communities.
4) There is evidence the community is beginning to see seniors as assets. Through the project
evaluation, local community agencies and partners including the new family resource centre,
local school, historical society, library branch, and community league, reported a change in
perception of how they view seniors in their community. The latter has created a new board
position of Seniors Liaison Director to work specifically with seniors in their area and with
neighbouring community leagues. Another partner agency stated:
“Our mandate does not include seniors, but we do not think about it in this way
anymore… [there is a] purposefulness in how we can include seniors in our community.”
Other agencies reported an increase in the number of seniors accessing their services and
participating in their programs and felt that this could be partially attributed to the ‘buzz’ being
created about From Age-ing to Sage-ing in the community. For example, the local librarian
reported increased interaction with seniors as a result of the project. The local historical centre
has also seen an increase in visits that may be in part due to awareness-raising.
5) Importantly, seniors also reported an increased awareness of their talents and gifts that are can
benefit children living in poverty in their community. During some of the community
conversations held seniors said:
“I never thought of myself as having something to offer”, “Where can I go to share what I
love to do?”
“One on one time is invaluable – I could make the difference in the life of ONE child.”

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“I can teach how to knit or make preserves”
“I like to read to young children – where can I go?”
“I would help at community events if someone asked me.”
From these statements by seniors, it is clear that some are aware of the skills they could share,
and the positive impact these may have, but do not know how or where to direct these to
support children or the wider community. This project helped to connect the dots; the role of
the community animator helped to identify spaces within the community where seniors could be
of service.
As part of a focus group, a participant residing in a local senior’s residence stated: “Reading with
children, helping with planting… I like to play with the kids at recess… It’s fun and it makes me feel
young!” This also helps to confirm another initial assumption that it is good for one’s health to be of
service.
6) A staff member of the local seniors’ residence said that the seniors are “eager and ready to go
each week” to the session at the school. She stressed that other people living in the facility who
are unable to attend also benefit from the project. Stories are shared each week by participants
about the experiences in the school with those unable to attend.
These stories create new opportunity for conversations between residents which is positive in
and of itself, but also heightens awareness of issues in the school and community (see below).
These are examples of positive unintended outcomes for the project. This contributes to one of
the original assumptions of this project that the care and wisdom of seniors can build resilience
in children, seniors, and neighbourhoods.
7) Seniors have increased their awareness of the challenges facing schools and students in their
community. Some said they were shocked to learn how little many children had and this
awareness deepened their commitment to support them. This supports an original hypothesis
that seniors and the community understand the bigger picture. This awareness can help to shed
light on the issue of child poverty. Increasing awareness of the needs of local children may help
to make the much larger issue of child poverty more immediate and relevant, which could in
turn overtime help to encourage more people to engage in addressing this issue.
8) This project increased the capacity of the community to address child poverty issues from
multi-generational perspective. This project has engaged wise, caring, and energetic seniors to
work on this goal. Although we learned that ‘addressing the child poverty agenda’ is a daunting
proposition for a one-year initiative, this project has provided fifty school children the opportunity
for weekly one-to-one contact with “grandmas” and “grandpas” (the names given to senior
volunteers) living in their community.
Although collecting the views of children was not part of the original evaluation plan for the
project, the DE process allowed us to capture children’s insight about their involvement with
seniors. Children expressed that they enjoy their time with the seniors and look forward to them
continuing to come to their school. Many children stated how ‘nice’ the seniors are.

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One boy commented that he learned new words and gained an understanding of the past from
stories written and shared by Daniel a 91-year-old volunteer. One child acknowledged that
Grandma Mary said “thank-you’ when they finished reading together and another felt that
Grandma Joyce liked it “when she sounded out the words.” Figure 4 (below) is particularly
poignant as it captures one girl’s thoughts about the benefit that this project may have for
seniors living in the community.
Figure 5- Comments from a Grade 5/6 student about A2S.
9) As part of its engagement strategy, this project successfully sought out and involved senior
community champions. Community champions are those people who are knowledgeable about
local needs and are the natural advocates, leaders, and change-makers in their neighbourhoods.
These individuals may be highly visible and already involved in their community, or they may
have the capacity to be champions, just waiting for the right opportunity or an invitation to get
involved. They are the people you need to build trust relationships and extend reach into the
community. Building relationships with champions in the neighbourhood gave the project
credibility, thus reinforcing the importance of identifying and working with the local assets of a
community.
10) Finally, this project clearly demonstrates how an experienced community animator can
mobilize seniors to make valuable contributions to their community. There is a continued need for
skilled, confident, and experienced community connectors to create and nurture relationships,

Page17
and identify leaders in the community, host community conversation and opportunities for
strategic collective action. These mobilizers are tireless communicators and advocates for social
innovation, who are able to see the bigger picture of a community and how it operates. They are
able to share and articulate a vision and connect with the right agencies and stakeholders who
can affect and support change. Listening intuitively to local needs and encouraging the people
living in the community to develop their own ideas and solutions to problems is difficult, but is a
process worth trusting. There is a feeling that policy-makers and funders need to hear this
message, to trust the process, and provide increased resources to create more opportunities for
community-led work.
Recommendations and Conclusions
Over the past year From Age-ing to Sage-ing has begun learning how to mobilize older adults to
share their gifts with families, and specifically children living in poverty in the community.
Through this work we are starting to see seniors being recognized as neighbourhood resources,
and importantly that seniors see themselves as valuable.
This project has proved that seniors-led community development work is beneficial for the
senior who gives their time and talents, the children receiving one-on-one support, and the
school and community. We have learned that people feel able to tackle a complex issue like child
poverty, by making a difference in the life of just one child. This simple revelation came via
conversations with and between seniors, supported by a compassionate community animator,
and proves that positive change can start with open dialogue. There is a real opportunity to
continue to build awareness by both seniors and children about the needs of one another
through this type of community-led neighbourhood approach.
This is not to say that traditional agency or systems-led approaches to community development
do not work, but rather that there are other innovative ways to support community engagement
and mobilization. More than one approach can be used simultaneously and there is intrinsic
value in incorporating an intergenerational neighbourhood approach. This resonates with Joseph
‘Jay’ Connor (author) who says that “we have moved beyond collaboration… to working
differently” and urges clarity of both vision and solution.15
From this project, there is an opportunity to build upon a model which starts with listening to
citizens and works at the neighbourhood level. The role of a community animator is needed as
part of this process to identify and mobilize community champions, and identify opportunities
for collective action. They will act as mobilizers and as catalysts for positive change and social
innovation. This person is key to providing strategic overview of what is happening at the
15
http://tamarackcommunity.ca/g3s5h.html

Page18
neighbourhood level and to see the links among “scattered community development efforts and
bring them together”.16
We believe that a powerful community-led neighbourhood engagement prototype can be
developed with continued investment in the work A2S has begun in Beverly. Longer-term
funding is required to carry on work at the neighbourhood level. It is recommended that
forward-looking agencies like Sage act as the ‘backbone’ or community support agency for
continuing this work and seek further funding. This project proved just how much can be
achieved with limited resources in just one year. Although the solutions and results will be
different in every community, a principle-based model once created, could help to fill a gap that
exists in how we currently relate to and involve seniors, and others, in our communities. This
could in turn demonstrate better utilization of resources, improve civic participation, and expand
leadership at the community level. Most significantly it could begin to move the needle on
poverty in our communities.
The development of a prototype for neighbourhood engagement based upon A2S would enable
us to change perceptions of seniors – for themselves, within the broader community, and by
service providers – and could help address child poverty using a whole community approach.
Investment in projects like this can help to increase community understanding of child poverty
by seeking grassroots solutions. There is great potential in such a model to learn from cultural
communities within neighbourhoods and from children themselves. Importantly, by creating the
space in communities for conversations to take place we can help build informal and supportive
relationships within neighbourhoods that contribute to the health and resilience of seniors and
that of the whole community, for the benefit of all.
16
Al Etmanski is a thought leader at the Tamarack Institute for Community Development and on the Faculty of The
Asset Based Community Development Institute. The community animator spoke with Al on the phone about
creating a sense of belonging. http://aletmanski.com/about/

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Other Useful Web Resources
Community Development Principles
http://www.fourworlds.ca/what_principles.html
http://bchealthycommunities.ca/principles
What are other provinces doing to support neighbourhood development?
http://www.westbroadway.mb.ca/community-plan
http://bchealthycommunities.ca/healthy_communities
http://www.gov.mb.ca/housing/neighbourhoods/
Project for Public Placemaking/Jane Jacobs
http://www.pps.org/reference/jjacobs-2/
Developmental Evaluation
Getting to Maybe
http://tamarackcommunity.ca/g3s10_M4C8.html
Margaret Wheatley
http://margaretwheatley.com
Tamarack: An Institute for Community Engagement
http://tamarackcommunity.ca
http://www.communitiesforallages.org
Intergenerational Placemaking in Holyrood
http://www.makesomethingedmonton.ca/projects/456-intergenerational-placemaking-in-
holyrood/

A2S FINAL REPORT June 2015

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