A Victoria non-profit known for its work helping the homeless has a new club that’s bursting with joy.
Our Place Society’s '55-Plus Club' started informally by a group of regular customers years ago, but staff say they saw a need to formalize it – and it’s grown ever since.
“This is about supporting the seniors who are fragilely homed. Some of them sleep on the sidewalk, some of them sleep in the shelters, some of them have homes but they can’t afford food and basics,” says senior social inclusion support worker Salome Waters.
She co-ordinates activities for the social group, which is about combatting loneliness as much as it is about nourishing people.
“We go out for lunch, we go down on excursions, once a year we go on the ferry for a picnic,” says Waters.
Three times a week, Our Place Society on Pandora Avenue provides lunch in a private room for attendees aged 55 and older.
“I don’t have any family here, so it means a lot to me to be around people and just to hang here,” says Alicia Aguayo.
She moved to Canada from Mexico eight years ago and says Waters has become a dear friend, who invited her to the group.
“I get far more than I give. I do,” says Waters. “These are wonderful, lovely people and I love them to bits.”
On Wednesday, she was hosting a Christmas celebration after waking up at 3 a.m. to bake. The lunch was served with gifts donated by a volunteer group and Tim Hortons gift cards. On top of chatter, the room was also filled with the sound of live music.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m very thankful for all what they do for me,” says Aguayo.
Another participant, Henry Au, says he’s been visiting from his home for years and likes to give presentations, assist with English-Cantonese translation, and teach people the ancient Chinese strategy game of Mahjong.
“We talk about everything,” says Au. “By social connection, sometimes they can express their emotion to me so they cut down their stress.”
Our Place’s director of philanthropy says the community support centre saw the need to formalize the 55-Plus Club about a year ago.
“We noticed that most of the seniors who are accessing our meals recently, they’ve never had to ask for help or access services at a place like Our Place before. A lot of our seniors, they were nervous. They didn’t know how to ask for help and we wanted to make that ask a lot easier for everyone,” says Janice Kalin.
In the last year, Kalin says the group has grown from about 20 to more than 200 members.
B.C. affordability response
“We all want seniors to have the care and support they need to live healthy and dignified lives,” says B.C.’s social development and poverty reduction minister, Sheila Malcolmson, in a statement. “We know that seniors have been hit especially hard the last few years with rising costs of living.”
The ministry says it's taken a number of actions to improve seniors’ affordability – such as doubling the seniors' supplement, developing affordable rental housing for independent seniors, and investing in home care.
“Supporting seniors is a core part of poverty reduction strategy that includes a new target to reduce seniors’ poverty by 50 per cent,” adds Malcolmson. “We will continue to work as a government to ensure all seniors have the supports they need and to advocate to the federal government to reduce barriers for seniors accessing supports.”
Our Place Society’s 55-Plus Club relies on donations and funding for its ongoing survival. An Our Place Society seniors report from 2023-24 earmarks $80,618 for its budget – which includes costs for community outings, accessible transportation, and lunch club meals.
