For immediate release: September 9, 2008

Aging at Home in Ottawa

5 Local Agencies come together to Bridge the Cultural Divide

As part of the Ontario Government’s “Aging at Home” strategy, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa will lead a group of local Ottawa agencies in providing support to the new-Canadian senior population in the Ottawa-Carleton region whose first language is neither French nor English. This new initiative is funded by the Champlain Local Health Integration Network.

Along with Jewish Family Services, Hunt Club/Riverside Community Services Centre whose clients are predominately Arabic speaking, Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre, Somali Centre for Family Services, and Conseil Economique et Social d’Ottawa Carleton which serves the Francophone Immigrant Community, will join forces to provide services to Ottawa’s increasing and diverse seniors population in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner.

Jewish Family Services of Ottawa has a history of providing ethno-specific and culturally and linguistically sensitive services to Jewish seniors living in Ottawa. These services include providing meals on wheels that meet Jewish dietary laws, language specific daily reassurance calls, friendly visits, case management, and holiday programs geared towards Jewish culture and values. It is the goal of this project to replicate these services emphasizing cultural sensitivities and create ethno-specific programs among the local partner agencies that are beginning to offer senior services.

Four new professionals representative of the ethnic make-up of the partnership will be hired and trained by Jewish Family Services then seconded to the partner agencies.

By working together developing service coordination and best practices this group will offer these aging populations the ability to stay healthy, live more independently in their homes, and activities that will connect them to their respective cultures.

To learn more about this project and to arrange interviews with the Executive Directors, frontline workers and those that were instrumental in bringing this project to fruition please contact:

Mark Zarecki
Executive Director, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa
Office: 613.722.2225

Return to top