The St. James Town Seniors Forum is an annual event organised for the seniors in the neigbourhood. For this years annual event on the 17th of June, The Older Adult Consortium, a sub committee within the St. James Town Service Provider’s Network put together a program which included workshops, entertainment, food, and fun!
Over 60 seniors from the community from various backgrounds attended the event to interact with their peer and to hear from the different agencies that came out to provide informational workshops on old age health. The main aim of the program is to be able to provide opportunities for creating social connections and link seniors with appropriate services that they require.
The event was a day filled with entertainment as there were many performances led by seniors. Performance by Femi and team on the song “Kiss me. Kiss me, had the audience on their feet. Everyone joined in to dance and sway to the music
The Brother and Sister group performed a spectacular Chinese Dance while showcasing beautiful traditional outfits. Their graceful movements gave the event an element of calmness and provided audience members with a glimpse into Chinese culture.
The food for the event was event was catered by the St. James Town Catering Collective which provided community members with a delicious meal. It was their first official order after the collective was floated nearly a month ago.
Agencies such as Alzheimer’s Society and Toronto Public Health, provided the seniors with informational workshops that sparked conversations around aging and understanding disorders such as dementia.
With a break in between the performances, seniors were given the opportunity to mingle with one another. Seniors have developed strong bonds and friendships over the years.
With the help of community members, organizations, and volunteers, the annual event continues to be a success as the seniors have expressed great joy in being able to be part of the process in creating and planning for the event. This year, the program did experience low attendance owing to the Raptors victory rally on the same day.
Nalini Pandalangat, Director of Newcomer Health & Specialty Services, Sherbourne Health, is a Registered Social Worker with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. She completed her PhD at the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, and has extensive experience leading projects and programs in the community health, hospital and international development sectors. Her PhD was on cultural influences on help-seeking, treatment and support for mental health problems in the Sri Lankan Tamil community. Her research and program interests are focused on immigrant mental health, gender and health, cultural competence, health care access and health equity. Currently she is part of a core team working on the development and dissemination of a refugee mental health framework.
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