Civic EngAGEment Series
Minister Tassi, MP Vecchio, and Seniors Critic V. Powell with volunteers + Board Members from the Toronto Council on Aging and volunteers from The Biglieri Group Ltd.
FEDERAL: Candidate discussion on seniors issues in Canada
August 13th, 2019
The federal event on August 13th welcomed federal candidates: Minister for Seniors, Filomena Tassi; Conservative Shadow Cabinet MP Karen Vecchio; and Green Party Seniors Critic Valerie Powell to speak to attendees on emerging issues related to seniors and caregivers as part of a panel discussion. The Biglieri Group returned to facilitate roundtable discussions with attendees on a variety of priority areas including health and pharmacare, tax policies, caregiving support, fraud prevention, housing and community support. Following the round table discussion, each table developed 2-3 questions to ask our panellists. The moderator for the event, Dr. Mitch Kosny, a past director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) at Ryerson University, did an excellent job highlighting important issues and made the panel discussion both energetic and engaging.
MUNICIPAL: Brainstorming ideals for the City of TORONto’s seniors strategy 2.0
May 7th, 2019
On May 7th, TCA invited participants to talk about municipal policy for seniors, through the Toronto Seniors Strategy. The event welcomed Councillor James Pasternak with presentations from Sue Lantz (TCA program evaluator) on the Making Connections project and Dr. Samir Sinha (Mount Sinai), supported by Andrea Austen (City of Toronto), to provide an overview of the Toronto Seniors Strategy 2.0. TCA partnered with The Biglieri Group, urban planning and design experts who are leaders in age and dementia-friendly built environments. Their role was to facilitate discussions with attendees alongside City staff. The city staff volunteered their time to build connections with shared conversation around the aims of the Toronto Seniors Strategy. City staff included police, fire, senior policy, and Toronto libraries in round table discussions.
Raymond Cho, Minister of Seniors and Accessibility
Provincial: preventing elder abuse
November 12th , 2019
The provincial event hosted on November 12th welcomed the provincial Minister for Seniors and Accessibility, Raymond Cho, with presentations by Graham Webb from Advocacy Centre for the Elderly, and Reann Rideout from Elder Abuse Ontario. The focus of the event was on the importance of recognizing and preventing elder abuse. TCA welcomed the law firm Aird & Berlis to facilitate the roundtable exercise through scenarios developed to promote discussion on recognizing the signs of elder abuse and available resources in the community. The event series strengthened partnerships with both public and private sponsors and increased the visibility of TCA.