Partner Promotion - Sage Seniors Association (Sage)
Sage Seniors Association - Laura (SafeHouse Follow-Up Coordinator)
A big part of The Today Centre’s ability to provide our clients connection to vital resources is possible through the partnerships we have with organizations in and around Edmonton. These partnerships allow our Family Violence Specialist team to connect our clients with further support beyond what we are able to provide them here at The Today Centre. Whether it is from finding housing and shelter, legal assistance, English Language Learning
programs, applying for EPOs (Emergency Protection Orders), mental health support, long-term family violence support, or more, the partnerships we make with other organizations enable us to connect our clients to help they need beyond assistance with family violence. These partnerships are vital to the services we provide! And did you know that we have partnerships with over 50 organizations in Edmonton and area? We truly value each and every partnership we make!
Since these partnerships are so important to the work that we do and the service we can provide our clients, we wanted to highlight some of them in a partner promotion series. We sat down with Laura, Sage’s Safehouse Follow-Up Coordinator (previously the Safehouse Intensive Case Manager), to ask a few questions about the services Sage Seniors Association provides and what our partnership with them looks like. Check out her answers below!
About sage
What does Sage ‘do’? What is its mission and vision for the world?
Sage’s main focus is on how we can enhance the experience of seniors in Edmonton and area, both with individual clients we work with and for seniors in general through our advocacy. Our mission really sums up what we aim to do and it states, “inspiring and supporting seniors to be the best they can be.” This is supported by our vision to see “a community where all seniors are valued and have the opportunity to live according to their beliefs, abilities, and aspirations.”
What is the history of Sage? Where does the name come from? How did the organization start and how long has it been around?
Sage started as ‘The Society for the Retired & Semi-Retired’ and has been around for over 50 years, marking their 50th anniversary in 2020. Transitioning from one name to another, ‘The Society for Retired & Semi-Retired’ changed its name in the early 2000s to the ‘Seniors Association of Greater Edmonton’ (SAGE), before officially becoming ‘Sage Seniors Association’ a few years later.
Sage began as a community, with a group of seniors who wanted a place to gather and enhance the community that was centrally located, which is why they picked our office location in the heart of downtown. It truly was seniors believing that seniors have a role and a purpose in the community, and Sage continues to operate in such a way, creating spaces for seniors to thrive, connect, volunteer, and find purpose in each step they take.
What are sage’s core values? What do they represent within the organization?
Sage strives to be as low-barrier as possible to promote seniors doing community work and being seen as a value to society. Sage’s main focus is to keep the needs of seniors at the forefront of our services. Which means that our upper management does a lot of work within and with the government to advocate for seniors’ needs based on trends and issues we’re seeing in the community. For example, seniors in low-income apartments don’t often have AC and because of climate change temperatures only keep rising. Or that a lot of seniors accidentally applied for CERB and now it’s causing issues with their taxes.
Our upper management does a lot of work promoting what seniors want to get involved in and see in the community and we base our services and programs on those needs and wants. They advocate for change and promote seniors’ independence.
Programs & Services
Who does Sage serve?
Sage generally works with people who are 55 and older, focusing on people having the needs of a senior, meaning mobility challenges or needing mobility aids, and/or cognitive impairment that has come with age. We try to be inclusive of those seniors who are caregivers to adults with developmental disabilities or grandkids, but our clients are the seniors themselves, not the adult children or grandkids. We are also unfortunately unable to serve seniors who do not have the mental capacity or legal ability to make decisions for themselves.
What services and programs does Sage offer?
There are a lot of services and programs Sage offers, I would say we are quite well rounded in how we serve the senior population.
Our Sage Safehouse focuses on elder abuse and has an intensive case management arm that works with seniors in the community experiencing abuse where the safehouse may not work for their situation. Through the Safehouse we also offer public education on elder abuse. They present to the community about elder abuse, mainly service providers and the general public, and they advocate to the government for elder abuse awareness. Their main role is to educate on recognizing elder abuse and what to do when they see it.
At our main Sage building we offer lots of drop in and recreational programs that are run almost entirely by volunteers. These programs range from line dancing classes, ukulele classes, art classes, chair yoga, to writing classes and multicultural programs. Sage also hosts third party organizations that utilize our space to operate English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, or the GeriActors, which is an intergenerational theatre company. And we have partnerships with organizations like Aging with Pride and the Edmonton Pride Seniors Group, who utilize our space for various programs and events.
Sage also operates general Social Work Programs that offer opportunity for scheduled appointments and limited drop-in hours. These include housing information, life enrichment activities, assistance around the home, and more. There is a Multicultural Seniors Outreach that partners with various cultural communities in Edmonton and act as a bridge connecting seniors from these cultural communities, who may need help navigating systems, to community knowledge and services like pensions, taxes, available grant funding, etc.
We have a tax program for low-income seniors and AISH recipients. There is also another program called ‘Social Prescribing’ where outreach social workers and link workers work with seniors, who have more medically complex needs and are referred to us by a healthcare provider, to get more socially involved in the community. This program runs on the belief and studies, that show that social involvement can make a difference in your physical health positively.
World Elder Abuse Day - Sage Seniors Association with the Indo-Canadian Women’s Association & others
Sage also offers weekly drop-in counselling and a volunteer who offers computer, phone, and general IT support for seniors. There is also our Aging to Sageing program (Community Animation) that facilitates senior and community connections, so they will work with various areas of the city and connect seniors to different organizations or groups based on what they would like to do or achieve. For example, if a senior wanted to run a community barbecue, the facilitator would connect them with an appropriate organization, help them finding funding or sponsorship from different businesses or grants, and essentially just help them achieve their goals. They strive to facilitate and nurture potential intergenerational projects within any given community by listening and responding to the needs and desires expressed by seniors.
Our Sage Directory is a directory of seniors supports and programs, it has a bit of a guide for ‘when you turn 65’ these are the things you can apply for, various housing related things, different advertising companies, and more. It’s a general ‘seniors google’ in a book.
Most of Sage’s services and programs are free or low cost to keep them accessible. Some of the classes offered externally do come at a cost that varies per class option.
We also offer a yearly membership that grants seniors a reduced rate on course fees, free use of our public access computers, participation in Sage clubs and groups, and subscription to the Sage Link newsletter. Our membership is $26.25 annually for one individual. However, if someone is unable to afford the membership they are still able to access a majority of our programs without it.
How are people able to access Sage’s services?
Our office is open from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday – Thursday, however we offer drop-in hours for support from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Monday – Thursday. After these hours individuals can book an appointment directly.
Though the best way would be to call through our main line that has options to connect you with the right office, service, or program you may need. Because of the call volume we’ve been receiving you can leave a message, and someone will get back to you within 4-5 business days. This is also because this line is not managed by a staff member directly at this time. Individuals can also find information on our website or by inquiring via our ‘contact us’ form. We also have a general email, info@mysage.ca, that connect seniors with the appropriate program or service they’re interested in.
Our Safehouse has an intake line managed between 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday – Friday, and we try to call back the same day. With our Safehouse we prefer the Senior in need calls directly themselves, as we are unable to act on 3rd party referrals from friends or family members. There is no need for a referral from another organization to access the Safehouse services, though we do accept them, and often work with partner agencies to identify the senior’s needs and the best way to support them, with their designated social worker. We ask that staff from external organizations call with their client whenever possible.
Our Life Enrichment program, offering seniors opportunities to learn, play, connect with others, get fit, or be creative, also has their own direct email at life@mysage.ca.
Sage Safehouse
Sage Seniors Association & Edmonton Police Services
What services does the safehouse offer?
Our Sage Safehouse is a shelter focusing on elder abuse and intensive case management in working with seniors in the community experiencing abuse where the Safehouse may not work for their situation.
Clients in need of safe shelter may stay up to 60 days, though we do offer extensions based on situation. Lately, with the housing crisis, we have a number of individuals under 65 (pre “retirement age”) with lower incomes and limited access to shelter who have needed extensions more often. Generally, if people are open to working with us to find other more permanent solutions, we will extend their stay until they have a space to move to with furniture.
Our Safehouse has two coordinators who work with seniors to apply for housing, whether that is if they need subsidized housing or even a bit of navigation within the private market. These coordinators with help them out with transportation options, applying for plans and benefits, and helping our clients achieve any other applicable goals they are dealing with during their time with us. That could be from doctoral visits, veterinary care, optometry, financial assistance, or other relevant topics. There are also two intensive case management workers who work with seniors in the community externally who are experiencing abuse and where the safehouse doesn’t necessarily work for their situation.
The Safehouse has seven suites which are all bachelor and one bedroom style with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. We are able to take couples along with 5 individuals, so we can host seven to nine people at a time depending if we have a couple with us.
In our Transition Suites, at a separate location, we have four additional suites. These suites have two coordinators and two intensive case management workers as well. These suites include two meals a day during the client’s stay.
Initially our plan for the Transition Suites was to offer is as ‘bridge’ from the Safehouse for individuals who had been staying there for over 60 days, as the Transition Suites offer more independence. However, this is still a work in progress as it is so new we are still sorting out all of the details. But essentially the Transition Suites are four extra spaces for individuals experiencing family violence to have food and accommodations.
Capacity
How many people does Sage regularly see and assist? What has been the growth of the organization?
In 2023 alone there were 6500 unique seniors accessing services from Sage, with 1500 connections made to other organization or partner agencies. We also saw 40 calls daily, on average, to our intake line. This has all been done with about 50 employees.
Some of the incredible growth we’ve seen over the year was renewed generous funding for our Intensive Case Management program at our Safehouse, which allowed us to hire another full-time staff member and develop four transition suites at a secondary location, along with a full-time staff member to work there. We received funding to develop the Community Educator position through the Safehouse as well, all of which came to fruition last year.
our partnership
How do you see the benefit of a partnership with The Today Centre? What have you been able to achieve with this partnership?
I love The Today Centre and our partnership! Often the referrals we receive from The Today Centre are very well organized, as the Family Violence Specialists will reach out with an individual who they know qualifies for our services and they will have already completed the backend work with the client to figure out what works best for the client and their needs at that time. Whether that is providing our staff with the information already so the client doesn’t have to repeat themselves or whether we want to meet together to have a discussion, which I find is super helpful to have the clients’ goals, their safety concerns (or what is or is not safe to do, ex. it’s not safe to leave a message) and any other relevant information already in a sheet. Something else I find super helpful with The Today Centre is being able to utilize the flex office space, which has been easier for our clients because there is lots of free parking, for some people it’s a little bit easier to get to than downtown, and you have lots of resources available.
The Today Booklet has been super helpful to give to clients, and we often make requests and referrals for your Lives On the Line program as a part of our clients’ safety planning. Both have been such a huge help! Being a part of the monthly Case Consultation group has been wonderful to be a part of as well because it’s a safe space to ask questions and gather information.
Anytime I have been here, and I have a question about a resource, someone is always willing to jump in and help whether that’s sharing information, helping me print something, or calling shelters or resources. Even if I have simple questions about things I am less familiar with in family violence, it has been super helpful to consult with one of the Family Violence Specialist and talk through things together.
This partnership really offers the opportunity to share information and learn more, and is a source to ask questions and consult on strategies for safety planning and resources.
What do referrals look like between our organizations?
We usually receive referrals through the Family Violence Specialists who have sent me emails or our team an email with someone who they believe qualifies for our long-term support or shelter and then we arrange a time to take a call. They usually reach out to me first and ask if we have capacity to take this one, sort of explain the situation, and discuss together what works best for a ‘warm handoff’, whether that looks like me coming here and doing an assisted meeting or I reach out directly to the client.
How are you grateful for our partnership and see it moving forward in the future?
I definitely would not be able to provide the same quality or level of work I do without The Today Centre’s support. I mentioned previously about being able to consult with the team and be a part of the monthly Case Consultation meetings, but being a part of that trove of information has been very helpful. Every element of working with The Today Centre, from the meeting space, to the team, I am grateful for. Even being able to safety plan with some clients would be completely impossible without the Lives On the Line program.
Moving forward, I hope The Today Centre can continue expanding and perhaps even become more involved in the elder abuse sector and hopefully we can work on research or community resources together.
Aurelia from the African Centre Seniors Wellbeing (centre) and Amanda L. from The Today Centre (right)
Where do you see Sage growing in the future?
Generally, we will be able to continue to respond to the needs of the community. The population is generally aging right now, so it does seem we are seeing more cultural diversity within Sage and the programs. For instance, we have a new group gathering at Sage of Gujarati seniors who wanted a place to meet and have coffee and they have been coming to Sage just to have a space to do that. So, we really hope to see more growth that way.
The Edmonton Pride Seniors group that is partnered with us, they are working on building a housing facility for seniors from the LGBTQ+ community where people can live a little more safely and feel a little more comfortable dwelling there. We are really excited to see that come to fruition!
There has generally been lots of growth into diverse populations and we’ve come to exist for numerous seniors of various backgrounds as a safe space to access services, dwell together in community, and just exist as they want to. Or even just have coffee!
Anything else you’d like to add?
I love The Today Centre and being partnered with you has definitely made my work significantly easier!
get in touch with sage seniors association
Address
15 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, AB T5J 2E5
life@MySage.ca - Life Enrichment Program
Phone Number
(780) 423-5510 - Main Line
(780) 702-1520 - Sage Safehouse Intake Line
(780) 426-3746 - Safehouse Non-urgent Calls