Fonds AffB 45 - Seniors Working Group (Vancouver, B.C.) fonds

The Seniors Working Group (SWG) originated in 2011 with representatives from the pastoral committees of five United Church congregations on the west side of Vancouver: Dunbar Heights, Knox, Trinity, West Point Grey, University Hill. The working group formed partly in response to a growing gap in community services for seniors west of Granville Street. Within a few years, it grew to encompass further westside congregations, including Anglican parishes.

The SWG's main purpose and vision was to help seniors/elders age with vitality and expanded options, working within church congregations and the wider community. It sponsored pastoral care training events; held public forums on a variety of topics; and undertook networking and collaboration with other community groups with similar aims. Congregational pastoral care committees within the SWG membership supported an array of activities, including prayer groups, transportation, education/communications, food support and programs, visitation, and card and flower ministries.

Collaborative work with the nascent Westside Seniors Hub – which operated out of Kitsilano Neighbourhood House – began in 2015. The Westside Seniors Hub gradually assumed the community-wide programming of the SWG, and the SWG dissolved after transferring its funds to that organization on May 27, 2022.