Good Companions Seniors Centre has hired ex-professional football player Ken Evraire as its new marketing and fundraising director.
Good Companions, located on Albert Street, is a non-profit multi-service seniors’ centre that provides social, recreational and educational opportunities to seniors and adults, some with physical disabilities, living in Centretown and northeast Ottawa.
The centre currently has almost 1,000 members.
Evraire, 49, joined the staff at the start of October.
“When this opportunity came about, it was a case of returning home,” says Evraire. “I grew up a block away from Good Companions. I’m a Centretown kid through and through, so part of my being here is really penance for breaking a window playing road hockey in their parking lot as a child.”
Evraire returned to his home community after years of success in both football and broadcast journalism.
Evraire played nine seasons in the Canadian Football League for the Ottawa Rough Riders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders. In 1992, he won the Lew Hayman Trophy, awarded to the most outstanding Canadian in the CFL’s Eastern Division.
Evraire received his bachelor’s degree in communications from Wilfrid Laurier University and pursued this interest after his football career, working as a sports reporter at the A channel in Ottawa, hosting a post-game talk show following each Ottawa Senators hockey game. In 2009, he joined CTV as a weekend sports anchor.
Throughout his life, Evraire says he has learned the importance of community.
“My experience through my time as a member of the Boys and Girls Club growing up, playing football and being involved with TV is that community is really important,” he says. “That relates to my decision to take on this new challenge at Good Companions. They have a great story that a lot of people are unaware of.”
Since arriving at the centre, Evraire has worked to change community awareness about Good Companions and the work that is done there.
“A lot of people thought the Good Companions centre was essentially a residence centre for people to sit and not do much,” says Evraire. “whereas the membership is robust and energetic and they’re doing a lot of fun things and creative things.”
Ann McSweeney, executive director of Good Companions, says Evraire has been a big asset since his arrival.
“He’s completely redone our marketing and fundraising plan for the organization and made a number of excellent community connections with regard to fundraising,” says McSweeney. “We are extremely lucky to have such a person on our team.”
The centre’s 60th anniversary is coming up in November 2015 and, according to McSweeney, Good Companions is planning a jubilee celebration.
“We’re planning on a really huge event for the 60th anniversary because we’re the oldest seniors centre in Ottawa and one of the oldest in Canada,” she says.
Laurence Bry, director at the Council on Aging of Ottawa, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of seniors, believes that the aging demographic brought on by the baby boom creates challenges for organizations offering services to seniors.
“The challenge today is to see what changes or alternatives can be developed now so that our health, social, and community care delivery systems can manage this aging demographic,” she says. “Ottawa was recently named an age-friendly city by the World Health Organization. We are trying to maintain community-wide engagement so that seniors are less vulnerable and isolated.”
McSweeney says Good Companions is prepared for the changing demographic.
“We have known that the baby boomers are upcoming and we did a lot of programming changes to fit the baby boomer population,” says McSweeney. “We have over 100 programs and services, so it’s sort of one-stop shopping for seniors.”