A Centretown seniors’ centre is taking steps to be a better companion to its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members.
The Good Companions Seniors’ Centre has been working with the Centretown Community Health Centre for the last nine months in an effort to make the Albert Street hub a more LGBT-inclusive environment, says Christina Marchant, the health centre’s director of community health promotion.
It’s part of a three-year partnership funded by the United Way between the health centre and the Ottawa Senior Pride Network, says network community development co-ordinator Marie Robertson. The Good Companions is the first seniors’ organization targeted by the partnership, which received $130,000 to be spread out over three years from the United Way.
The most recent initiative at The Good Companions focuses on home care for LGBT seniors. The centre has recruited nearly a dozen LGBT volunteers to work with LGBT seniors living in their own homes. It’s an important aspect of assuring these seniors get the help they need, Marchant says.
“We hear many stories of how queer seniors in their homes will be reluctant to ask for help because they’re afraid they’ll be discriminated against,” she explains. “They’re afraid that they’ll be judged for being gay or lesbian or trans.”
Creating an LGBT-inclusive environment requires a complete review of nearly all organizational policies and practices, Marchant says.
“You need to look at all levels of your organization,” she says. “You look at your board actions, your board governance work. You look at how you communicate, with whom we communicate out there, and we look at what kind of programs we offer.”
Staff and volunteers at the Good Companions have both received LGBT awareness training, Marchant says. Most of the training has been carried out by members of the Senior Pride Network, a group of community members, service providers and activists working to make Ottawa a more inclusive place for LGBT seniors.
“They’re mostly retired, LGBT seniors themselves,” Marchant says. “They bring great training experiences and also lived experiences.”
The Good Companions has also changed its intake forms to allow volunteers and members to indicate whether they identify as LGBT, Marchant says.
“At the end of March, they’ll be able to run stats and find for the first time how many people identify as LGBT and then they’ll be able to track over time how that changes,” she says.
Robertson says she will finish out the year developing programs and training at the Good Companions before moving onto different seniors’ centres in Ottawa for the next two years. The Senior Pride Network won a community builders award from the United Way last year, which provided funding for the partnership, she says.
Marchant cannot confirm where the Centretown health centre will be focusing its LGBT awareness efforts in the coming years, but said it’s definitely speaking to a need in the community.
They’ve already done training with workers at the Beechwood Cemetery, the Old Forge Seniors Support Service and with all the member organizations of the Ottawa Community Support Coalition.
“There’s definitely an appetite out there among seniors organizations to dive into this a bit more,” she says.