About Healthy Aging CORE BC

Healthy Aging CORE BC

Healthy Aging Collaborative Online Resources and Education is a platform to connect Community-Based Seniors' Services (CBSS) organizations and allied agencies and individuals in BC. CORE is designed to provide up-to-date information, resources, and training opportunities and to make it easier to communicate, coordinate, and collaborate in order to help build capacity, strengthen the network, and develop a collective and cohesive voice among volunteers, staff, and others who support healthy aging initiatives. United Way BC manages the Healthy Aging CORE BC platform as a part of our work to build the capacity of the CBSS sector in BC.

United Way BC Healthy Aging offers a wide range of programs and initiatives for older adults and provides capacity-building opportunities for the CBSS sector in BC. Our work is driven by the community and dedicated to serving the community. Through collaboration with the CBSS sector, we’ve created a service model that is not only collaborative and responsive but also flexible and robust. This intentional and ongoing community engagement guarantees that our programs stay relevant and impactful.

History of Healthy Aging CORE & CBSS Sector in BC

The development and implementation of Healthy Aging CORE is a response to recommendations made from community partners and stakeholders across the Province, based on extensive research, feedback from regional consultations, and actions from the 2017 Provincial Healthy Aging Summit. Healthy Aging CORE BC was launched in 2019 as a provincially coordinated knowledge hub to strengthen the community-based seniors' services sector and increase organizational capacity through information sharing, training, mentoring, communities of practice, and policy and resource development.

Community Based Seniors' Services 

Community based organizations provide seniors with access to a range of low-barrier programs in seven core areas:

1. Nutritional supports
2. Affordable Housing
3. Health and wellness
4. Physical activity
5. Cultural, educational and recreational programs
6. Information, referral and advocacy
7. Transportation

These programs and services are offered through a range of municipal and non-profit agencies including: senior centres; community centres; neighbourhood houses; community coalitions; ethno-cultural organizations; and multi-service non-profit societies. The seven core service areas were determined through community consultations across the province with input from older British Columbians, service providers, caregivers, funders, academia, and others. Research confirms that these core services are essential in supporting older adults, and particularly those with low to moderate incomes, to develop new social networks, remain physically and mentally active, and live independently in their own homes for as long as possible. 

Raising the Profile Project 

The initial research and consultations were part of the Raising the Profile Project (RPP), launched in 2016 to increase support and recognition of the role of CBSS in promoting health and fostering resilience in seniors in BC. The project goals were to:

1. Raise awareness in the broader community and government of the vital role played by community-based seniors’ services to support seniors to remain socially, physically and mentally active, and maintain their health and independence for as long as possible. 
2. Document the uneven provision of, and support for, these services in different communities and regions of the province, and the limited access to services for many low income, isolated, immigrant, LGBTQ, rural and Indigenous seniors.  
3. Outline a business case for greater investment in this sector based on the evidence showing that healthcare utilization and healthcare costs can be significantly reduced when seniors are socially engaged, physically active and have access to nutritional education and supports.  
4. Identify specific capacity building strategies/social innovations that would improve collaboration and coordination within the sector and/or result in stronger relationships with, and commitment from, external partners and funders.

A significant component of RPP was the development of a provincial network, the goal of which is to understand and build on the capacity of CBSS to meet the growing needs of an aging population. The network consisted of executive directors and managers for municipal and nonprofit organizations around BC, seniors who were volunteer leaders in the community-based senior services sector, as well as provincial organizations and others that support the work of the sector. 

In its short tenure, the Raising the Profile Project yielded valuable results, including: 

• Bringing together key partners, including seniors themselves, from across the province in a central forum
• Producing a literature review showing how investment in the CBSS sector makes sense, both economically and in terms of supporting people to live positive and healthy lives - Raising the Profile of the Community-Based Seniors' Services Sector in BC
• Developing a series of profiles of impactful CBSS programming, services, and partnerships
• Organizing 7 regional community consultations in the spring of 2017 and an accompanying consultation report - Raising the Profile Project: Findings and Recommendations from the Community Consultations

The consultations and research identified 5 main challenges:

• Lack of recognition of the important role played by organizations delivering programs and services to older adults
• Fragmentation – lack of connection and cohesion between and among service providers
• Uneven service provision across BC
• Lack of adequate and sustainable funding
• Limited resources and capacity 

To help address these challenges, 10 key priority areas were identified as a focus for improving capacity of organizations and the sector as a whole through development of:

• Volunteer infrastructure
• Collaborative skills and structures
• Consistent and sustained funding
• Shared language of sector benefits
• Training by the sector, for the sector
• Information, referral and advocacy
• Development of transportation infrastructure
• Diversity and inclusion capacity
• Intergenerational development
• Affordable housing

The progress made through the Raising the Profile Project created a strong foundation for continuing and deepening this work by coordinating, connecting, and building capacity of community based organizations in service to strengthening the sector that is so essential to the wellbeing of older adults and their families. Bringing the work into the United Way British Columbia  in November 2017 leveraged the existing provincial infrastructures of the United Way’s Better at Home program and Healthy Aging Department to build on the capacity building and sector strengthening work initiated through the Raising the Profile Project.