[Article] Seniors for Climate Project Update

The collaboration of the SPEC & Suzuki Elders as the BC HUB for Seniors for Climate was a remarkable and energizing success. The national pan-Canadian campaign to motivate seniors to organize in their own locations and speak up for climate action achieved very positive results and the BC campaign was outstanding. In five short months we created a planning team that worked well together, developed a data-base using state of the art tools, contacted people across the Province, hundreds of whom got involved. We nurtured this engagement with new ideas and materials on a weekly basis. In the end, there were 65 events on or around October 1st (International and Canada’s Seniors Day) in which seniors spoke up with a strong message about the need for urgent and effective climate action. Additionally, the HUB, and three additional community groups, planned and hosted a local event at Performance Works on Granville Island that drew nearly 300 participants. People left feeling energized and activated by the opportunity to come together, view films, and engage in activities designed to build community and mobilize action. Here’s a map of our Provincial results and a picture of the local event. We see organizational collaboration as the wave of the future and we will continue to build this movement of concerned and activated Seniors for Climate.