Tellegacy Program Under Way
Rural Frontenac Community Services used to run a “Friendly Visiting” program that put together younger people with isolated rural seniors.
The program was popular for years, but it had to stop when COVID hit in 2020, for obvious reasons, and has not been able to be restarted since then.
However, with help from a grant from the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area, a new program is underway.
The Tellegacy program pairs a community volunteer with a senior, with a goal in mind, the creation of a legacy book based on the telling of a life story.
Volunteers are paired with seniors for a series of weekly one on one visits. In addition to visiting, the volunteers will be provided with a template questionnaire to ask the seniors about their background, the life they have led and the place where they have lived it.
The volunteers record the answers, either in written or recorded form, and once the interviews are complete, RFCS staff will insert the text into a template on the Canva platform, and a book will be created that will be returned to the senior, as a keepsake.
“Social isolation is linked to increased rates of loneliness, hypertension and other physical health effects, and has been identified as a public health priority. Loneliness and social isolation are cited as having negative health impacts equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day,” said Laura Huffman, the coordinator for seniors programming at RFCS.
“This project is designed for isolated people to make meaningful social connections with others and rebuild a sense of belonging in their community, to re-engage isolated older adults so they can benefit from social connections, and feel that they belong,” she said.
She said that there are several advantages that come with basing a program on volunteer visits to a person’s home. It allows for people to avoid the anxiety of having to attend an event when they feel they have no one to attend with, or for those lacking the motivation to attend alone, and eliminates transportation or distance barriers.
“This helps to address any health or psychosocial challenges of building connections for individuals who have few, or no close support,” she said.
For volunteers, Tellegacy offers a structured context to help establish a relationship with a new person, a chance to learn about someone’s life and deepen connections to the community and its history, and an opportunity to perhaps make a friend, and create something with a physical presence, a book.
The first intake of Tellegacy took place over the summer and has resulted not only in books being created, but ongoing relationships being established as well.
The second intake for Tellegacy is underway now
For more information email [email protected] or Call 613-279-3151 ext 201. ■
