Friendship: A Gift of Community

This is a great way to make friends and beats online dating too!

The Friendship Project was launched in 2003 with funding from the Vancouver Foundation, the Mid-Island Family Caregivers Network and local contributions from Duncan Kiwanis and Sylvan United Church. The aim of the project was to enhance the ability of community members to support caregiving families by:

• raising awareness
• reducing the stress and isolation of the caregiving family
• building individual and community capacity
• reducing the costs associated with caregiving by increasing social supports and caring relationships.

The intent was to work with groups such as non-profit societies, service clubs, churches, professional associations and unions in an effort to tap into and strengthen the bonds that already exist within these groups.

Meetings were held with more than 15 organizations and groups to look at what they were doing to support caregivers in their communities, and how we could support those efforts. The focus in the sessions was sharing information and letting them know about our society. The culmination of these meetings was a forum held in November 2003. Caregiving and Community: the gift of Friendship was billed as a day awareness, information, exploration, and learning. The day's activities included:

• Exploring the meaning of caregiving from the perspectives of various caregivers.
• Identifying things that already exist in our community to support caregivers (e.g. CISL program, home support, church membership, Young Seniors' Activity Group).
• Poster presentations by different organizations.
• Interactive theatre: a presentation about caregiving during which participants could express their feelings and point of view.
• Small group discussions focused on the topic of reaching out the hand of friendship to caregiving families. The Forum was well-attended by more than 60 people.

An application for funding for a second year of the Friendship Project was denied.