SENIORS SECRET SERVICE SOCIETY

Organizational Overview

Seniors Secret Service is a Calgary based charity that delivers programs to isolated seniors in Calgary and the surrounding area. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for individuals 60 years or older who are alone or isolated in the community. Currently we provide over 9100 birthday and Christmas gifts each year to isolated seniors who may otherwise be forgotten.

We are a very small, grassroots organization that employees one full time Executive Director, who reports to the Board of Directors. Our organization relies heavily on volunteers who do everything from creating homemade cards to packing and delivering birthday gifts each month.

We have strong relationships with seniors’ groups, housing facilities, outreach programs and health care providers; they provide us with the names of seniors they have identified as having no support systems.

Christmas Cheer
We have a strong relationship with seniors’ groups, housing facilities, outreach programs and health care providers.

Care facilities and partner agencies provide us with an anonymous profile for each senior.

These profiles include gift ideas based on senior’s needs and personalized profiles for each senior which are then provided to volunteer “Secret Santa’s”, who shop for and wrap gifts for their senior.

The gifts are collected, sorted and delivered to the care facilities and partner agencies where the staff distributes them to the seniors.

Birthday Cheer
The goal of the program is to extend the spirit of giving year round, in an effort to brighten the lives and improve the spirits of isolated senior citizens. This is accomplished by providing a birthday gift bag for seniors on their birthday.

The gifts are assembled by volunteers at the monthly Birthday Bee and are then delivered by staff and volunteers to the appropriate care facilities/partner agencies where they are distributed at the appropriate time.

Each participating senior receives a gift bag made up of a combination of toiletry items such as shampoo and toothpaste as well as a treat such as chocolates and puzzle books as well as a personalized handmade card. The average cost of a birthday gift is $20.

Christmas Cheer 2020

 145 care facilities/partner agencies
 5000+ isolated seniors supported
 Secret Santas: 1400 + individuals and 125 Groups/Corporations.
 9700+ Volunteer Hours

Birthday Cheer 2020

Due to Covid-19 our Birthday program was on hold for most of 2020

Emergency Care Program
We launched this pilot program late in 2016 to serve the needs of isolated seniors who require support with basic necessities upon entering the hospital or a long term care facility. Seniors often show up in their pajamas and have nobody to bring them needed items.

Each senior will receive basic essentials that would include: a basic clothing/shoe package as well as a toiletry kit that is appropriate to the seniors needs. We will also include something such as a handmade thinking of you card or art from school kids to brighten their room and let the senior know that someone cares about their welfare. The cost for this program is covered by donations made to Seniors Secret Service. A long term stay package will cost approximately $200 per senior.

Covid19 Relief:

In March 2020, Covid19 restrictions were instituted in all the long-term care homes throughout the province. The restrictions meant that seniors living in these facilities were not allowed out into the community and they were not allowed to have visitors in to see them. In many cases seniors were restricted to their own room with very little interaction with others.

We reached out to our volunteers and asked that they support our Caring Messages for Seniors program by writing cards and letters and having their kids create drawings and other masterpieces to send to the lonely seniors. We implemented numerous safety precautions on our end to ensure that both the volunteers and most importantly the seniors were kept safe. In the first week we had over 280 cards, letters and kids artwork dropped off. We have sent out over 6500 messages of caring and hope to isolated seniors living in Calgary and the surrounding rural communities and will continue .

In addition to the card program, we were asked by the care homes if we could help with suppling basic needs items such as toiletries along with a few fun items to their seniors, who have no way to access these things as they can’t go out and no one could come in. Since March 2020 we have supplied over 900 care packages that include not only basic needs items such as toiletries and Kleenex, but also things to brighten their day such as cookies, chocolates, puzzles and even 4 cases of Pepsi. Each care home has different needs and we have been able to respond quickly while keeping everyone safe. We plan to continue this program as long as it is required.

Funding:
At this time, we receive no government funding except for a casino fundraiser held every 18 months. We do not receive ongoing funding through the United Way. All our funds come from corporate, individual and foundation donors. Our annual budget is approximately $259,000. We operate with one full time staff and several seasonal support staff at Christmas