Welcome to March, friends!

Spring is, you guessed it...around the corner. I promised myself that I wouldn't bore you with worn out tropes about spring this month, but I have to admit, they do express a certain hopefulness about the season. Hope is a universal part of the human condition. I love the teaching which states: "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Not everyone may acknowledge themselves as having "faith", it is few who can say they have never hoped.

It was roughly a year ago now that a global pandemic was officially declared. I distinctly remember reading it while I was working in a field placement at the library's downtown branch. I remember a sinking feeling. I remember the fear and the panic. As I left work and made my way to the grocery store, everything seemed so uncertain. If it is possible for an entire city to exist in the tension of silence and chaos, that was how the the city existed that day. The reality of the situation was incomprehensible to me as I watched with numbness, the long lines that quickly formed at the checkout. I saw fear in the eyes of many whom not unlike myself, adjusted their collective gaze toward empty shelves and silently agonized about food shortage scenarios. I bought large amounts of chickpeas. And I don't even like chickpeas.

It feels as though we have all been through a lot since then. We have become individual health experts, learning how to keep ourselves and others safe. We have made adjustments in our daily routines. We all unofficially graduated from what I like to call, "zoom school." We also became teachers. By some miracle, some of us became our children's primary educational support while simultaneously transitioning our professional careers to the home. Some are even caregivers to elderly parents on top of all of that! We have helped our less "tech savvy" family members learn how to use their screens, all for the sake of staying connected. My dogs learned something too. They learned to be more co-dependant then they already were. All jokes aside, the onset of spring and the passing of a year milestone for what was arguably one of the most difficult years ever, represents something far less abstract than hope. Resilience.

SKIP, along with other community organizations and agencies collectively pivoted their programs and services in order to provide seniors with the resources they would need to navigate this unprecedented time. The City of Brantford, in collaboration with several organizations were quick to develop creative virtual programming options to keep seniors socially connected within the community such as "neighbours helping neighbours" and "healthy aging without walls". The Grand River Council on Aging community website offered even more opportunity for education and engagement through their "Community At Home Virtual Workshop Series". The Brantford Public Library offered a variety of program options through their "online program calendar" which offers opportunities for education and activities for the young and the young at heart. We live in a remarkably resilient community and SKIP is proud to be a part of the network of programming options available during physical isolation. Buzz Me continues to grow, as does our online digital media presence. Students from local Wilfrid Laurier University as well as our dedicated volunteers are working behind the scenes to share their knowledge and to assist in the work of connecting seniors to the community and to each other. Funding opportunities have given us the chance to dream big dreams for SKIP and for the seniors who we have the privilege to serve. There are exciting things ahead that we can't wait to share them with our community.

As important as hope is...it is only by encountering trials that we build that deeply sustainable quality of resilience within ourselves and within our communities. We here at SKIP look forward to spring with renewed hope and excitement about the future of our programs. Through all the challenges we have faced in the last year, we are proud of what we have been able to achieve along with many other organizations within Brantford's age friendly community. We hope you all will continue to follow along on our journey because we are honoured to share it with all of you. We hope that each of you, wherever you are will continue to find ways to connect with the seniors in your lives and to help connect them with others in this fantastic community.

With Love,

Tina