Torch - Fall/Winter 2019-20

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANNUAL REPORT

Forum for Change

Laying the Foundation for Community Involvement When Mentorship Leads to Community Outreach

By Tanay Naik

I n October 2019, Old Girl Selina Chow 2018 posted the following information on the dementia blog that she and her Havergal peers started in 2016 in support of their Dementia Awareness Program, one of the Upper School’s Community Partnerships: According to the World Health Organization, there are currently around 50 million people worldwide living with dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases each year. By 2030, there will be an estimated 82 million people with dementia around the world, and 152 million by 2050. 1 Chow was first inspired to create the Dementia Awareness Program after her grandfather was diagnosed with the illness. “I didn’t know how to feel because I didn’t know much about the disease, nor was it something that we ever talked about at school,” she says. “As his condition worsened, I turned to my friends for support and was shocked when not many people understood what I was going through. To change this, I wanted to offer students the opportunity to volunteer with and enrich the lives of seniors with dementia.” In September 2016—under the mentorship of Forum for Change Program Manager Jennifer Russell, Havergal teacher Erika Friesen and Head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Dr. Nathan Herrmann—Chow established the Dementia Awareness Program as a Community Partnership between Havergal, a local nursing home and Sunnybrook’s Health Sciences Centre. The purpose of this program was to raise awareness of and de-stigmatize the illness. “Leading a group of passionate student volunteers, we visited Cedarhurst Dementia Care Home (from 2016–17) and Briton House (from 2017 on) weekly to enrich the lives of the residents living with dementia,” Chow explains. “We shared what we learned about the illness on our blog, which has more than 3,500 readers worldwide [ http://dementiaawarenessprogram.blogspot.ca ].” Chow continues her work on raising awareness about dementia today, demonstrating how Community Partnerships and their connections to new people, places and communities go beyond the

Selina Chow 2018 writing one of her dementia blog entries (here in 2017).

physical experiences of volunteering by having a deeper impact on student perspectives. In the Forum for Change, Community Partnerships are a cornerstone of the Global Experience Program (GEP) offered to students. At the core of these initiatives is our department’s approach to People, Partnerships, Perspective and Place. Through our Community Partnership initiatives, our students learn to embody the values of our school as they demonstrate tremendous empathy and compassion. Since Chow’s graduation, the program has new eager and engaged student leaders at Briton House, where participants connect with residents through music, puzzles, games and conversations. Chow continues to support this group as an unofficial advisor, demonstrating how mentorship can both nurture and inspire community service.

1 World Health Organization. “Dementia.” September 19, 2019. Accessed via www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia.

FALL/WINTER 2019–20 • TORCH 15