By: James Watson

I wanted to write about something in this blog that has been on my mind ever since before I began working at Premier Homecare Services but had yet put any pen to paper over it.

It all started with a conversation I had with one of my professors while in my final year of an undergraduate degree in Environment & Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo. I had been presented with the offer to come work for Premier Homecare Services once I graduated. A great opportunity, no doubt, but I was conflicted over how my education might have no relevance. I visited one of my professors in the Environmental Studies Faculty for advice and I was grateful I did, for what she said reinforced my final decision to take the position and enter the homecare business.

Do I take the job?

I sat across from her in her office and explained my situation; she already knew some of it. Academia was not my thing but I was still very passionate about everything I was studying – environmental issues, economics, peace and conflict studies – so how could I tie all that in with this opportunity I was given? I went on to clarify, the best I could at the time, what Premier Homecare Services did: “they help seniors remain in their home by employing caregivers that will visit them and help them around the house.” She began smiling from ear to ear … I was immediately reminded that I was speaking to the professor who taught the course on Sustainable Communities and Good Governance.

“That is great!” she declared. “The elderly form the very roots of a community. They know its history – both human and environmental – firsthand. They knew next to everybody in the neighbourhood. Move them out and seclude them in nursing homes to the disadvantage of the whole community! If the community ties breakdown, so too are any environmental safeguards at risk.” She was entirely right and it clicked in my mind instantaneously. We continued discussing the various aspects how seniors contribute to a sustainable community and I left feeling confident in accepting the job offer.

Senior Citizens and Sustainable Communities

It is true because sustainability is not only about placing a park here, planting a tree there and installing some solar panels on your roof. No. Rather, sustainability is a mindset, an ideal that an individual and community alike must strive toward. A strong knit community with social ties between the young and old will be better poised to advocate around a common environmental cause and mobilize actual, positive change. It might be a downtown community creating a neighbourhood garden to grow fresh vegetables or a suburban community protesting the introduction of a big box store into their neighbourhood, but in either case there is little doubt in my mind that our senior citizens would be among those leading the charge or support those who are. They would be the ones teaching the children which weeds to pull in the garden or testifying to the importance of small, local business in front of the town council meeting.

Empowering seniors to remain in their homes, among their communities abundant with history and social resources, in my mind, is most certainly a step positive step toward sustainability. That the provision of in-home care acts toward this end reinforces my confidence in embracing the opportunity I was given.