Backgrounder – Government of Canada advances support for seniors in northeastern Nova Scotia

The New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP) is a federal grants and contributions program whose goal is to enhance seniors’ social inclusion and ensure they can benefit from, and contribute to, the quality of life in their communities.

The objectives of the NHSP are to:

• promote volunteerism among seniors and other generations;
• engage seniors in the community through the mentoring of others;
• expand awareness of elder abuse, including financial abuse;
• support the social participation and inclusion of seniors; and 
• provide capital assistance for new and existing community projects and programs for seniors. 

Since its inception in 2004, the program has funded over 43,000 local projects and broader-reaching initiatives in hundreds of communities across Canada, with the Government of Canada having invested more than $970 million.

The NHSP funds projects that support the social inclusion of seniors via two funding streams: the community-based stream and the pan-Canadian stream. Approximately $50 million is provided each year to support one-year grants through the community-based stream, and more than $13 million is allocated yearly for multi-year projects through the pan-Canadian funding stream.

St. Francis Xavier University will work collaboratively with various organizations across northeastern Nova Scotia to increase the social inclusion of vulnerable seniors aged 55 and above with disabilities. The project will map and increase access to programs and services, encourage intergenerational connection and volunteer participation.

NHSP pan-Canadian projects

The NHSP’s pan-Canadian stream funds multi-year projects that use collaborative and innovative approaches to build community capacity and increase seniors’ social inclusion. This stream provides funding of up to $5 million for projects with a duration of up to five years.

The most recent NHSP call for concepts for pan-Canadian projects ran from October 4, 2023, to November 15, 2023, and will provide up to $61.9 million for the selected concepts. The call focused on projects that would increase social inclusion among vulnerable seniors through collaborative and innovative approaches.

The objective of this call for concepts was to invite eligible organizations to submit an application that broadly describes a concept for a collective impact initiative that would measurably increase the social inclusion of vulnerable seniors.

More specifically, this process aimed to:

• build the collective capacity of organizations to recognize and address barriers to social inclusion faced by vulnerable seniors;
• provide access to information, programs and services for vulnerable seniors to enhance their social inclusion in their communities;
• support service to seniors as part of action research to better understand effective approaches for increasing the level of social inclusion of vulnerable seniors in their communities;
• develop innovative approaches to engage and retain senior volunteers to improve their social inclusion in their communities; and
• address systemic barriers that contribute to the social isolation of vulnerable seniors.

The NHSP pan-Canadian call for concepts was a two-step application process. In the first step, interested organizations had to submit a concept for a proposed collective impact initiative focused on the social inclusion of vulnerable seniors. Successful applicants were then invited to develop a full proposal as part of the second stage.

Selected organizations are eligible to receive between $1 million and $5 million over four to five years for projects that create a significant impact in communities by using collaborative and innovative approaches to increase social inclusion among vulnerable seniors.

For more information, visit Funding: New Horizons for Seniors Program – Pan-Canadian projects.