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The Need: Social Isolation & Loneliness
Isolation and loneliness can be devastating -missing social outings because of a fixed income, being restricted by physical ailments, unable to travel to entertainment or connect with family or loved ones — to need a break, even for an hour, to lift your spirits and energize your soul.
That’s what thousands of older adults in care in Ontario wake up to each and every day. Nothing to look forward to, no one to share memories with… just another empty day. These forgotten seniors are relatives, friends, neighbours, members of your community. They’ve worked hard all their lives, saved to provide a better future for their families — and now they’re alone.
Social isolation and loneliness are increasingly recognized as important public health concerns, and these issues have significant implications for the health and well-being of older persons. Older adults are at increased risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness, and are especially vulnerable to their negative impacts. Both social isolation and loneliness have been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes among older adults, including mood disorders, dementia, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality.
With older persons making up a rapidly growing proportion of Canada’s population, the number of either isolated or lonely older adults is also expected to increase, meaning that both the individual and societal consequences of loneliness and social isolation are expected to become more severe.
As such, it is important to work to implement effective, evidence based strategies to reduce their impacts and better support healthy ageing.
The Remedy: Our Creative Response
Smile Theatre delivers professional live theatre directly to older adults where they live and gather — in Long Term Care and Nursing Homes, Hospitals, Retirement Residences and Community Centres as well as reaching isolated individuals at home.
Our original musical theatre productions and programs offer the joy of music, interaction, design, and celebration to create opportunities for community engagement and connection.
The fast growing field of arts and aging is based upon a growing body of research linking the arts and improved health. There is now clear evidence that participatory arts enriches the lives of older adults.
Quality Art: How We Care
Behind every performance we offer is a purpose to provide more than entertainment.
A valuable artistic experience is one that transcends practical function, and we seek to offer rich, cultural encounters and celebrations within often clinical institutional settings.
We care for our audiences through our dedication to artistic excellence in our performances, carefully crafting our productions, engaging professional artists, and allocating time and resources to create the highest quality work possible in our special context.
Our Charitable Mission: Within Reach
We believe every older adult is within reach, and no one should be left isolated and lonely, and without quality artistic experiences. There are many care providers who cannot even afford our minimal subsidized performance fee.
Since our performance fees cover only a third of our actual costs, we need funds to continue serving our existing audiences — many of whom look forward to the next Smile performance even before the last one is over.
Our mandate has always been to ensure that every Smile production is a carefully crafted original Canadian work. We support the ongoing creation of development workshops and playwright commissions to provide our audiences with unique, professional and entertaining performances.
You Can Help: Donate Now
We raise money one dedicated supporter at a time. Each person, group or company has a distinctive and personal reason for donating to Smile but they all have one thing in common. They want to help us break down barriers and energize the minds, spirits and imaginations of our older adults!
Every dollar you donate will go to put a Smile on a lonely senior’s face. We keep our overhead and administrative costs low to ensure we can reach as many seniors as possible every season.
For more information contact Tom Carson to tom.carson@smiletheatre.com or 416-599-8440.