Living Long in the Distillery (LLID) is a community organization working toward an integrated approach to support healthy ageing for older adults living in the community. This month, Jim Swafford from LLID shares his perspective on the significance of creative, community-based programs for older adults.

JIM: The all-volunteer Living Long in the Distillery Steering Committee (LLID) was established in 2023 by the Gooderham & Worts Neighbourhood Association. Our mission is to support the aspirations of older adult residents of the Distillery District in downtown Toronto to age well at home as long as possible, leading physically, mentally, and socially healthy and connected lives.

LLID’s partnership with WCC is at the center of our ongoing memoir-writing project, Life Stories: Unlimited Chapters, which is funded by a grant from WoodGreen Community Services. WCC facilitated a series of six fall workshops for us and will deliver two more later this month. Participating seniors have found them both practically helpful and deeply meaningful.

Thanks to timed freewriting exercises in those workshops, our memoirists have overcome the inertia of the blank page and discovered subjects worth expanding and elaborating. They have developed greater confidence in themselves as writers with something significant to say. Despite their different experiences, personalities, and reasons for participating in the project, they have built trust through sharing their own pieces and listening to others and have created a true community of writers. Participants are now figuring out ways to continue writing as a group after grant funding ends.

LLID and WCC have arranged for the two extra sessions—not part of our original plan—to accommodate increased interest. Word got around the neighbourhood! And we expect that following the end-of-project community celebration of Life Stories, even more older adults in the Distillery will be asking about opportunities to share in this endeavour.

In short, we see more partnering with WCC in our future.

One member of the Life Stories group wrote this (anonymously) in an evaluation of the project: “It has helped me reflect on key turning points in my life that have made me the person I am today. And it has helped me develop a lovely connection with neighbours who have lived lives that are more intense and interesting than you would expect if you saw them as just a bunch of nice old folks.”

Writing down chapters of one’s life is inevitably a journey of self-discovery. We now know that writing together, which WCC fosters so beautifully, is a journey of community discovery—of becoming neighbours at a level beyond mere acquaintance.

WCC extends its deepest thanks to Jim Swafford and the team at LLID for their engagement and support as a partner organization. If you are interested in bringing the WCC program to your organization, learn more here.