\u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate that throughout the year we have a\ngreat relationship with seniors and retirement residences in our communities,\u201d\nsays Ms. Cerenzia, noting that these relationships have helped Neighbourhood\nNetwork forge a strong base of contacts. \u201cWe\u2019re able to reach out and connect\nand, from there, we identified key points of contact and determined that being\nreally mindful of not wanting to spread germs, the best way you can engage with\nthese seniors is to create something. [The contacts] will then print off the\nartwork and distribute it internally, so we\u2019re minimizing the number of germs\nbeing spread around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Call a Senior \u2013 For those in isolation, a phone call can go a long way! Call 1-877-452-4287 to volunteer for CHATS \u2013 Community & Home Assistance to Seniors\u2019 Telephone Reassurance Program.<\/li>
- Delivery Groceries and Medicine \u2013 Volunteers who are able to deliver groceries and medicine to seniors and other high risk individuals in our communities are encouraged to connect with CHATS at the number above or Routes Connecting Communities at 905-722-4616 or info@routescc.org<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is where we really rely on our community partners,\u201d\nsays Ms. Cerenzia. \u201cWe can\u2019t speak highly enough about CHATS or Routes\nConnecting Communities. They are already well-equipped and these are programs\nwhere they are driving and dropping off food, medicine, taking seniors to\nappointments \u2013 it was really about connecting with those agencies and making\nsure we had all the best points of contact [to] direct the community to these\nexisting programs and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Donate\nGoods & Funds \u2013 Charities and non-profits in our communities are also on\nthe frontlines providing important services to those in need and at risk in our\ncommunities. Neighbourhood Network\u2019s website (nnetwork.org) is maintaining a\nlist of urgently-needed donations on a daily basis. <\/li>
- Donate\nBlood \u2013 There is an extreme blood donor shortage at this time. It is safe to\ndonate blood during the COVID-19 crisis and critical to the care of patients.\n(Visit blood.ca for ways you can give in your community)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In addition, Neighbourhood Network is also mindful of the\nstress this crisis is having on local business and encourages people in the\ncommunity to go to their website to learn creative ways to support local\nbusiness at this time \u2013 including the purchasing of gift cards from local\nrestaurants which can, in turn, be donated to organizations in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe idea [for gift card donations] came to us through\none of our partner organizations, Welcoming Arms, based here in Aurora, since\nwe know how the restaurant industry has been impacted so harshly by this\ncrisis. Why not, when you\u2019re donating to local charities, purchase restaurant\ngift cards so you\u2019re kind of meeting the need in two ways: you\u2019re supporting\nlocal business and then the charity is also getting a donation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SPREAD JOY NOT GERMS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you continue your social distancing in our attempt to\n\u201cplank the curve\u201d, consider sharing the ways you\u2019re spreading joy over social\nmedia using the hashtag #spreadjoynotgerms and by tagging @neighbourhoodnetwork\non Facebook and @NeighbourNetwrk on Twitter to spread community positivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are some great benefits that come from social distancing: spending time with your family, maybe you are in a household where you\u2019re not able to be with your children all day, this is a great opportunity to connect with them,\u201d says Ms. Cerenzia. \u201cThrough social media, we\u2019re seeing lots of great videos. We really wanted to capture that kind of movement that we\u2019re starting to see and make it a little bit more formal. Then hopefully by having a hashtag and by tagging Neighbourhood Network, we can share all these great posts. When you use the hashtag and tag Neighbourhood Network with all these things that are making you happy and joyful during this challenging time, we will share it on our social platforms as well and try to keep messages of positivity throughout the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n
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<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re looking for ways to lend a hand to vulnerable members of the community who may be in need at this difficult time, Neighbourhood Network has developed some creative ideas on how you can help while still maintaining social distancing. Since the COVID-19 crisis began to take a foothold in York Region, Neighbourhood Network, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/2020-03-26-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Pt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 21:17:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}