Community Stories
A Day in the Life of Tillie
This is a fictional, composite story of a day in the life of a person who is experiencing vulnerabilities but also has skills and gifts with which they can contribute to their community. It is designed to broaden your awareness of the degree to which non-profit and voluntary organizations are involved in the day-to-day lives of your community members. The desired result is that you will understand how important each organization’s role is and that you will be able to conceptualize the problems that would arise in the event of an emergency, if some or all of their services were unavailable.
Tillie is 84 years old and had a massive stroke two years ago. She lives with her 92 year old husband, Jim, in the home they bought 60 years ago, where they are determined to live out their days together. Jim is a morning person, and fixes their breakfast before he leaves to volunteer as a caller at the square dancing club. At 10:00, the phone rings and it is a volunteer calling from the Telephone Reassurance program to see how things are going but Tillie can’t talk for long because today she has a visit from the podiatrist from the seniors centre to clip her toenails.
Jim comes back and they enjoy a wonderful casserole that one of the square dancers made them for lunch. Then they check their email through their FreeNet service and see if there is any news from their granddaughter who has just finished her bar exams. They are members of a neighbourhood bartering network and, as a retired math teacher, Tillie is tutoring a high school student in math and the student helps her write a letter to her sister who lives overseas. Jim goes to bring in the mail and there is a flyer from the boy scouts offering to rake leaves for any seniors. Great timing! Tillie calls to book the troop and Jim gets Tillie’s coat for when the activity van comes to take her to the community health centre for the current events discussion.
Questions:
- How many different organizations affected Tillie over the course of one day?
- Of the programs and services in which Tillie and her husband participate, which ones do you consider "essential"? Which ones could they manage without for 24, 48, or 72 hours?
- How would Tillie be affected by a health emergency (specify types/scenarios)?
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Fast Facts
59% of voluntary sector organizations have disaster plans, but a significant portion of them could not maintain service to clients during a disaster.
What's Happening?
Community consultations are being held across the country to improve our disaster safety net.