About Senior Fraud Alert
The YEG Seniors Alliance
The YEG Seniors Alliance was born from a passionate desire among a few senior serving agencies in Edmonton to increase their capacity, impact. and reach, allowing them to be stronger together.
Edmonton Seniors Centre (ESC), Westend Seniors Activity Centre (WSAC), and the ICAN Seniors Association worked together on grants, projects, and initiatives; sharing employees, reducing costs, and building trusting relationships with eachother, the business community, and seniors.
identifying the problem
YEG Seniors Alliance Social Workers noticed seniors repeatedly being the victims of internet and phone fraud, even after being educated on scams.
After speaking with seniors who had experienced being defrauded on multiple occasions, it became clear that the current fraud prevention resources were ineffective for seniors.
Making THE SOLUTION
Seniors needed a different approach to fraud prevention education. In order to be effective it needed to be:
- Written in plain language that was free of jargon and technical terms and could be easily translated to multiple languages
- In small educational modules that provided simple but effective solutions
- Positive and empowering rather than negative and fear-inducing
Senior driven focus groups read and gave feedback on every scam, script, and quiz. The result is a senior focused site that is written by seniors, for seniors.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The YEG Seniors Alliance reached out to those in the community who could help create this kind of resource.
- The Edmonton Community Foundation gave the grant money that funded the project and made this tool free for the public.
- The Edmonton Police Service provided a project liaison who met with the writers, approved the scams, and acted in videos.
- Over 100 senior volunteers from diverse backgrounds lent their expertise, insights, and good humour.
