Join Senior Tamils' Centre of Ontario's Community Today
Our New Home
We are thrilled to share a monumental update from the Senior Tamils’ Centre of Ontario—a journey that began back in 1986 and has now reached a milestone we've long dreamed about.
We Did It! On January 27, 2024, we made a collective decision that will forever be etched in our history. With great pride, we announce that as of June 21, 2024, we are the proud owners of our very own office space! This achievement is not just a purchase—it is the realization of years of ambition and community spirit.
Our new space is ideally located at 3852 Finch Avenue East, Suite #210, Toronto, ON M1T 3T9—right near the heart of the convenient Finch and Kennedy intersection. This location promises to be a hub of activity and engagement for our centre.
The acquisition of this space was made possible by the relentless effort and dedication of many, especially our President, the building committee, our diligent board (past boards included), our committed staff, and most importantly, you—our members. Your support, along with the generous contributions from well-wishers in the final stages, has brought this vision to life.
We are currently customizing the office to meet our specific needs and are excited to start moving in the first week of July. Looking ahead, we plan to host a soft opening later in the month of July. It would be an honor to have you join us and witness first-hand what we have accomplished together. This event will be a wonderful opportunity for us all to celebrate, reconnect, and look forward to the future activities and programs that will be planned from our new home.
About Us
Our CENTRE
A vibrant centre offering age appropriate programs and resources for seniors. Since 1986, the centre has been in the forefront of assisting seniors in leading healthy, engaged and independent lives. Through our programs our members continue to learn and contribute productively to the society.
Our mandate
- Promote Health for Senior Tamils, their culture and heritage. Execute programs and services which help the seniors attain a better quality of life, and facilitate a healthy aging process and reduce isolation.
- Creating opportunities/forums for interaction and information-sharing in order to reduce isolation and create a sense of community and improve community resiliency.
- Working with other groups/agencies and coordinate activities that promote and assist in the integration and adaptation to Canadian life and remove isolation, barriers of language and culture.
Our Mission/Vision/Goals
Mission: To enhance well-being, reduce isolation, and instill a sense of belonging among seniors by mobilizing, socializing and providing support and advocacy.
Vision: The total well-being of the aging population among the Tamil Community of Ontario.
Goals: We provide innovative support with compassion, integrity, and accountability and mutual trust.
It’s all about giving back to the community
It all started three and a half decades ago and it still continues. We are talking about the Senior Tamils’ Center of Ontario (STC), a popular social organization based out of Scarborough. STC is a grouping of Senior Tamil community members who have been keeping themselves active and, in that process, maintaining an active relationship with the community as a whole. STC had never missed an opportunity to give back to the community where needed and when possible.
When the Covid pandemic broke out in the city, STC was there to partner with the city and to utilize the assistance offered by the City to those in need. Let it be sharing the health guidelines, distributing hot meals, distributing face masks or even helping out with booking testing/ vaccine appointments, STC was there to give a hand to the City in reaching out to the community.
In its own little ways, STC has been a benefactor for the services offered by Cancer Society of Canada and the Dialysis Unit of the Scarborough Health Network. STC has been working with these two organizations in meeting some of the demands made by the community. When the time came about, STC had also contributed to the funding efforts of The University of Toronto in installing a Tamil Chair at the University.
Based on the community’s needs and demands, we now see all three levels of the governments focusing on mental health and emotional well-being of its citizens. Naturally, mental health and emotional well-being has become the latest foray for STC to get involved. A group of STC members have grouped themselves together and are willing to lend their “ears” to members who are in need of attention. There are times when everyone needs somebody to listen to them, not really someone to give advice or suggestions but just to listen to someone expressing thoughts, concerns and may be worries. This group of volunteers have been handpicked to offer this service based on their perceived emotional makeup and willingness to help. The selected group has been put through formal training offered by qualified medical professionals. It’s clearly understood that this group of non-professionals do not offer any counseling support or medical help.
Another major project of STC was the “Clean Air Ambassadors” project. This project was STC’ s commitment to show concern and to take action on controlling the ecological foot print we could be leaving behind in this world. Through this project, STC had worked on expanding and engaging existing volunteers, empowering community youth and special needs children by teaching them new skills and ideas. The vision is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by way of changing personal commuting options; and by practicing water and energy conservation. It was the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) which had come forward in helping out STC with the necessary funding for this great project. This was a big commitment from STC to give back to the community in a big way.
It’s often believed that age is a barrier to technical incursions. However, we have some STC members proving this wrong. STC has a group of seniors sharing their skills in automation and robotics with the youth. This is an inter-generational activity, which is gaining momentum now and hopes to bring about innovation through sharing knowledge and experience. Interestingly this group calls itself ‘‘Makers Club”
There is a famous Bridge quote, which goes as “The real test of a bridge player isn't in keeping out of trouble, but in escaping once he's in”. Well…… STC has a Bridge Club too, members come together to sharpen their wits and skills. It’s believed that bridge promotes healthy aging as it provides opportunities for cognitive workouts and social interaction. Members of this club have been sharing their Bridge skills with other interested members of the community at large.
Another popular project of STC is ‘Ilam Thalirkal’ which when read in Tamil refers to” Budding Youngsters”. This project which aims to implement an inter-generational learning and development dialogue. Through this project seniors and youngsters have come together to explore academic avenues and social opportunities for their mutual benefit.
On the cultural front, Senior Tamils’ Center of Ontario (STC) is proud of their weekly cultural event titled “Nila Mutram”. A multimedia presentation hosted every Wednesday evening. This event is well received by the Tamil community in North America and also has viewers tuning in as far away from England and Australia. The tile of the event “Nila Mutram” says it all in Tamil, it refers to cultural events held in the verandah under moon light. The event includes music, dance, drama, poetry, debates and everything cultural.
In the media front, STC stands out with two great publications “Vaiharai”, a Tamil e-publication published on a weekly basis which carries short articles and topics complied from other published sources, all complied in interesting formats. Some readers of this e-magazine would like to refer to this publication as the Tamil Readers Digest. The other publication is the official quarterly magazine of STC, “Sanganatham”. This is the official voice of STC which has been coming out to the delight of the community for over 30 years now. “Sanganatham” never fails to reflect what STC stands for within the community.
Senior Tamils’ Center of Ontario (STC) is governed by an elected board of volunteer Directors, who all occupy their positions for a two-year term. As usual, the board of STC broadly represents stake holder representation, including gender equality. The current President of the Board S. Makendra, an accomplished man leading the way in taking this organization into the next decade. The organization is ably administered by a team of volunteers and three full time employees who plan and deliver the day-to-day activities of the Centre.
The mainstay of STC is in providing wellness and healthy-living activities for seniors on a 5-day work week basis. This includes yoga, chair yoga, cardio fitness and even Jewellery making. STC also works with other like-minded organizations in delivering health seminars and workshops (medical, fall prevention, safety, conservation of energy and environmental protection). The organization is also known for organizing age sensitive tours and cruises both local and outside Canada. In the past, STC had organized successful tours to China, Japan, Europe, South Africa, Morocco and other countries and organized enjoyable cruises over Mediterranean, Panama, Alaska, Caribbean islands.
This organization never shies away from organizing festivals and functions, let it be the Canada Day, Tamil Heritage Month, Christmas or Deepavali. They always organize meaningful festivities to bring about little fun and cheer.
STC has a vibrant website (www.seniortamilscentre.com) and an e-magazine published weekly to make its presence meaningful in the Internet and its active presence in the social media (Facebook) all make this organization a technically savvy senior outfit.
Going by all what has been achieved by this organization during the last 36 years, we have no doubt that Senior Tamils’ Centre of Ontario will continue to be scaling heights in keeping our seniors hale and hearty.
Our Story in Pictures: Senior Tamils' Centre of Ontario's Journey to Make a Difference
Become A Member
Who is eligible
Tamil residents of Ontario who are over 55 years of age are eligible to become members.
Membership Fee
Membership fee: The constitution which was revised and approved in 2021 had three categories for membership.
The amounts for the 3 categories are now fixed and it is as follows;
· Annual Membership Fee: $35 per person
Membership for new members: $35 per person + $60 Enrollment fee (one time only)
· Life Membership fee: minimum age 55 years and maximum age 90 years, discount rate 15%
Formula is as follows: 90 years – current age of members x current membership ($25) x 85%
Sustaining Membership Fee: Any member can be a Sustaining member who is willing to undertake or willing to sponsor an activity or a project for a certain period.
Membership Forms
Membership forms can be obtained from our office or call us at 416-496-2897 to obtain the membership form. Forms can be downloaded from our website as well.
Together, we succeed
Support us
Senior Tamils’ Centre of Ontario’s (STC) mission is to enhance well-being, reduce isolation, and instill a sense of belonging among seniors by mobilizing, socializing and providing support and advocacy. Our challenge in a changing society is the increase in the aging population, and to provide services to them. Also, there is an urgent growing need for funding supports for programs and services to address the immediate needs of our senior members.
Why donate
Senior Tamils’ Centre of Ontario is always expanding to meet the needs of our members and the community, yet some of the programs STC offers are not government funded. This leaves the most vulnerable community with unmet needs. Your support will help us to accomplish our goal and continue working towards the mission of Senior Tamils’ Centre of Ontario. Your support can be given in honor or in memory of someone special.
How to donate:
· Cheques could be written in the name of Senior Tamils’ Centre and sent our STC office at 5200 Finch Ave. E, #203, Scarborough ON M1S 4Z2
· E transfer could be done through seniortamils@gmail. com (company name: Senior Tamils’ Centre)
Or For more details contact us at:
416-496-2897/647-238-0503/647-740-4038
Support Senior Tamils' Centre of Ontario's Mission
Let’s own our own home and serve our members better.
Our Own Home
Good News! The time has come to transform our aspirations into tangible reality. Today, we stand on the cusp of turning our collective dream into a resounding reality for STC.
A home is always a dream for many. In January, at our Tamil Heritage Month and 38th anniversary celebration, we made a solemn vow to ourselves - to secure a place we can proudly call our own within two years. a promise to own a home for STC, and now we are close to making it a reality.
Now, with unwavering determination and meticulous planning, we have identified the perfect space. A good property came to us suddenly, and we feel it’s time to make a move, a little office space in the heart of the city (Finch /Kennedy) and are ready to buy. This will be our new office for STC from where we can expand our caring and sharing activities.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all who have rallied behind us, but now we must reach even further., We need more financial support to be able to close this purchase deal. Naturally, there is a big financial commitment in making this a reality. Please come forward and join hands with us, we need your contributions to close out the gap between what we have and what we need.
This is a time you might want to reach out to your family and friends, who might be wanting to help and be part of this great project of collateral development for our community. Those of you who have already made financial commitments towards this project please come forward to make good your pledges.
I am sure many of you would like to contribute towards this project, please reach out to me or our Executive Director or any member of our dedicated team and discuss your thoughts and ideas. We need the funds, and we need it now.
Together, let's turn the dream of home ownership into a successful reality. Let's seize this moment, for our community, for STC, and for the brighter tomorrow that awaits us.
Thank you, from the depths of my heart, for your unwavering support. With warm regards,
S. Makendra
President/and on behalf of the entire Board of Directors/Building Committee
What makes STC so Unique......
Candid Moments
Visit our Face Book Page
Additional Information
To see more pictures of STC activities please check our face book page at:
