SPARK: Community Partner Program

SPARK participants

What is Spark?

The Baycrest Spark Community Partner Program combines Jewish learning and reflection with community service and volunteering to provide an ongoing service to the elderly.

The program is modeled after the Spark HeartAction program, “a national Jewish organization whose mission is to inspire a commitment to service as an ongoing part of each person's life and an important expression of Jewish identity.”

How did Spark begin?

There is no question that residents in nursing homes can benefit tremendously when visitors spend time with them.

Baycrest employee Bev Devins saw an opportunity for such a program at Baycrest and began contacting synagogues within the community to recruit Jewish volunteers to come to Baycrest and visit with the residents. The result of Bev’s hard work and support from several local synagogues was the successful launch of the Baycrest Spark Community Partner Program.

A visitor fulfills a sacred role by providing company, a connection to community and by reminding the individual that they are not forgotten. This is an act of chesed, or loving-kindness that can be both great in its powerful effect on others and small in the many small ways it can be fulfilled.

The Baycrest Mission

To enrich the quality of life of the elderly guided always by the principles of Judaism.

The Mission of Spark

The mission of Spark is to inspire an ongoing commitment to community service as part of each person’s life and as an important expression of Jewish identity.

Enrich your life.
Be a ‘spark’ in the life of a senior.
Give the gift of time

The Baycrest ‘Spark’ program needs volunteers one Sunday morning a month.
Spark is a community partnering program. Our volunteers are from synagogues across the community. We meet once a month to listen to interesting speakers, watch films or discuss a range of Jewish texts, then share our experience and precious one-on-one time with the senior residents of the Baycrest Apotex Centre: Jewish Home for the Aged.

The Spark program will:

Enrich your life
Make you a better listener
Build dynamic leadership skills
Allow you to perform mitzvoth by visiting with seniors
Enable volunteers to combine their resources to build and enrich our community
Provide a forum for volunteers from many different streams of Jewish practice to come together

You can make a difference in the life of a senior!

How Spark works

One Sunday morning a month Spark volunteers meet at Baycrest for a theme-based discussion around various Jewish sources. The meetings include discussion of Jewish text, films and presentations which are led by members of the group or by a professional in the community. Immediately following the discussion the core of the morning is spent visiting residents in the Baycrest Apotex Centre: Jewish Home for the Aged. Spark carefully pairs each volunteer with a resident based on personality, mutual interest and/or the needs of the resident. After the visit the volunteers meet again for reflection.

The Commitment

Nine days a year is the commitment required from each volunteer. The group meets one Sunday morning per month and runs October through June. The visits are especially meaningful to both the volunteers and the residents and many special friendships have resulted. Additional visiting throughout the month is appreciated.

Contact SPARK

Bev Devins
416.785.2500 ext. 3005 or e-mail
Baycrest Volunteers “Spark” program
3560 Bathurst Street Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1

What They're Saying About Spark
As a teenager, I spent many summers volunteering at Baycrest hospital. Forty years later, I am thrilled to find myself volunteering there once again,” says Bonny Kartz, one of the program’s volunteers. I instantly formed a beautiful friendship with very special 89 year old women named Sylvia and in our short time together, I was moved and intrigued by the stories that she shared with me. When it was time for the volunteers to reconvene and reflect, it was obvious that our first encounter with the residents was emotional and heartwarming for all of us.