Welcome to Sherbrooke is a podcast that takes you inside Sherbrooke Community Centre; a long term care home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where 263 residents live and which follows the Eden Alternative Philosophy of Care.

In this episode, we learn the importance of Sherbrooke residents connecting with people and organizations in the greater community, and we take you to Saskatoon’s Remai Modern Art Gallery to show how these connections make a difference in the lives of residents.

One of the seven domains of well-being in the Eden Alternative Philosophy of Care is connectedness, which takes many forms in Sherbrooke. It can be the connection between a resident and their care staff. It can be the bond a resident feels with a cat who calls Sherbrooke home.

For this episode, we are going to explore the connection that residents and staff can form within the greater community.

There are many examples of community connections Sherbrooke has formed over the years, but we will focus on a recent example involving a local artist named Gabby DaSilva.

Last year, Gabby worked on the second edition of her zine, ‘invisibly ill’ with Sherbrooke residents and Grade 6 iGen students. The zine, which resembles a magazine, explored themes of disabilities and invisible illnesses through stories and artwork from residents and students iGen students. Gabby’s work brought visibility to artists living with visible and invisible disabilities and we were proud to be included in this zine.

We were also proud to partner on this project with Saskatoon’s AKA Artist-Run Centre and the Remai Modern, which hosted a launch party for Gabby’s zine. You are about to meet some very excited Sherbrooke residents, along with iGen students, Sherbrooke staff and Gabby DaSilva, on what this collaboration meant to them.

Thank you for listening to the Welcome to Sherbrooke podcast. Please leave a 5-star review if you like what you hear and feel free to share the podcast with all of your friends!

Episode Credits:

Produced, edited, mixed by Eric Anderson

Executive Producer is Kim Schmidt

Music licensed through APM Music

Gathered on location at Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Welcome to Sherbrooke is a podcast that takes you inside Sherbrooke Community Centre; a long term care home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where 263 residents live and which follows the Eden Alternative Philosophy of Care.

In this episode, we visit our annual Christmas Buffet where residents enjoy a delicious holiday meal with friends and family. It's a wonderful example of how food and the dining experience can bring people together, and you'll hear from several Sherbrooke staff about why this is an important aspect of the Eden Alternative Philosophy of Care.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Welcome to Sherbrooke. You can listen and follow Welcome to Sherbrooke wherever you find your podcasts and don't forget to leave a 5-star review if you like what you hear.

Episode Credits:

Produced, edited, mixed by Eric Anderson

Executive Producer is Kim Schmidt

Music licensed through APM Music

Gathered on location at Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Welcome to Sherbrooke is a podcast that takes you inside Sherbrooke Community Centre; a long term care home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where 263 residents live and which follows the Eden Alternative Philosophy of Care.

My name is Eric Anderson and I’m the Communications Leader for Sherbrooke.

In this episode, we feature a very special guest to only our Sherbrooke community but the Eden community around the world, Dr. Bill Thomas.

Dr. Thomas is the co-founder, along with his wife Jude, of the Eden Alternative philosophy. He is a physician, professor, entrepreuner, a playwright and someone who loves wearing bunnyhugs.

He has visited Sherbrooke in the past and is a strong believer in the culture we have built. For our organization, he continues to push our organization to provide the best in well-being for residents.

A few weeks ago, four members of Sherbrooke’s Leadership team, myself included, attended the Eden International Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was an opportunity for people from around the world to get together and share their successes and the challenges they are facing in long term care.

Dr. Thomas and his wife attended the conference and we had this big idea of seeing if he would be a guest on our podcast because it’s fun to dream big!

Kim Schmidt, who is our CEO and presented at the conference, was able to steal 10 minutes of Dr. Thomas’ time after the first day of the conference wrapped up to ask him some questions.

Kim did a wonderful job of interviewing Dr. Thomas and we are excited to share that conversation with you now.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode and a big thank you to Dr. Bill Thomas for carving out time out of his busy schedule to speak with Kim for the podcast. You can listen to the ‘Welcome to Sherbrooke’ podcast wherever you find your favourite podcasts including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Don’t forget to leave a 5-star review if you like what you hear.

Episode Credits:

Produced, edited, mixed by Eric Anderson

Executive Producer is Kim Schmidt

Music licensed through APM Music

Gathered on location at Sherbrooke Community Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada