Sienna for Seniors Foundation $1 million gift advances healthy aging research at Ontario Tech

Ontario Tech University has received a transformational $1 million gift from the Sienna for Seniors Foundation, the charitable arm of Sienna Senior Living, to establish the Sienna Senior Living Research Centre for Healthy Aging and Happiness.

The investment will help support applied, human-centred research focused on improving happiness and quality of life for older adults and the people who care for them. This significant contribution to the university’s Tech with a Conscience campaign will advance innovation in healthy aging at Ontario Tech by focusing on three priority areas:

• Enhancing well-being: Advancing innovative strategies and applied research to impact the overall happiness and quality of life for older adults living across different settings.
• Empowering people: Supporting training, education and well-being initiatives for caregivers, health-care professionals and senior living team members, with an emphasis on cultivating a culture of compassion, satisfaction and shared purpose.
• Driving insight and impact: Developing evidence-based tools, policies and measurement frameworks to inform the future of senior care.

Experts in aging and health sciences are overseeing the centre’s research. As the centre’s Scientific Director of Wellness and Innovations in NeuroAging,  Dr. Winnie Sun, Ontario Tech Research Excellence Chair in Healthy Aging and Dementia Care, and Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences (FHSc) leads work focused on dementia care, aging in place, and technology-enabled supports. Dr. Shilpa Dogra, the centre’s Scientific Director of Active InnovAging, Research Director of Ontario Tech’s Active Living and Longevity Lab, and Professor, FHSc, advances research on active aging, including fall prevention, sedentary behaviour and community-based programming.

Insights will be gained from research participants who live and work in diverse settings, with findings grounded in lived experiences and community participatory approaches.

“Every day, Sienna’s 15,500 team members serve more than 13,000 seniors across the country, and what we see consistently is that health and happiness are deeply connected,” says Nitin Jain, President and CEO, Sienna Senior Living. “Our purpose, cultivating happiness in daily life, came from those real moments where a resident smiles, reconnects, or feels a sense of belonging, and how that changes their overall well-being. Clinical care will always be essential, but on its own, it’s not enough for people to truly thrive. Ontario Tech and the Centre for Healthy Aging and Happiness are creating the opportunity to study this in depth, moving from what we experience every day to evidence that can shape the senior living sector. This work will build on strong research already underway at the university and continue reframing aging, because when seniors are happy, supported and engaged, we all benefit.” 

“This generous gift reflects the Sienna for Seniors Foundation’s commitment to improving the lives of older adults and supporting innovation in care,” says Dr. Steven Murphy, President and Vice-Chancellor, Ontario Tech University. “Sienna’s continued partnership will help enhance the quality of life and happiness of seniors as they age.”

The latest gift builds on the foundation’s growing partnership with Ontario Tech. The foundation previously contributed $100,000 to support scholarships for the university’s Nursing students.