SilVR Adventures has launched its first Canadian VR program at the Seniors Association Kingston Region (KSA) in Kingston, Ontario, marking the company’s entry into the Canadian market and into a new setting: a community seniors association serving thousands of active, independently living older adults.
The program was championed by Clare Williams, Programs and Special Events at KSA, who identified VR as an opportunity to deepen the association’s engagement offering and bring something genuinely new to its members.
A Different Kind of Setting
The Seniors Association Kingston Region is one of the largest seniors associations in Ontario, with close to 6,000 members, more than 300 programs, and 12 sites across the city. Twenty-one percent of Kingston’s population are seniors, and the association sits at the centre of their community life, running everything from fitness classes to a restaurant and café on its main site, which occupies a former elementary school. The organisation runs largely on volunteer power, with more than 500 volunteers contributing across programs, administration, and its monthly magazine.
This is a different environment to the residential aged care settings where SilVR has built its footprint in Australia and New Zealand. KSA’s members are predominantly active, independently living adults aged 60 to 80. They are not residents. They choose to show up. The challenge for any program is giving them a reason to keep doing so.
Clare Williams saw that reason in VR.
Getting the Program Off the Ground
The VR kit arrived in August. Within weeks, the program was running four one-hour sessions per week, delivered by a volunteer team of four people. The gear travels between rooms on a purpose-built cabinet, fully charged and ready to go wherever a session is scheduled.
Leading the delivery is Mike, a volunteer with a technical background who Clare recruited before the equipment had even arrived. He has since been driving more than two hours each way from Ottawa, twice a week, to run the sessions.
“I now have the luxury of directing my efforts toward the value proposition of working with people I enjoy working with and doing something that I think is helpful and useful,” Mike says. “Would I rather doom scroll some social media thing for two hours, or would I rather go make a difference in someone’s lives?”
The sessions are structured around group viewing, with facilitators leading conversation after each experience. That social dimension is intentional. KSA’s programs are built around four pillars: mental stimulation, physical activity, nutrition, and socialisation. VR fits across all of them, but it is the shared conversation after the headsets come off that the team has leaned into most.
As Colin Pudsey, founder of SilVR, has observed: “The magic really happens when the headsets come off.”
A Mission That Resonates
KSA’s organisational mission, as stated by its Executive Director Don Amos, is straightforward: keep people in their homes as long as possible. The moment a senior transitions into a care setting, the cost to the individual and to the broader health system rises sharply. Programs that keep people engaged, active, and connected serve a function that goes well beyond lifestyle enrichment.
It is a mission that aligns closely with what SilVR is designed to do: reduce isolation, spark connection, and give older adults experiences that are meaningful and worth talking about.
For SilVR, the Kingston partnership is the beginning of understanding what that mission looks like in a Canadian context, with a different regulatory environment, a different organisational model, and a different membership profile. It is an early step, taken deliberately.
Looking Ahead
The program is in its early weeks. The volunteer team is growing. More sessions are planned before the end of the association’s program year in June, with the goal of building a core team that can sustain delivery across the week without relying on any one person.
“We are a new partner in Canada trying something new,” Mike says. “We’re getting a lot of valuable feedback. It’s an entirely new market segment and an entirely new venture for both parties.”
SilVR will be sharing more from the Kingston program as it develops.
About Seniors Association Kingston Region
The Seniors Association Kingston Region is one of Ontario’s largest community-based seniors organisations, serving close to 6,000 members across 12 sites in Kingston, Ontario. The association offers more than 300 programs supported by over 500 volunteers, built around the pillars of mental stimulation, physical activity, nutrition, and socialisation. Its mission is to support older adults to remain active, connected, and living independently in the community. https://www.seniorskingston.ca/
