Seniors Connect Program

The project seeks to enhance the current Seniors Connect Program, leading seniors towards a better livelihood. This will be done through increasing the proportion of senior tenants who utilize the program, as well as securing financial support to continue the program.

Background

To preserve the vision of CityHousing Hamilton to be the best place to raise a child and age successfully, as part of our responsibility, and to provide support to the needs of a diverse community. (source: City Housing Hamilton website).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, seniors are more at risk and there is a need to provide wellness support with the use of digital technology which is more effective and efficient than distributing flyers to seniors to keep them informed of their well-being.

Objectives

•  Within one year (or less) of installing a box in buildings that allows channel 399 to be accessed by all individual units, an additional 30%-40% of senior tenants will be engaged in the Seniors Connect Program.

• Within one year (or less), adding qualified volunteers to the Seniors Connect team will improve the output of digital information for seniors that will increase interest and information shared efficiently, adding value to the program.

• Develop a marketing plan to enlist volunteers to the Senior Connect team by tracking interest of potential volunteers through partners and adjusting the marketing plan accordingly. Incentives of non-financial rewards for their time and work need to be included. 

Requirements

• Business Requirements: The Seniors Connect Program shall be accessible on televisions to all apartments included in the program on channel 399.

• Solution Requirements: Seniors Connect Program’s digital content displayed must be able to fit the screens of televisions, laptops, tablets, phones, etc.

• Stakeholder Requirements: The content displayed on the CCTV needs to have appropriate font that is readable by seniors.

Proposed Strategy

• To secure a relationship with City of Hamilton partners (Mohawk College, McMaster University, and others) to find fit-for-purpose volunteers knowledgeable with content management and graphic design to replace exiting volunteers and assist existing volunteers of Seniors Connect. 

• To increase the fraction of rent (4.99$) for each tenant to fund the cable installation that broadcasts channel 399 and support the operation of Senior Connect for each building in exchange for a better lifestyle and well-being. 

Next Steps

• Action: Meeting with higher authorities to propose the Business Requirements Document (BRD).

• Responsibility: Project Sponsor

• Expected Date: 1st Quarter 2023

City Staff: Brenda Silverthorne, Project Sponsor, Seniors Connect Hamilton City Housing

Faculty: Lisa Pegg, Program Coordinator, Business Analysis, Mohawk College

Students: Vivian Si, Joshua Mallo, Jesulayomi Fadahunsi, Henil Jayesh Panchal, Matthew Chmiel, Business Analyst Students of Mohawk College

Business Requirements Document Report

Accessible Transportation Services in Hamilton

How can trip data from accessible transportation services be converted into useful information, to allow for the delivery of a service that offers more flexibility to persons with disabilities?

Project Overview

The City of Hamilton is always looking for ways to improve the overall customer experience when using public transit. The goal of this project is to explore different opportunities to provide public transit service to persons with disabilities. The city currently provides provides door-to-door service to clients who qualify for accessible transportation service (ATS). The service is provided by a contractor. Subscription trips are booked for recurring medical appointments or other activities, while clients booking “casual trips” can reserve a trip seven days in advance of their trip to ensure it can be provided. While clients reserve custom destinations, they may have shared travel with other customers enroute to destinations as drivers balance the demand for efficient service. Clients are able to travel within Hamilton but can also cross municipal boundaries such as trips to Burlington, and Niagara, or be connected with other services such as GO Transit. In such trips, ATS will either connect clients to services at the outskirts of the boundary to continue their trip, or drop them off at GO stations such as West Harbour, Hamilton GO, Centennial, and McMaster University. There is a significant amount of data available that details where these clients are travelling to and from, along with client demographics and mobility requirements. A data set provided by ATS is for the 2019 year which omits COVID-19 irregularities. This data consists of 844,007 trips.

In Scope

Convert data from an ATS to information that will provide insights including, but not limited to:

• Ambulatory/non-ambulatory trips

• Determine major trip destinations

• Heat maps

• Trips by Ward

• Inter-regional trips

• Volume by time & day

Background Research

Feel free to combine the data provided by the city with open data to further generate insights on the accessible transportation services in Hamilton. You may want to explore HSR open data from the City of Hamilton, and other supporting HSR and City of Hamilton strategy documents to see if there is correlation with ATS data and any additional insight generated . There are plenty of opportunities to move beyond the provided data set such as the Open Data portal, Transportation Master Plan, LRT, and Ten Year Local Transit Strategy

City Staff: Marco Mostacci, Senior Project Manager; Nancy Purser, Manager; Michelle Martin, Manager - Accessible Transportation Services

Faculty: Steven Way, Coordinator/Professor, Analytics for Business Decision Making 

Course: HEAD Competition, 85+ Students

Project Agreement

Greening Hamilton's Fleet

What is next for fleet greening beyond the current 2024 Green Fleet strategy?

Project Description:

The City of Hamilton’s Public Works Energy Fleet and Facilities division has developed a thorough Action Plan and taken steps towards greening and updating the fleet of city vehicles to decrease the City’s climate impact. This focus has included upgrading vehicles, retrofitting with aftermarket modifications, implementing the use of bio diesel and more. Much of this focus has been on improving the light vehicle weight class. Public Works is seeking a student team to conduct research on the next wave of fleet greening innovation, by looking at leading countries and regions (ex: Europe) in these practices and understanding the future of fleet innovation.

Students will seek to answer the following questions:

• What is next beyond light duty vehicle upgrades, beyond the current strategy?

• What is on the global forefront for electrification and greening of medium and heavy duty vehicles?

• Other areas of consideration are examining the use of hydrogen, which is not readily or widely available for use in Canada. What could be the steps necessary for expanding the use of this in the Canadian market.

From these findings the student team will recommend program and policy development to enhance the implementation of the Green Fleet Strategy, with consideration to climate change, economics, and stakeholder consultations.

Objective: To identify, research, and evaluate upcoming technologies and innovations in fleet greening from leading regions around the world, with specific consideration to feasibility in Hamilton regarding fueling infrastructure, weather, access, with policy options for advancing the greening of the fleet.

Deliverables: Recommendations report based on literature review, Policy paper (Technology development around the globe, comparative policy analysis from other jurisdictions)

Background Research: Technology development around the globe, comparative policy analysis from other jurisdictions

Where the work will go and what it will be used for: From these findings the student team will recommend program and policy development to enhance the implementation of the Green Fleet Strategy, with consideration to climate change, economics, and stakeholder consultations.

City staff: Lesley Parker, Superintendent Fleet Capital Planning & Contract Management, Public Works

Faculty & Course: William Docherty, Environmental Capstone Project, Mohawk College

Students: Sandi Ouk, Hetalben Chavadia, Vhien Forbes

Project Agreement

Final Report

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS CHALLENGE BY WATCHING OUR MATCHMAKER SESSION WITH LESLEY PARKER AND TOM KAGIANIS