Loren Freid Retirement Campaign

Campaign Update

We did it! With your support Loren has surpassed the $100,000 goal!

We are thrilled to announce that Loren retired April 28 knowing that his goal to raise money for DAY programs by the end of April was realized.

Loren and the team at AS York wish to extend a special thanks to The Carswell Family Foundation for their leadership gift of $50,000 and to you who met the challenge and matched this gift. Finally, our thanks to Loren for remaining focused on the future of DAY programs, even as he planned to retire.

Loren, we all wish you the very best in your next adventure and thank you for your dedication to serving families impacted by dementia in York Region during your 15-year tenure as CEO at the Alzheimer Society of York Region.

About the Loren Freid Retirement Campaign

Make a gift to the Loren Freid Retirement Campaign

Throughout Loren’s years of work with AS York staff and clients, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to quality programs for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, and their families.

In his retirement announcement, Loren envisioned a lofty goal: to raise $100,000 for AS York’s three D.A.Y. programs before he retires!

To honour this vision, AS York has launched the Loren Freid Retirement Campaign.

The campaign has already started with a bang, with a leadership gift of $50,000 from the Carswell Family Foundation!

Let’s work together to match this incredible donation and make Loren’s wish come true before he leaves on April 28, 2023 (revised date).

We invite the AS York community of volunteers, staff, clients, supporters, partners, friends and family to join us in making a gift today to the Loren Freid Retirement Campaign.

Read the letter from Loren announcing his retirement.

Looking back

Loren became CEO of the Alzheimer Society of York Region in 2008. Throughout his tenure, Loren has worked to alleviate the personal and social consequences of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias by expanding AS York’s programs and services and to raise awareness of the disease becoming a focus within health care priorities.  Today, AS York provides quality and safe client and family-focused care to approximately 2,500 families through D.A.Y. programs, caregiver support groups, navigation, counselling and public education. Loren has navigated the organization through significant milestones. Among his accomplishments, Loren: 

• oversaw a long overdue and necessary upgrade in D.A.Y. program facilities for both clients and staff in a variety of locations. These steps increased client and caregiver access to more diverse services across York Region. Under Loren's leadership, the society:
  • relocated the flagship office and D.A.Y. program facility from Newmarket to a larger, more modern space in Aurora.
  • opened satellite offices and established new programming in Vaughan, Stouffville and Georgina; and refurbished the D.A.Y. program facility in Markham to provide greater accessibility for dementia programming for people living with dementia.
  • implemented the First Link® program and a First Link Navigator programming in Georgina area.
  • established new partnerships within the healthcare sector to expand and broaden programming across all of York Region.
  • partnered with Mount Sinai Hospital’s Reitman Centre CARERS program: an eight-week program for people caring for spouses with dementia.  The program focus is on practical skills based tools and emotional supports needed to provide care for family members with dementia.  
• co-led a health care collaborative process to create and implement a new Dementia Strategy Implementation Plan for the Central LHIN.
• led a multisector health care collaborative that developed a new planning framework for improving the identification and types of supports for caregivers in the Central LHIN.  This led to other organizations such as Cancer Care Ontario utilizing this framework in designing approved approaches to caregiver support.
• established dementia care as a primary focus within the new, burgeoning Ontario Health Team structure in York Region.
• spearheaded three accreditation processes for AS York with Accreditation Canada, each resulting in exemplary standing (2015, 2017 and 2021).  This galvanized a culture built on safety and quality programs, organizational structure and governance.    
• initiated a new, dedicated focus, attention and direction on major gift fundraising that culminated with AS York’s first $1,000,000 gift and many other substantial donations.
• ensured that clients were provided with programming options despite the pandemic closures with the development of innovative virtual and in-home D.A.Y. programming options.
• implemented a new $2.2M evaluative research partnership initiative with the Faculty of Health at York University to explore and define the efficacy of adult day programming in Canada.

A Message from Loren

“It has been a great pleasure and extraordinary experience working for AS York as the Executive Director and then as the CEO. I will certainly miss the engagement with our clients, families, staff team, and members of the board.  I am so grateful for the lessons that I have learned from their resiliency within a health system that is often a challenge. I will also greatly miss the work and camaraderie that I have developed with so many of you. Your support to me, our clients, and the organization has given me the opportunity to learn and grow. It has been my privilege to work with so many gifted people dedicated to our mission.

“Although I am looking forward to spending more time with my family and perhaps do some travel, I hope that we can stay in touch, and wish you all continued good health and success.”