About the Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors (CASA)
 
The Start
The Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors (CASA) was established in 2003 and on July 1, 2003 was granted the exclusive license to bring the coveted Certified Senior Advisor Designation Course to Canada.

The Canadian Success Story
The first Canadian CSA live class course was held in December 2003, twelve were scheduled in 2005, with even more open and exclusive live classes scheduled for 2006 in major cities throughout Canada..

In addition the course is offered in the comfort of your living room through the self study Correspondence course, and the response in Canada to both the live class and the Correspondence course has been exceptional.

This is what Canadians are saying about the CSA designation course; “The best course I have ever done”, “An enlightening experience”, “A life changing experience”, “Phenomenal”, “The missing link and a must”, “this is an essential designation for anyone”, and many more such testimonials and comments. See more Testimonials.

The Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors has put together a superb faculty, professionals in their fields, who are great educators, but more importantly the passion they have for their subjects brings the modules alive, and makes for a very interesting course. See the Partial Faculty List.

Where did CSA come from – Read the CSA History
In 1996 a group of forward thinking people, geriatric physicians, gerontologists, elder law attorneys, CPAs, financial planners, and others well-schooled in senior issues saw the need for a single, credible source of information and training for professionals who serve the 55 plus population.

Until the CSA course was designed, professionals had to rely on their own ideas of what was good for persons in the 55 plus age group. As expected there were as many opinions, as there were professionals. And it was the seniors who suffered. Seniors received conflicting information, each professional pitching their products or services without understanding the unique needs of the seniors.

The original developers of the CSA training program began laying the foundation for the organization they envisioned with these tenets as its cornerstones…

• The organization must have irreproachable credibility.
• It has to provide authoritative, up-to-date information.
• It has to respect the time and resources of its members.
• And it has to provide ongoing education.

The curriculum was created, all the right experts were recruited for the faculty and a course was designed for professionals; and the Society of Certified Senior Advisors (SCSA) was born. When the Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors obtained the exclusive license from SCSA to bring this respected and recognized Certified Senior Advisor Designation Course to Canada, they took on the tenets as stated above as their own, and in turn recruited a respected and recognized faculty to teach a standardized international curriculum adapted with all the Canadian content and unique Canadian point of view.

Today, there are in excess of 19,000 professionals throughout North America, men and women from a variety of different industries: retirement consultants, home and health care, financial planners, insurance agents, lawyers, social workers, spiritual counselors, real estate agents, and many others who saw the importance of unified training, and they pursued the coveted CSA® designation.

In addition to the tenets above, The Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors adheres to the following:

Vision, Mission And Value Statements

Vision:
A Society that understands the processes of aging, and honours and respects the unique roles of seniors in our communities.

Mission:
1) Educate professionals about the social, health, and financial aspects of aging;
2) Promote professional and ethical standards in dealing with seniors;
3) Provide on-going learning opportunities and marketing materials to professionals serving seniors.

Values:
We value the inherent dignity and right of self-determination for each individual through honesty, integrity, fairness, and a commitment to excellence in our interactions with one another, our members, and ultimately the seniors we all serve.
 
 
Meet the Founders of The Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors
 
Rhonda Latreille, BA, MBA, CSA
A dynamic speaker and innovative program developer, Rhonda Latreille is responsible for introducing a number of new initiatives into the justice, financial, and health disciplines. Rhonda is the President, and with Dr. John Crawford, co-founder of the Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors Inc. She has consulted and trained in both the public and private sectors of British Columbia for the past twenty years, and has presented and moderated at national and international conferences.

Rhonda taught exam prep courses for Foran Financial Institute and Langara College, and has trained independent, corporate, government, and non-profit groups in the areas of communication, program design, and management. Working chiefly in the areas of criminal justice, victim services, and crime prevention, Rhonda has authored manuals and studies and has provided editorial review for a number of research projects and academic papers.

Previously, Rhonda served as the Director of Administration and Planning for the Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission of B.C., and Program Consultant for the Ministry of Attorney General’s Police-based Victim Assistance Program. Currently she is Treasurer on the B.C. Institute Against Family Violence Board of Directors, and has held the position of President of B.C. Criminal Justice Association, Chairperson of the Provincial Advisory Committee for Electronic Monitoring Project, Vice Chairperson of the Nanaimo Child Sexual Abuse Steering Committee, and Program Director on the Board of Nanaimo Regional District Boys and Girls Club.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA in International Management from Asia Pacific International Graduate School of Management in New Zealand, Rhonda has held a mutual fund license and life insurance certificates, and has advanced mediation skills certification from the Justice Institute of B.C.

Rhonda is adept on the piano and harp. She lives in North Burnaby with her husband, internationally shown stone sculptor Herb Latreille. Herb and Rhonda enjoy Tundra and Malcolm X, their two wolf-cross malamute and husky dogs.
 
 
John Crawford, BSc, BA, MA, PhD, CSA
Dr. John Crawford, a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal for his service to the elderly and disabled in Canada, is a consultant and lecturer in the field of gerontology. Certified with the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, John is a co-founder and vice-president of the Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors. As the principal in JC Consulting, Dr. Crawford offers aging and health expertise for facility planning and program development.

As an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University, John taught courses on aging, including introductory gerontology, seniors in society, health and aging, Alzheimer’s disease, long-term care, community health, home care, and prevention of disability. He continues to present these topics at conferences, colleges, and universities, nationally and internationally.

John was educated at the universities of Glasgow, Toronto, Saskatchewan, and Manchester in physiotherapy, sociology, medical sociology, and geriatric medicine respectively. Prior to his tenure at SFU and a position as director of geriatric rehabilitation for Pacific Health Care Society in New Westminster, John was a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, where he was also a founding director of the Saskatchewan Institute on Prevention of Handicaps. He is an honorary life member of the Saskatchewan Physical Therapy Association.

Also a part-time entrepreneur, John was a founding director and shareholder of Saskatoon Telecable, and he was involved in real estate development in Saskatoon for fifteen years. More recently, he was president of Metrotown Minuteman Press, a family printing business located in Burnaby, B.C.

John has been married for forty-six years; has a daughter, a son, and three granddaughters; and is an active volunteer with the Cheshire Homes Society of B.C., the Canadian Institute for the Blind, and his church community. John enjoys reading, walking, swimming, doing crossword puzzles, and watching soccer—the latter two with a glass of single-malt Scotch in hand!
 

 
Head Office: 907-6540 Hastings Street, Burnaby, B.C.,Canada, V5B 4Z5
Phone: 1-877-272-9066
Toll Free Registration: 1-877-272-9066
Fax: 604-648-9647
Email: info@canadacsa.com
Copyright © 2005. Canadian Academy of Senior Advisors (CASA). All Rights Reserved.
Web Design and Hosting by WebStorm