Powell River Seniors Community Council is taking an active role in advocating for seniors’ interests in the community.
At the Tuesday, March 19, City of Powell River committee of the whole meeting, the history of the formation of the seniors council was outlined, leading up to the formation of the council, which could have an advisory role to city council.
City director of parks, recreation and culture Ray Boogaards told the committee that during the past number of months, a group of dedicated seniors has worked with city staff and a consultant to develop a strategic plan and action plan for the seniors community council. The initiative was underwritten by a provincial age-friendly grant, which the city has received for the past three years.
The first year involved development of an age-friendly plan, which was successful and received a lot of input from the community. It also involved the startup of the Seniors Together program on the third Thursday of every month, with an average of more than 70 people attending per event. The program involves a speaker’s series, healthy lunch and physical activity.
Year two involved the development of the seniors community council, with work starting on what that council would look like.
Year three has involved the start of the community council.
Seniors community council chair Pam Kenny said the council has its roots in the age-friendly community report, which was passed by council last year. Since the seniors community council’s inception last August, it has been through three planning sessions with a consultant and formulated mission and vision statements, values, goals and objectives.
Kenny outlined what the seniors community council has accomplished in the last seven months. On November 22 last year the group held an awareness event in three locations to introduce themselves and the group’s suggestion boxes to the community. During the four hours of the awareness event, seniors council members spoke to many seniors about their concerns and issues. Suggestion boxes have been established in those three locations: Powell River Recreation Complex, Powell River Public Library and Town Centre Mall. The boxes are cleared regularly and suggestions are tabulated and reviewed by council members.
The council has produced its first edition of the seniors resource guide, which is a pull-out section of the spring and summer Active Living Guide distributed by the city’s department of parks, recreation and culture.
The second edition will come out in the fall Active Living Guide. These guides will serve as a template to ensure the sustainability of future issues of the guide.
The seniors council is working with the city’s transit services to advocate for more bus shelters and benches so seniors can travel within the community more safely. Seniors council members will be riding the buses on Friday, March 22, to chat with seniors’ ridership, said Kenny.
Their next event on May 2 will be a seniors community resource fair, which will be a collaborative event shared by several organizations, to which everyone is welcome. It will be held at the recreation complex.
Mayor Dave Formosa said the seniors community council was a great initiative. He said in all of the years he has been on city council, he did not think seniors had a high enough profile. After the last municipal election, when councillor portfolios were being established, seniors were given their portfolio, held by councillor Jim Palm, rather than them being part of the parks, recreation and culture portfolio.
“I wanted them to have more prominence,” said Formosa. “It’s to remind us that seniors built our country and our community and we don’t want to forget them. I’m very happy to see this come about.”
Palm, chair of the committee of the whole, said the seniors community council is similar in structure to the city’s youth council, which is an independent body, reporting and bringing issues directly to city council.
“We welcome that approach; we think it is the one that will work the best,” said Palm. “It gives them a voice right at this table. We’ll make sure that when issues come up and there needs to be dialogue, we’ll make sure it comes to committee of the whole for a healthy discussion to get everybody involved before any of those big issues come to city council.”
Boogaards brought forward three recommendations to committee of the whole. They included that: Council receive the Strategic Direction and Action Plan for the seniors community council report; that it endorse the establishment of a seniors community council; and include $4,000 in the 2019 city budget to assist in the operations of the seniors community council.
The financial request will be brought to the city’s finance committee for consideration.
