Meeting the needs of seniors in the community is the challenge faced by the Yorkton New Horizons. To that end the Yorkton New Horizons conducted a community consultation with the aim of getting ideas for pushing the group forward and getting more use out of their facilities.
Tom Seeley, facilitator of the consultations, says that while the New Horizons has been running successful Friday night dances for a while, they’ve been looking for other ways to use the hall and meet seniors’ needs in the community.
One of the inspirations for the seniors of the area is the Dauphin Senior Centre. While operating in a much smaller centre, that facility has daily programming, an active membership of around 300 and a paid staff of four. Connie Chaloner, former director of the Dauphin Senior Centre, spoke at the event about how they grew their program. Seeley says that while it might not be appropriate to replicate what Dauphin did, it’s important to look at other successful seniors organizations have done.
“It’s kind of an inspiration I think to the people here, that a lot more can be done here in the city of Yorkton, a city almost two and a half times the size of Dauphin.”
The consultation process went beyond seniors, Seeley explains, bringing in people from different community organizations to the table. Part of the goal was also to find partnerships between community and the New Horizons itself.
A wide range of ideas were put forward, including exercise programs, different entertainment options and education on crime and fraud. An emphasis was placed on getting more engagement between youth in the city and the local seniors.
“Youth coming in to teach seniors how to use computers, the seniors going into schools or the community garden to teach youth how to grow stuff. Those ideas integrate the knowledge of one generation and the other. That’s some of the more creative ideas we’ve heard this morning.”
The results of the consultations will now be given to the executive of the New Horizons, who will ultimately decide what direction they take as they move forward.
