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Seniors brainstorm in town hall meeting

Whistler’s residents gather to discuss issues, solutions and priorities for seniors in the resort
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AGING ACTIVISTS Planning is underway by the Mature Action Community to better understand what issues Whistler seniors face. Shutterstock image

Whistler seniors are tackling four important questions. The questions were put to resort residents over the age of 50 at a town hall meeting last week.

The community gathering attracted 80 people at Our Lady of the Mountains Church on Monday, Jan. 13 to start an action plan aimed at giving seniors a louder voice in Whistler. Melissa Deller, the Senior Needs Action Planner with Whistler Community Services attended the meeting.

“We wanted to bring different groups of people together aged 50 and above to start an action plan to see how seniors could have a voice with regards to support, health care, socialization, activities, programming and transportation,” said Deller. “We were open to hearing anything.”

The gathering started with a presentation led by Deller and Mature Action Community (MAC) president Sue Lawther. The opening presentation outlined previous MAC accomplishments and set out organizational goals moving forward.

From that opening the attendees were asked to tackle each of the four questions posed to the group. The MAC leadership wanted to know what aging in place meant to the attendees. The second question asked what issues are creating problems regarding the needs of seniors. The third question dug into how the issues should be resolved and what role MAC and Whistler Community Services should take in helping to resolve them. The final question asked how to get more of Whistler’s 50-plus population engaged.

Deller said 10 minutes was spent on each question. Meeting attendees in small groups wrote down their answers on large pieces of paper and each group submitted their sheets at the end of the meeting.

“We had ten papers filled with ideas of what people could use to find solutions,” said Deller.

The information is now being compiled and when MAC members get together for the organization’s annual general meeting on April 7 the data will be presented so priorities can be set and action plans implemented based on the information coming out of the meeting held this week.

Anyone looking for more information on issues relating to seniors is encouraged to contact Deller. She can be reached at 604-932-0113 or via email at snap@mywcss.org.

Pique will have ongoing coverage of aging in place issues. Check back for ongoing coverage.