Category Archives: seniors

Caring in Community

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a busy week, work-wise, as I’ve been deeply engaged in our own Senior Centres Week activities or supporting events held at other organizations. Last night I was privileged to speak at Senior Care – Who Cares?, an event co-sponsored by the Calgary Seniors Resource Society and Public Interest Alberta. The full text of my speech is online; here’s an excerpt:

There is a tension in non-profit work between the quantitative – counting numbers, calculating statistics – and the qualitative – the anecdotal parts of our work that have so much meaning to individuals. The relationship between two people, whatever their role, is not something that can be forced, nor can it be ignored. In a senior centre, there is an increasing tension between building of relationships and completing administrative duties.

Working in the area of community development and trying to create new ways of engaging everyone regardless of age or state continues to bring up this kind of tension. I don’t subscribe to a client-worker relationship model, or believe that any one person has all the answers. I do believe that each of us should be recognized for our skills, talents, and abilities as long as we are using them for the good of all. I believe that the three-fold Goddess, where Maiden, Mother and Crone all have an distinct but equal role, is the model we should be using in engaging people in our communities. And I believe that a complete community includes all of us. Blessed Be!

Fare/Fair: CT Senior’s Pass

Posted on by
Reply

New year, new transit fares. Calgary’s transit rates are going up (from $90 to $94 for my monthly pass), but the big story is the senior’s pass increase, which is going from $35/year to $55/year. (Low-income seniors are still able to ride for $15/year, and it should be noted that a senior’s pass cannot be used for Access Calgary rides.) Meanwhile, in Halifax, the push is for seniors to ride transit for free, with a petition appearing on the mayor’s website this week.

Personally, I’d like to see no fares for transit (recognizing that this would mean transit funding would likely come from increased taxes for all Calgary citizens, including myself). And because I work with seniors, I am very aware that their costs are increasing faster than their incomes are (even those not yet retired).

However, in this case, I think that the City of Calgary has made the right move. If we are to develop a transit system that works for everyone, it needs to be fairly supported by everyone. Giving seniors a break on the pass rate simply because they’re 65+, in a world where more and more seniors continue to work after that age, no longer makes sense.

Instead, I’d like to see a move toward two transit rate categories (regular and low income) and then look at how transit fares can be reduced and/or eliminated so that more people can use transit effectively. This is what should be really be part of the discussion on Calgary Transit priorities in 2012 and beyond.

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

“Safety in Parking” – Vote Today!

Posted on by
Reply

Aviva Community Fund

Hey everyone. Bow Cliff Seniors (one of the centres I work with) is proud to be participating in the Aviva Community Fund competition again this year, and they need your help. Their project – “Safety in Parking” – builds on two years of fundraising toward a new and improved parking lot, including:

  • south side sidewalks (so seniors don’t have to walk behind parked cars)
  • centre walkway (allowing safe access to all parked cars)
  • speed bumps and barriers at ends of the lot
  • signs (speed limit, handicapped parking and information)
  • landscaped planters
  • security cameras

How You Can Help

First, register for an account at https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/users/registration/register. (You can’t vote unless you register for an account.)

Then, starting Monday, October 3, 2011 (12pm ET), you can vote by clicking on the “VOTE” button at our Aviva Community Fund site (Bow Cliff Seniors “Safety in Parking” Project) or, if you’re on Facebook, you can vote at their page (https://www.facebook.com/avivacommunityfund/.

Once you start, please keep going! The first round lasts 15 days (October 3 to October 19) and each person registered can vote once a day. The top 90 ideas will make it into the semi-final round and the top 30 into the final round, and every vote counts!

And please, share this information with friends and friends! Post it on your Facebook wall, tweet about it, write a blog post or two, text your kids, share via intra-office email – whatever you can do to get the word out. The more people who hear about this project and vote, the more likely that BCS will win the competition.

(Political and Transportational) Choices

Posted on by
Reply

I’ll admit it – I have a political crush on NDPer Megan Leslie (who’s running for re-election in Halifax). Why? 

  • She was voted “Rookie MP of the Year” in 2009.
  • When she spoke on Bill C-449 (giving seniors free access to transit in off-peak hours) she talked about the impact of free transit (“Free transit would greatly increase the quality of life by removing the terrible choice between rent, food, or heat and bus tickets.”) and called for the development of a National Transit Strategy for Canada.
  • She’s had some great clips recently on CBC because of her role as NDP spokesperson on health.

But, most of all, she’s running a carbon-neutral campaign that includes transit, cycling and carsharing. It’s nice to see someone who actually gets it – how we do the work matters as much as the work we’re doing. I look forward to the day when this is the norm, not the exception. Until then, I’ll work on convincing people that I’m not a saint just because I use Calgary Transit to get to work-related events, ok? (I’ll point out the other reasons instead, hehe.)


**Bonus points for her reference of climate-change discussions in this election campaign as an “issue of inter-generational equity” because, really, isn’t it?

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

Putting the "Over" in "Overachiever"

Posted on by
Reply
So, I’ve been a little quiet on the blogging front lately, but there’s actually a good reason for that. As of April 1, I’ve taken on a new position in the community: Director of Senior Centres at Calgary Seniors Resource Society. I’m overseeing the “big picture” pieces of community building/collaboration, funding, marketing, research /advocacy and human resources as the Executive Director at three senior centres (Bow Cliff Seniors, Ogden House Seniors and Parkdale Nifty Fifties). The title of the post says it all, really.

Let’s Think Bigger, or What’s Our Vision for Canada?

Posted on by
Reply
There’s been a lot in the media this week about the federal government’s decision to cut the number of family reunification visas that they will be issuing for parents/grandparents from 16,000 to 11,000. Most of the concern seems to be around the cost to Canada as these people age and receive benefits, specifically:
  • CPP: In order to receive benefits from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), a person has to have contributed to the program through payroll taxes. The benefits are calculated based on how long a person has contributed and at what rate, so it is really based on a person’s work experience in Canada. (There are problems with this, of course, such as the role of stay-at-home parents in the system, but that’s for another blog post.)
  • OAS/GIS: Old Age Security (OAS) provides you with a “modest” pension that starts when you turn 65, but you have to live in Canada for 10 years in order to qualify.The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) provides additional income to low income people who already qualify for the OAS (10 years in Canada). The rates for both are dismally low, with a maximum monthly benefit of about $1,200 a month – if you’ve lived in Canada for 40 years after the age of 18. Benefits are reduced for those who’ve lived here less.
  • Other Benefits: There is an Allowance or Allowance for the Survivor for those aged 60-64 whose spouses are collecting or who collected OAS. People receiving this allowance have to be in a low income bracket, have to be a Canadian citizen or legal resident and have to have lived in Canada for 10 years.
Personally, I see this as a bigger story than just numbers (just like I see the secondary suite debate as a bigger debate than parking and neighbourhood density, which is also another blog post). The impact of caring for aging parents on a family is enough of a task; putting legal barriers in the way of family responsibilities just adds to the stress. And it’s not just permanent immigration – trying to bring a family member here for a wedding or celebration has also become an almost impossible task for many immigrants. (If a family member has applied to immigrate, they are not allowed to visit until that claim is dealt with. The current wait for a claim to be resolved is 13 years. What’s happened in the last 13 years that you would have missed?)
As the population of the world ages, this is an issue we’re going to see again and again. As a country, we need to develop better ways of addressing the needs of seniors, their families and the greater communities in which they live.  The debate needs to be bigger than money – it needs to be about values and ethics and how we support each other in creating a better future for all. The vision needs to include how seniors age in community and how we support families as they address the needs of aging parents and grandparents – and it needs to include how we’re going to pay for that support. I’m not immune to the funding debates. I’m just not willing to have them be the only thing guiding my thought process.  
(Cross-posted at the Bow Cliff Blog, where we’re sharing our programs, services and opinions about growing older.  Check it out!)

Working Together to Get Seniors Moving (in More Ways than One)

Posted on by
Reply

In October 2007, I started in my current position as an Executive Director of a nonprofit. As many EDs quickly discover, the job description and what you actually end up doing can be two very different things. Part of that evolution for me at Bow Cliff Seniors has been the increased emphasis on transportation issues facing our members: driving cessation, concerns about snow removal in neighbourhoods, changes in transit routes as the new West LRT line is developed, and challenges with Access Calgary and taxi wait times as a result of increased demand for these services, and so on. And, like many Executive Directors, I work best in collaboration.

One of the committees that I sit on, the ElderNet Transportation Planning Table, has been working on a mapping strategy to look at where seniors travel in our city and where the gaps are. It’s been a fascinating process already: learning that the trip from one senior centre to a hospital in the same city quadrant can take up to two hours on transit, while another transit route from a hospital to several care facilities has its last bus of the evening leave 15 minutes before visiting hours are over, has us thinking about “what” people are doing when they use transit. This is starting to make the news in Toronto as well: proposed cuts to routes would impact people who are mobile (War on Roller Derby) and not-so-mobile (Fiorito: Cuts threaten bus service to Toronto’s deaf-blind community).

Another collaboration opportunity has been the involvement of nursing students from the University of Calgary at our centre. This semester, the group is looking at how our members get to the centre, get groceries and get themselves to health services on a regular basis. I’ve also encouraged them to do a community survey to assess walking, transit and driving issues in the immediate neighbourhood, as keeping people engaged in community means being able to access it. It will be interesting to see what gaps they find here in relation to the bigger ElderNet project.

This week I’m also meeting with the coordinator of Get Up and Go, which connects seniors with “buddies” in an attempt to get people to ride transit. I’m hoping that the program will be a fit for BCS members, both as a way of getting more people to the centre (so they can participate in programs, access services, and not be isolated!) but also as another way of sparking a transit advocacy strategy process in the community. I still think the key to getting seniors using transit is to get them on it before they’re seniors, but that’s going to be a bigger project. (Hmmm….)

Trying to address social isolation without looking at root causes like transportation is a futile exercise. I’m glad that there are so many opportunities to work with others in the community, and I’m glad so many of them are recognizing that our transportation systems include more than individual vehicle ownership. What a radical concept, non?

(Cross-posted at Zero-Fare Canada who kindly invited me to post with them. Go check them out!)

31 Days to a Brand New Blog Day 4

Posted on by
Reply

(or “what we really should be talking about”)

The challenge for Day 4 is to write a list post that relates to my purpose statement. As my purpose statement identifies politics as an area of focus, and as we’re now 64 days away from the Calgary General Election, here’s my list of the top five posts I’d like* to write before election day:

1. The Peace Bridge
The Peace Bridge is the most controversial and misunderstood projects undertaken by the city, and it’s also the lightening rod that many candidates are using to rally support.

2. Plan It
Like many CivicCampers, I spent time last fall in council chambers as the council listened to presentations on Plan It, the document that would guide our city’s growth for decades to come. And, like many CivicCampers, I felt betrayed by a last-minute backroom deal that made developers’ interests more weight then that of citizens.

3. FCSS
FCSS Calgary (Family and Community Support Services) is a municipal/provincial program that funds nonprofits that do a variety of things (including Bow Cliff Seniors). If the FCSS stat re: social return on investment (that for every dollar spent on prevention the city saves six to thirteen dollars in other costs) is true, why aren’t we putting more into prevention? The city has two roles here: increase the dollar amount it funds (currently required to fund 20%, they actually fund 25% of annual budget) and they can lobby the province for additional funding for the entire program.

4. Transportation for All
Better transit – not just trains. “Next Bus” real time technology. (Come on, even Winnipeg has this one!) Smaller buses and routes that come more than once an hour during “non-peak” hours – and redefining “non-peak” hours to be more then “when people aren’t traveling downtown to work”. Resources for Access Calgary so it can provide more services (especially as the population needing their services grows). And, of course, an obligatory “carsharing rocks” moment.

5. Housing options
Obviously the city needs to get its act together on secondary suites. But I’m sure they can also find ways to support non-marketing housing options (like co-ops and cohousing) and develop more TOD (transit-orientation development) projects that include mixed-use and mixed-income housing. Again, the aging population will be a critical factor to consider: changing needs, increased population and a need for greater community involvement should all play a part.

—
* That’s not saying I will, but I’ll likely be tweeting about them!

OK, so it’s been a while…

Posted on by
Reply

… but at least I still remembered my password!

Yes, life got busy for a while. Anyone who knows me knows what’s been happening. The rest of you can make something up – use your imaginations!

My jonesing for website development is currently being satisfied at www.bowcliffseniors.org, where I’ve been the Executive Director since last October. I’ve also become addicted to Facebook along with half of my former high school. (Mostly they find me through my sister, who was way more social than I was during that period in our lives.)

I’m starting my next-to-last class at MRC tonight, which should take up even more of my time, which has become even more constrained since the single-mom thing started in March.

Oh, and I’m in the news today:

Anders’ absence angers seniors

This ‘Bart’ never punished

And to think moving from the violence against women sector to the seniors sector would be less political!