ABOUT US:
Community Involvement
The Age-Friendliness Research Study generated interest and allowed May and Bev to form a small Age-Friendly Riverview steering committee made up of keen citizen scientists and/or community members. This was facilitated by the culmination of the Age-Friendliness Research Study where citizen scientists and U. of M. professors presented the findings of the study to the Riverview Community. The steering committee promoted attendance for the October 25, 2018 community meeting by putting up posters, sending out e-mails to contacts, and talking to neighbours. Prior to the community meeting, James Allum, who was the area MLA in 2018, included several paragraphs about Age Friendly Riverview, the study, and the community meeting in his column in the south Winnipeg community newspaper. The Age-Friendliness in Riverview presentation generated a good discussion and interest in finding solutions among those in attendance (19 people, including the MLA and the Resource Coordinator for the South Winnipeg Seniors Resource Council).
The Age-Friendly Riverview steering committee decided to organize a second community meeting for December 12, 2018 to promote more community involvement and to hear from community members about their needs and ideas for age-friendliness. The December 12th community meeting had two components. First, attendees divided into small groups with each group discussing one of the following topics.
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Identify the top 3-5 needs of seniors in our community.
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Discuss social isolation and loneliness. Is this a problem? What would you suggest to deal with it?
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Are there different needs for men and women as they age? Suggest ways that gender specific needs might be dealt with.
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How would being Age Friendly benefit the Riverview community as a whole?
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Secondly, AFR steering committee members presented a few age-friendly ideas from around the world. They included:
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Men’s Issues & Men’s Sheds
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Students living with Seniors
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Age-Friendly Housing (Buy, Build, Share existing)
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Neighbours Helping Neighbours
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Volunteer registry
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Group purchase of services
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Attendees engaged in thoughtful conversations and contributed many good points about what is needed to make Riverview an Age-Friendly community. Ideas suggested included:
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Using skills of seniors to benefit the whole community (Repair Café)
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Create a list of volunteers and skills. (Supports needed to assist people to stay in their own home ex. Moving a piece of furniture or nutritional meals)
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Men’s Sheds
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Participation in River Garden Society and the use of raised plant beds to facilitate accessibility
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Communication in general (programming available but not necessarily known about)
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Meaningful focus (lots of available older people with experience and expertise, needs to be harnessed, needs a central connection mechanism)
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Intergenerational activities
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Neighbourhood care/phone/check on/etc.
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Intergenerational housing-university students
The ideas sparked at this second community meeting helped the AFR steering committee focus on starting points for creating an age-friendly community in Riverview. Serendipitously, Leslie Peterson, a Riverview Community resident, came to the December 12th meeting with an idea which she presented to the group. Leslie spoke about her idea of offering a Creative Non-Fiction Writing Class for Mature Adults. Supporting Leslie with initiating a writing class for mature adults became AFR first project. Other ideas suggested at this meeting led to other initiatives undertaken by AFR.