The Prince George Council of Seniors needs more room.
Addressing city council on Monday night, PGCOS manager Lola-Dawn Fennell said the group needs a home about twice the size of its current 2,000-square-foot location at 1055 Fifth Avenue downtown.
"We're finding that when volunteers are in the office and computer classes are happening and a workshop is happening in the back room that we're just all tripping over each other," she said.
And as the average age of the city's population rises, so will PGCOS's importance, Fennell added.
"We're not seeing the Prince George Council of Seniors shrinking in the coming years, we're seeing it growing and we want to be able to accommodate that growth," she said.
It was one of several items Fennell raised as the PGCOS gave council an update on its activities:
- With the help of Dr. Theresa Healy, Northern Health's regional manager for healthy community development, the PGCOS has been working on board and staff development. Moreover, a committee was formed last year with the aim of helping seniors act on their own behalf and, when they can't, to advocate for them.
"This past year, members of this advocacy committee has been very active in assisting individual seniors in addressing specific situations as well as tackling larger and more general issues of concern to all local seniors," Fennell said. "This committee is particularly proud of the positive working relationship currently being forged with Northern Health.
- Northgate Autobody gave the PGCOS a van which will be used to expand the organization's outreach programs.
- PGCOS has set up a Facebook site and is continuing to provide training on computers to seniors, putting about 100 a year through the beginners program.
"Just in the last couple of months, I've had perhaps a half dozen seniors come in an ask for instructions or workshops on texting," Fennell added. "There is an interest in learning new technologies but also a great deal of fear in learning about those technologies from younger people who seem to speak a different language."
- Little if any progress has been made in increasing the stock of seniors-oriented housing.
"We've kind of shifted our direction a little bit to trying to provide support for seniors to remain in their own homes longer so that that isn't quite such a big issue," Fennell said.
- The PGCOS seniors help line fielded about 3,500 calls last year. At the most, just two to three calls per month were to do with elder abuse but Fennell suspects the low number is not because it's not happening very often.
"It's a very hidden issue," she said.
