Duane Hicks
The Sister Kennedy Centre board received more input on how to make the centre the focal point of all services for seniors during a meeting there last night.
But while it’s clear the centre’s role could increase, and perhaps the centre itself could be expanded, it will take some time.
“You may have heard there’s talk of expanding but that’s far in the future—little steps, baby steps first,” stressed Coun. Andrew Hallikas, who sits on the board along with Coun. John Albanese, Nick Wihnan (chair), Mary Clinker, Bill Krukoski, Irene Laing, and Al “Buzz” Wickstrom, with Community Services manager George Bell serving as a staff advisor.
“What we want to do is identify things . . . that we can do and then if there’s a need, we could look to expand,” Coun. Hallikas noted.
“Whatever we get out of this meeting tonight, we’ll look at those issues,” said Wihnan.
“This is not going to happen tomorrow,” he reiterated. “It’s impossible to happen tomorrow, but it can happen, slowly but surely.”
Some of the requests made by the public last night included:
•Allow various seniors’ groups to use the Sister Kennedy Centre for meetings, activities, etc., with the rationale being there’s no reason they should have to pay to rent space elsewhere.
However, care must be taken so that no one group represents a “special interest,” and the centre remains to true to its mandate to be for all seniors.
•Make the centre a location for events, like workshops, entertainment, etc., provided they don’t interfere with the regularly-scheduled activities there.
•Getting more volunteers to help out at the centre, and determining who can volunteer (e.g., if high school students to get their volunteer hours).
This could include asking service clubs to “adopt” the centre and volunteer, and maybe having a volunteer training program.
•Establishing a social committee to welcome new visitors and make them feel more comfortable.
•Improving communication (i.e., advertising, newsletter, and bulletin board postings) to let the public know what’s happening at the Sister Kennedy Centre.
•Extending hours of operation to allow for evening drop-ins (it was acknowledged this would require more volunteers).
The prevailing sentiment last night was that if the Sister Kennedy Centre is to be a “one-stop shopping” centre for seniors, it needs to be “for seniors, run by seniors, with ideas generated by seniors.”
Those who want to provide more input as to what they would like to see provided at the Sister Kennedy Centre are encouraged to drop a signed note in the suggestion box at the centre or call Coun. Hallikas at 274-5201.
The meeting was held as the result of the town’s strategic plan, in which council decided it would like to see the “integration of various seniors groups into the Sister Kennedy board of management” and “expand the role of the Sister Kennedy board by including members of local seniors’ groups to help provide mayor and council with advice on local seniors’ issues.”
Council then asked the Sister Kennedy Centre board to come up with a process to implement this item in the strategic plan, and the board decided that two meetings would be held to get public input.
This was the second of two meetings held to garner input about seniors’ services and Sister Kennedy Centre.
The first was held Dec. 7.
Input from these meetings will be compiled into a report by the Sister Kennedy board, which will be forwarded to town council for its approval.
Once council has approved the report, implementation will begin.
