From now until November 20, the District of Sparwood is asking residents of all ages to help identify potential ideas and actions to make Sparwood an even better place to be born, grow up and grow old in.

The district is creating an Age Friendly Plan to make sure Sparwood is a community where older people can age actively, live comfortably, enjoy good health and participate fully in society.

“An age-friendly community not only improves the quality of life for seniors, it creates a more inclusive, safe and accessible community for everyone, including people with disabilities and families with young children,” said Mayor Cal McDougall.

Over the next month, the district is supporting community members to host ‘Kitchen Table Parties’ to gather feedback to inform the Age Friendly Plan. As a thank you, the district is offering a $30 reimbursement to support hosts in offering food and beverages at their parties.

“Although Sparwood currently has a younger than average population, our share of seniors is increasing and close to half of Teck’s workforce is eligible to retire in the next 10 years,” said McDougall. “So, the district is using grant funding from the province and the Union of BC Municipalities to create a plan to support existing seniors, retain retiring workers and attract new residents who want to stay in the community throughout the different stages of their lives.”

This current community engagement opportunity builds on earlier community engagement for the Age Friendly Plan and is inspired by successful community engagement methods used for the district’s new Official Community Plan. Working with an Age-Friendly Advisory Committee with representatives from a range of local organizations, senior citizens and caregivers, the district reached out to residents this summer to ask how age-friendly the community is today and what future generations will need to comfortably remain the Sparwood as they get older.

Activities included a series of focused conversations with seniors, community conversations with people of all ages, Facebook polls, and an online and paper questionnaire.

Overall, residents of all ages felt that Sparwood is generally a safe and friendly town to age in place. However, there are a number of areas such as housing, transportation, social activities, and outdoor gathering places that could use improvement.

The project, as identified in the 2014-2018 Corporate Strategic Plan to provide for direction for future improvements for community projects related to access and aging in place, will assist Sparwood council in reaching their objective “to enhance programs and services to address the growing needs to seniors.”

As part of the project, the district is asking residents of all ages to help identify potential ideas and actions to make Sparwood an even better place to be born, grow up and grow old in.

For more information about the project, to review summary feedback to date, or to host a Kitchen Table Party, please visit www.sparwood.ca/age-friendly.

District of Sparwood

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