YORKTON - The city of Yorkton is currently engaged in a process regarding how best to provide services for active residents in the 55-plus age group.
“Over the past several months, there have been various conversations within the community regarding a lack of activities for Active 55+ residents. In response to these concerns coming from different avenues and community partners, the Recreation & Community Services department hosted a facilitated community conversation about social, cultural, and physical activities for Yorkton residents over age 55,” said Taylor Morrison with the city in providing an update to the regular meeting of Council Monday.
The community conversation occurred in October.
Prior to the conversation, the consultants completed an environmental scan of the physical, social, and cultural activities currently offered within the community.
“The event was structured and facilitated by CJ Denysek Consulting, with the goal of engaging and fostering open conversation and discussion regarding Active 55+ programs and activities, current barriers, and opportunities for enhancement,” said Morrison.
Five themes were used to inform the conversation:
* Comprehensiveness: What is missing, what is needed, and are there any barriers?
* Connection: How would you like to connect to the City and community?
* Collaboration: Who needs to work together, and how?
* Contribution: What can you do to maintain and enhance activities?
* Communication: How do people stay informed?
“The input being shared was important and valued, even if needing to be set aside as an idea or topic for a later time,” said Morrison.
In terms of comprehensiveness, “It was identified that some activities were missing from the inventory, or that contact information may be incorrect. A perceived lack of activities specific to the Active 55+ community was evident and discussed, as there was the desire of targeted activities for families, seniors, and youth.,” said Morrison.
“Participants also identified barriers and/or challenges that prevent access to activities. Common themes here included cost, transportation, a lack of knowledge on who to connect with, hours of activities and complexity of registration among others.”
Attendees were asked what they would be willing to do to enhance the activities available in Yorkton. General feedback included volunteering, paying membership fees, participating in activities, and helping to share and communicate activity information to others.
The question now is, what’s next?
“The discussion has been had, information and data provided and reviewed, and the community is eager to continue the momentum and build off of the success of the Community Conversation,” said Morrison.
A few action items have been identified that Recreation & Community Services department can look to implement. These include:
* Changes to branding and marketing to better identify Active 55+ programs and activities
* Review and development of specific web pages within the City’s website that can house program and activity information
* Building and maintaining the inventory of activities, and making that available online
* Development of an Active 55+ City-Wide registration event
* Continued discussion with the Active 55+ community on their needs and wants to increase the delivery of “Lean To” activities.
At this point “there are no significant financial implications regarding the previously mentioned action items, aside from dedicating staff time to lead and coordinate their implementation. This will be shared between the Community, Culture, & Heritage, and Recreation Services divisions within the RCS department,” added Morrison.
