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The Lucknow Sentinel, 2015-09-09, Page 22 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, September 9, 2015 • rt, • a 1 ,s -" -11,t114 1111[11':11- g4,111111l11kil(1 ,"411.10,11•11'10- r '';y1'1,110`ilk W Valerie Gillies Lucknow Sentinel Barb Fisher (facing standing to left), General Manager of Bruce Community Futures Development Corporation is pleased with the community turnout at the Municipality of South Bruce presentation on September 2, 2015 in Teeswater of the Seniors Connect meeting. Seniors Connect Coordinator, Linda Kazarian (facing seated to right) will be the full-time staff responsible for administering the program. Seniors Connect meetings held in southern Bruce County CONTINUED FROM > PAGE 1 Bruce CDFC has two major functions. The most signifi- cant function is to adminis- trate business loans within their catchment area. The second function is Commu- nity Economic Development (CED), which is difficult to define and can encompass many types of programs. The Seniors Connect pro- gram falls under the CED portion of the CDFC man- date. According to a pam- phlet distributed by CDFC, CED projects include: "part- nering with private and pub- lic sector joint projects; assisting groups in accessing government funding pro- grams and services; support- ing relevant data for busi- ness and community interests; handling requests for information from poten- tial business/industry inves- tors; assisting with Strategy and Planning As part of Bruce CDFC's Strategic Plan, a large study, Bruce Seniors' Needs Analy- sis, was commissioned to find information and make recommendations concern- ing seniors, those 55 years of age and over, in Bruce County, including compara- tive statistics with Owen Sound and Grey County. The Final Report of the study by millerdikinsonblais inc was completed in April 2011 and is available to read and download online on the Bruce CDFC website www. bruce.on.ca. On the site, click on the link in the list on the bottom left of the screen. The meetings held on Sep- tember 2 were to continue on with the Seniors Analysis meetings begun in the vari- ous communities during 2013. The plan was to meet quarterly with each group to have the program developed specifically to meet the iden- tified needs in each of the individual municipalities. Unfortunately, the project was put on hold when the original coordinator, Christie Salmon, left to pursue other employment. Bruce CDFC decided it was worth taking the time to find the best qual- ified, experienced and per- sonally suited individual to fill the vacancy, which has now happened with Linda Kazarian being contracted for the position. The community meetings have now resumed. Attendance at the Septem- ber 2 meetings consisted of those who had supplied their email contact during the first round of meetings in 2013, as well as Seniors Con- nect spreading the word through municipalities, church groups and other organizations email listings, newsletters and bulletin boards. Fisher addressed the groups by reviewing por- tions of the Bruce Seniors' Analysis Final Report, draw- ing specific attention to the recommendations which came out of the report, each ranked in priority as high, medium and low by milli- erdickinsonblais inc. Fisher explained that the munici- palities in the Bruce CFDC catchment area are all very different from each other, which means that their pri- orities may be very different from each other, although the needs for affordable housing and transportation for seniors is high priority across the board. Fisher explained the seven high priority recommenda- tions. Handouts were pro- vided to those in attendance. It was advised that before the next scheduled meeting that the group should go through the recommendations and make note of their ideas to bring back for round table discussions. It is hoped that during the next round of meetings a volunteer will be chosen from each munici- pality to become a repre- sentative of the Seniors Con- nect group in their municipality to bring to a collective group of all of these municipal representa- tives for planning, discussion and strategizing across all of the municipalities. Fisher advised that the Seniors Connect project is beginning first with seniors to identify the needs and challenges. However, even- tually other age groups, as well as service providers, businesses, service groups and others will need to be brought in to build a net- work to put programs and services into place. This is important as an original pilot project of Seniors Con- nect was begun in northern Bruce on the peninsula that was just seniors. The original project showed that as those participants aged the pro- gram became too much to administer as there had been no one brought in from younger generations to cre- ate succession in the pro- gram. The program eventu- ally had to fold. As Bruce CFDC had funded the start- up and purchased the soft- ware used to create the database for the original Seniors Connect, the organi- zation absorbed the program and are redeveloping and expanding it to now serve their entire catchment area. Fisher challenged every- one at the September meet- ings to return to future meet- ings to continue the process and to bring others with them to grow the groups. Eventu- ally, specific groups will be targeted to bring into the net- work to achieve the identified goals and solutions. To be placed on the email list to receive invitations to future meetings, send a mes- sage to bfisher@bruce.on.ca. This is an opportunity to be part of the solution of how to service the growing aging population in Bruce County as government services and programs are becoming increasingly scarce and more difficult to obtain. This is very much a program of commu- nities looking after their own, using proactive planning, as time goes forward.