The local Seniors Centre for Excellence Centre is seeking the support of north Wellington municipalities for a plan to secure funding for additional programming.
At the Feb. 13 Mapleton council meeting, local seniors health services co-ordinator Helen Edwards explained the provincial government plans to expand the Seniors’ Active Living program by up to 40 new centres and has proposed an $8-million dollar investment over the next three years.
Municipalities are identified as key partners and the program requires that seniors centres work with municipalities to offer a minimum of 20% of the annual cost of maintaining and operating the program. This contribution can be cash, in kind or a combination.
Centres can work with more than one municipality as long as they are neighbouring.
“This has created an opportunity to submit a grant application on behalf of Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North,” stated Edwards in her report, which notes grant applications are due on March 31.
The government requires that funding must support new programs at new locations and Edwards notes this would allow for the expansion of programs currently offered by The Close to Home catchment area and allow for smaller communities to have access to social, educational and fitness programming.
“It is an opportunity to bring additional programming into the municipality,” stated Edwards.
“There is a component where municipalities do have to make contributions and, if (Mapleton is) interested, I would approach the other municipalities to see if they would be interested in partnering in this grant opportunity.”
Edwards said Mapleton is already providing administrative support to for the Seniors Centre For Excellence Close to Home programs. She suggested Mapleton could expand that in-kind support, noting Minto and Wellington North could be approached to provide additional cash support.
“With the Seniors Centre for Excellence, Mapleton has kind of taken the lead with that and associated costs. It’s not free to have a seniors centre here,” said Edwards.
She said a local contribution of $42,000, which could include a $10,000 in-kind contribution from Mapleton, could leverage the program’s maximum grant of $86,500.
“It’s a large grant application and I wanted to get council’s feedback before moving forward,” said Edwards.
Councillor Marlene Ottens asked what kind of programs the extra funds would provide.
“One of the things that I would like to do is reach out into some of the smaller communities that we haven’t been able to service with our current capacity,” Edwards replied. “So Moorefield comes to mind for sure … we could have programs running there, especially now that we have the new hall that will be ready to go.”
She added, “I think one of the keys we’re trying to address with this additional programming is isolation in seniors and I think that when you’re in a small community where there’s not as many opportunities to get out and about, that has an adverse effect.”
Council approved Edward’s recommendation to approach neighbouring municipalities to gauge their interest in the grant application.
“If they don’t give the go-ahead I don’t think there would be a point in going through with it,” said Edwards, noting the amount Mapleton could access on its own through the program would not be enough to substantially enhance programming.
