Community supports opening of Parksyde House as service hub
Tarewa Placewas full of excitement recently as the long-awaited opening of a building that willbecomea servicehub for older peoplewasheld.
The official opening of Parksyde House and the welcoming of Age Concern Rotorua to itsnewpremises washeld last Thursday.
Parksyde House wasa former custodian house, which willnow have Age Concern Rotorua onsite, and is next to the Parksyde Centre.
The Older Personscommunity Centre Trust (Parksyde) had repurposed and renovated 5Tarewa Pl thanks to funding from the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust.
Age Concern has shifted into the house and a pathway link will be in place between Parksydecommunity Centre and Parksyde House.
Thosewhoattended the official opening included Older Persons Communitycentre trustees (Parksyde), Age Concern staff and council, Grey Power, Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust, Te Tatou ote Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council staff, Oranga Tinana oue, district health board managers andmsdmanagers.
Reverendtompoata blessed the house in the morning, andmonty Morrison opened the ceremony.
Robynskelton, Parksyde (The Older Personscommunitycentre Trust) manager, says it has been a long time coming for the trust to see the house accommodatingmore community services for older people.
“It’s part of a bigger vision the trust has had since 2005 and it’s stage one of that bigger vision.”
Robynsays in addition to the funding for the Parksyde House renovation, the trust recently received funding to start the
development of a community serviceshub for older people on the large grassed area next to Parksyde Communitycentre.
“We’ve been successful with two different funds to start the process. Firstly, the trust needs to find out from the various Rotorua community serviceswhowork in the older
people space, as well as the Parksyders themselves, what they would like in a separate service hub.”
This month, Rotorua Lakes Council granted $60,000 to the Parksydecommunitycentre to establish anewhub ontarewa Pl, alongside the current facilities serving the elderly. In addition, a further $24,000 wasreceived from the Lottery Covid-19community Wellbeing Fund.
Robynsays she wasthrilled with the support for the plans and also the numberof peoplewhoattended the initial event.
Age Concern Rotorua manager Rory O’rourke says itwasgreat to have somany people there to celebrate the opening of Parksyde House. Hesays despitesomefinancial worries at first about moving the Age Concern location, thenewbuilding and spacewas nice and bright, having been recently renovated.
The Parksydecommunitycentre is run by Rotorua’s Older Persons Communitycentre Trust and gives clubs and organisations a place for older people to be social and active.
It supportsmore than800elderly people perweek in activities and social opportunities.