St. Catharines opens Seniors’ Centre Without Walls
St. Catharines’ Older Adults Centres are closed, but seniors can still participate in discussions and activities from their own home with a new city program.
“The magic of the whole thing is that you only need a telephone,” said Koby Vanyo, the city’s programs supervisor.
Seniors’ Centre Without Walls has been launched for older adults who want to socialize and learn about topics while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program is free and allows seniors to connect by phone with up to 15 people at a time on various topics by calling a toll-free number at specific times.
The offerings include trivia times, museum talks, creative writing sessions, discussion groups on various topics and interactive games. They’re being led by city staff from the older adult centres and guest speakers from the museum and library.
The city’s three older adult centres — Dunlop, West St. Catharines and Port Dalhousie — have 875 members aged 50 and older. The centres were closed last month along with other city facilities to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Residents aged 50 and older don’t have to be a member of the centres to participate in the Seniors’ Centre Without Walls program.
Vanyo is asking anyone who knows of a senior who may benefit from the program to tell that person about it.
The city has also reached out to community organizations to get the word out to as many seniors as possible who may not learn about the program from the city’s website or social media channels. It’s the people who aren’t connecting with others through technology that they are trying to reach.
Vanyo said everyone typically has a telephone and knows how to operate it.
“They’re not getting out right now. People are not able to get out and see them. Their usual social gathering is not happening, so we’re hoping we can help them out a bit,” she said.
“Hopefully we can get that person who really needs it on the phone. If you’re not on the computer, you can feel very isolated, very quickly.”
Anyone who wants to participate is asked to register for programs by calling 905-688-5600 ext. 1554 or emailing sphelan@stcatharines.ca. They can ask about programming schedules, which can also be found at www.stcatharines.ca/OAC.
St. Catharines is borrowing the idea from The Good Companions Seniors’ Centre in Ottawa. The program is being offered with the support of the Older Adult Centres’ Association of Ontario and with provincial funding from the Ontario Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility.
Vanyo said the city launched the program on Thursday and already had people registering Friday.
“It’s been obviously something that is needed because the uptake has been pretty quick.”