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Rossland moves to implement age-friendly action plan

City to apply for funding to hire local co-ordinator
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The City of Rossland is moving forward on implementing its age-friendly community action plan. (File photo)

The City of Rossland wants to hire someone to help make the city a better place for seniors.

It’s part of the ongoing Age-Friendly Community initiative started last year by the city.

Council passed a motion Monday night to have the city apply for a $15,000 grant to hire an Age-Friendly Community co-ordinator next year.

The money would come from a fund managed by the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM).

“The vision for it ultimately is that Rossland, Warfield and Trail share a co-ordinator — that’s the goal eventually,” said Mayor Kathy Moore.

“But maybe we can get something going in Rossland, and then expand it to the other communties. That would be great.”

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The co-ordinator job “is to create a go-to person for both seniors to gather information on programs and services available in their community, and for programs to go to for advice or direction on the needs of seniors,” according to the grant application to the UBCM.

“This person will also work as an advocate for seniors as part of larger ongoing regional projects like housing and transportation, to ensure their future needs are being included in future plans.”

The Age-Friendly Community project is a one-year trial project intended to better meet the needs of seniors in Rossland and the region. The city hopes the project will show the need for an ongoing joint regional project, with funding by each community in the region and other Columbia Basin programs.

The last council approved a plan to set aside between $15,000 and $20,000 for a co-ordinator to implement the Age-Friendly Community Action Plan. The UBCM grant would top up that fund,with $5,000 to pay the co-ordinator and $10,000 earmarked for programming.

Moore said if the city doesn’t get the grant, it likely won’t hire the co-ordinator.



reporter@rosslandnews.com

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