Age-Friendly Seniors OCP Coordinators

Your Age-Friendly Seniors OCP Coordinators Have Been Hired

We are very pleased to announce that Brenda Hanson, Sandra Wood and Sarah O’Shannessy, are the team that make up your Age-Friendly Seniors Official Community Plan (OCP) Coordinators. Brenda is a member of the Klahoose First Nation and aspires to contribute to the area of language/cultural revitalization capacity within her community, Sandra works with many organizations on the Island and has been the Project Financial Manager for the Seniors Village, and Sarah also holds many positions on the Island, including that of the Coordinator of the Seniors Helping Seniors position created by the Cortes Island Seniors Society.
As the opening phase of the OCP review process, a series of land use and outreach projects are planned to prepare and engage the broad Cortes community. One of these OCP input projects is the development and delivery of a Seniors & Elders Participation Program to collect age-friendly input on factors such as: housing, transportation, healthcare, fitness, outdoor spaces, public buildings, social activities, communications, civic participation, employment, and community support that enable elders to remain as vital island members.

There are three primary goals of this component of the OCP review process are:

1. To learn from seniors about the OCP process that was undertaken during the last review and to use this information to inform the design of the current review process.
2. To ensure that the review process itself is seniors and elders friendly and accessible.
3. To ensure that issues of importance to Cortes elders and seniors are well reflected it the revised community plan.

Brenda, Sandra and Sarah will be working on these three areas of focus from now until May 2010, when their final report is due to the Regional District.  Please be sure to share your ideas and experience, and come out to presentations and workshops, look for information in your mail box and listen for to the weekly OCP radio show. If you have any information you would like to share, or any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Sarah at 935 0282 or s_oshannessy@hotmail.com, Sandra at 935 6676 or sandrawood@telus.net, and Brenda at 935 0162 or bhanson@twincomm.ca.