New Westminster has been recognized for being age-friendly, both in its services and its infrastructure.
After being recognized by the Alzheimer’s Society in 2016 as the first dementia-friendly community in Canada, the Royal City was recognized by the provincial government on Saturday as being “age-friendly” at a ceremony at Century House, the seniors centre opened by Princess Margaret 60 years ago. On Saturday, New Westminster joined other communities like Harrison Hot Springs and Pitt Meadows with a provincial “age-friendly” recognition.
Judy Darcy, New Westminster MLA and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, presented the Age-Friendly certificate to the mayor of New Westminster.
The designation is a result of the extensive training and education for city staff to be helpful and supportive of seniors, and the physical infrastructure improvements throughout the city, Darcy said.
“It’s on-the-ground initiatives, it’s not just talking the talk, it’s walking the walk,” she said. “We really want to encourage, as a province, other communities to do that.” As the minister of mental health and addictions, these initiatives are important so that people aren’t isolated at home, leading to depression and a lowering of morale, which can exacerbate health conditions, she added.
“I think (New Westminster) is one of the first communities to take this on in such a pro-active way, but it started with the dementia-friendly community,” Darcy said.
New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Coté is proud of the training and education as well as the initiatives within the city to ensure that all aspects of city services take into consideration that 15 per cent of the population of New Westminster is made up of seniors.
“We have a long history in the community of looking at all our actions in the community through the lens of the seniors community,” Coté said.
Staff, council and various agencies in the city underwent extensive education and training to integrate the perspective of seniors, including their mobility challenges, into all functions of the city, including city planning, recreation, Century House – even the police were given training to be mindful of the stresses around wandering dementia patients, Coté pointed out.
“There has to be a recognition that we want to be a community that serves our residents, young and old - and you have to be able to access services,” Coté said.
As an older city, much of New Westminster was built before accessibility was a priority, so the city has had to do work to retrofit older buildings. And accessibility should be “paramount” in designing all new buildings, Coté added, “not only to meet the minimum standards, but to exceed and always be thinking of that.”
New Westminster was the first community in B.C. where every single intersection had a curb letdown, Coté pointed out, something they accomplished just this past year.
“That was a conscious effort over the past four years to basically ramp up our sidewalk budget and put that as a priority,” he said. “A sidewalk isn’t helpful if you can’t get down to the street.” That, he added, can help both seniors and families who are pushing a stroller.
Coté said when making decisions, city officials have to recognize there are many different people of different ages that will use the facilities. He has himself learned through the training, for example, by getting into a wheelchair himself, how small things like a crack in the sidewalk can be a problem.
Coté was on hand to receive the award from the province on Saturday, and he said it’s the result of work done over the long-term.
“I don’t think it’s something the city has earned overnight – I think it really is over the past decade, New Westminster has done a lot of actions to kind of lead up to this point,” Coté said.
Rena Snider was attending the event, partly because her daughter was displaying her art there. Snider said she likes Century House because it’s close to where she lives and she can walk there, but she also appreciates the age spread of the patrons at the facility.
“I like the idea that they do cater to all ages here – they have children’s after-school (care), they have teenagers that will come in and teach a person how to use a new cellphone,” she said. Snider is looking forward to having her birthday at Century House again when she will get a free admission to bingo and a free dessert. Last year, when she came on her birthday, she was delighted to watch a performance by a group of ukulele players.
Sylvester Helmink, who is 90, was at the Seniors Festival and said he was impressed by the festivities. While he said he feels he should volunteer more with Century House and its activities, he enjoys attending their events.
“It’s the friendliest of any them – we’re like one big family,” Helmink said.
Looking to the future, Century House needs to make sure they’re integrating all seniors, including recent immigrants and First Nations seniors, said Robyn McGuinness, manager of seniors and youth with New Westminster Parks and Recreation.
“I would hope we can reach out and we can support seniors from First Nations, or collaborate with them,” she said, adding that all parks and recreation facilities should be representative of the community.
Century House is run by the city of New Westminster’s parks and recreation department and by the Century House Association, a charitable society that oversees 45 volunteer-led activity groups. McGuinness said seniors have the time and experience to run their own activities, and they often come up with new ones.
“Many of our ideas come from the membership – it’s like we have this in-house focus group,” McGuinness said.
For example, someone came up with the idea that it would be fun to have a dragon boat team and now there is a competitive team – one group also formed a softball team that competes. McGuinness said that activities are not necessarily limited to being within Century House, but they also take place outside in the community, engaging people who might not otherwise take part in seniors activities.
Century House Association has 2,200 members and is co-located with the youth centre, with whom they share space. There are 300 volunteers including 20 volunteers who help in the kitchen.
Century House is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It was opened in 1958 and has had four additions since then.
