The survey responses are in, but the people behind the push to have Chatham-Kent named as an age-friendly community are months away from publishing its recommendations.
Devin Andrews, age-friendly project co-ordinator, said the survey period wrapped up the night the kids went trick or treating. In all, he received 613 responses. Added with another 112 people who took part in various focus groups, and the age-friendly effort received detailed feedback from 725 people.
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It may not seem like much in a municipality with a population of more than 100,000 people, but Andrews begs to differ.
“It was fantastic response. London received 680, Windsor 500, and Toronto had 524,” he said, adding Toronto asked for essay-like responses. “We’ve got a good base on which to build our recommendations.”
The province recently put out a notice to communities asking them to apply for age-friendly funding. It comes with a Jan. 30 deadline for applications. Andrews thinks it would be tough for Chatham-Kent to get on board this time around.
“It’s hard to say if we would get or even qualify for this funding offer,” he said, referring to the timeline versus where the age-friendly effort is at this point. “There will be other opportunities in the future, I’m sure.”
The timeline for the local age-friendly initiative to bring forward its recommendations is next June. Andrews said he’ll bring them to council at that time.
In the meantime, Andrews will analyze the responses and build his suggested improvements.
There are eight areas the community must address in its quest for an age-friendly designation from the World Health Organization, Andrews said. They include:
- Outdoor spaces and buildings;
- transportation;
- community support and health services;
- housing;
- social participation;
- civic participation and employment;
- communication and information; and
- respect and social inclusion.
Andrews said a big challenge for Chatham-Kent is its rural and urban blend.
“We’re a regional municipality, but it’s a very spread out population. And each community is different,” he said.
In terms of responses, Andrews said outdoor spaces and buildings offered up a bit of a conundrum.
“It was a thing people had the most opinions about, but they ultimately say it’s not as important as transportation or housing,” Andrews said.
Snow removal was an issue regularly discussed in the surveys. Given the amount of snow we received last year, people complained that while sidewalks and roads were plowed, the resulting piles of snow between the two caused problems, as it made it difficult to navigate from road to sidewalk after parking one’s car.
A lack of public washrooms, the need for longer crosswalk times and better communication were also mentioned.
“Someone thought the bus routes, dates and times should be published when garbage and recycling information is,” Andrews said.
The communication issue blended with transportation, as it was a top priority, he said.
“If you can’t get out of your home, how do you get to needed services,” Andrews asked.
The responses have given Andrews plenty to work on.
“I don’t want to make it sound like we can solve everyone’s problems,” he said. “We’re trying to work on achievables.”
Chatham-Kent’s pluses are our affordable housing, the fact we have small communities where it is easy to live near needed amenities, and our 11 seniors centres that offer activities for folks who want to remain involved.
