Growing opportunities
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
With the help of a grant from the New Horizons for seniors program, through the government of Canada, the Growing Families Society has been working on the Bridging the Gap Program.
“It’s a one year grant and our hope is to get this started, and then find other means in the community to continue it on,” said Jeanette MacKay, mentorship supervisor.
The purpose of the Bridging the Gap Program is to develop and deploy older adult volunteers. The volunteers, all 55 plus, would help support the three key initiatives. One of the initiatives is the Cooking Together program. Cooking Together is for older adults who enjoy socializing and cooking to get together and cook. The classes take place on Fridays at the Lord of All Lutheran Church and it costs only $5 to register. Anyone interested in participating must register on Wednesday. Transportation will be provided if it’s the thing stopping someone from attending.
“We have three volunteers, they do all the shopping and the organizing and whatnot,” said MacKay.
There will also be sessions with tips on tasty, healthy and budget friendly cooking for one or for a family. Greta Kubis, community nutritionist for Alberta Health Services, will provide the tips.
The second program being offered s a mentorship program to help support young families or new moms through the Growing Opportunities Program, of which the Wheatland Food Bank is a supporter.
“Our plan is to have group sessions to start with, maybe four times just to have mentors and families get to know each other, and then maybe the one on one will happen after that,” said MacKay.
“Because there are so many families that don’t have close families around (it’s) just to have someone to ask the questions.”
It will be up to the volunteer and the family to decide when works best for their schedules. By having seniors volunteer their skills and experiences with parenting families it will help empower them, while engaging them in an activity they will see growth from. It will be similar to adopting a new member to the family. MacKay is the supervisor for this program.
Betty-Anne Murphy, volunteer coordinator said they are also talking about trying to set up a website. It would be for different social agencies within Strathmore to post job descriptions for volunteers 55 plus. The volunteers would be able to make an application through it and the website would also host an event board as to what different agencies are doing.
To find out more about everything happening with the Growing Families Society and the new initiatives, contact either May Rostecki-Budzey 403-361-7216, or Jeanette MacKay at 403-361-7215.
If interested in volunteering contact Betty-Anne Murphy at 403-819-6577 or 403-901-7811.