Parksyde Community Centre users and manager Robyn Skelton (front). Photo / Andrew Warner
Parksyde Community Centre users and manager Robyn Skelton (front). Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua Lakes Council has granted $60,000 to the Parksyde Community Centre to establish a new hub on Tarewa Pl, alongside the current facilities serving the elderly.
The centre, run by Rotorua's Older Persons Community Centre Trust, gives clubs, groups and organisations a place for older people to be social andactive.
It supports more than 800 elderly people per week in activities and social opportunities.
Parksyde Community Centre. Photo / Andrew Warner
"With the population of our older people likely to double disproportionately in six to eight years, the trust knew it had to start preparing now," chairman of the Older Persons Community Centre Trust, Peter Fitchett, said this week.
The trust first hoped to establish a hub in 2005 and Parksyde manager Robyn Skelton told the Rotorua Daily Post: "The time is right now, when so many of the community services are working so well together."
"So many of the older people that come to Parksyde have to access services all over town, so having the services in one place means they only need to drive to one location."
She said Covid-19 had demonstrated this year how vulnerable older people were, not just in terms of physical risk but also isolation.
The trust will ask centre users what they want and consult with community services about what they need in additional spaces.
"We envisage it being a building that could include shared offices, shared space, meeting spaces, individual offices," said Skelton. "It could have hot desks ... The biggest thing is we have to find out who wants to be here."
Parksyde Community Centre users and manager Robyn Skelton (front). Photo / Andrew Warner
The funding has come from the $1million Te Rākau Tū Pakari Fund that was established to help address the medium to long-term impacts of Covid-19 in Rotorua, by improving social connections and wellbeing.
The Older Persons Community Centre Trust expected the initial scoping and design would cost $120,000, so it was applying for other grants to cover the remaining $60,000.
Work had already been completed to bring Age Concern and Grey Power onsite before Christmas.
They would be leasing Parksyde's newly refurbished former custodian's house, just a short walk from the centre.
Chairman of the Rotorua Age Concern Council, Glenys Searancke. Photo / File
Chairwoman of the Rotorua Age Concern Council, Glenys Searancke, said the organisation was "delighted" to see the concept begin.
"We look forward to supporting Parksyde as they develop a process involving Te Arawa, local government and other Rotorua community services."
The trust had already started discussing the plans with Oranga Tinana o Ue, Parkinson's New Zealand, King's Empire Vets, the Lakes District Health Board, Citizens Advice Bureau, Macular Degeneration NZ, the Rotorua Multicultural Council, SeniorNet, Dementia Lakes and the Heart Foundation.
