NEWS RELEASE
COUNTY OF SIMCOE
*************************
The County of Simcoe recognizes Oct. 1, 2018 as National Seniors Day and International Day of Older Persons. The day provides an opportunity for residents to celebrate seniors for their many and varied contributions to their families, workplaces and communities and raise awareness about issues affecting older adults. According to Statistics Canada, Simcoe County is experiencing rapid aging just above national and provincial averages.
The proportion of adults aged 60 and over in Simcoe County is 24.6 per cent of the population compared to 23 per cent in Ontario and 23.4 per cent in Canada. As a provider of services to seniors, the County of Simcoe is proud to honour the seniors living in our communities.
“The County is proud to recognize and celebrate our older citizens and help build local strategies to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of seniors who continue to contribute so much to our communities and economy,” said Deputy Warden Terry Dowdall. “We’re taking a proactive approach by investing in our seniors’ facilities, supporting new programs and strategies, and offering new funding streams to promote the building of new Age-Friendly housing projects.”
As part of the County’s Age Friendly Community activities, led by the Age-Friendly Communities Advisory Committee of more than 37 members representing various organizations and older adults across the region, the County will be celebrating our older adults through recognition and planned activities of this very important day. As such, a proclamation is being declared by Deputy Warden Terry Dowdall to acknowledge and thank our seniors for their tremendous contributions to our families, friends, businesses and communities. In addition, the County of Simcoe’s Long Term Care and Seniors Services Department will be hosting a variety of events to celebrate National Seniors Day at various sites.
The County of Simcoe received funding from the Government of Ontario of as part of its Age-Friendly Community Planning Grant Program. The funding served to establish a baseline assessment of Simcoe County’s age-friendliness and to determine the recommendations for action according to scope of community responsibility. A variety of community engagement processes were used to collect feedback from residents 60 years of age and older, caregivers, and service providers of older adults to produce the
“Building an Age-Friendly Simcoe County - 2016 Community Needs Assessment” and the County’s “Positive Aging Strategy." Both documents can be found here. County of Simcoe is composed of sixteen member municipalities and provides crucial public services to County residents in addition to providing paramedic and social services to the separated cities of Barrie and Orillia. Visit our website.
*************************
