"Ten people who speak make more noise than 10,000 who are silent." - Napoleon Bonaparte I am steaming mad about some news the Delta Seniors Planning Team just received. United Way informed us that our funding will stop at the end of March.
I happen to be a volunteer member of this hard-working team and silence on this issue is not an option. It is my opinion that a big mistake is taking place, not only for our team but also for the other eight teams in Metro Vancouver.
We all know the United Way is a good organization doing important fundraising and dispersing those funds to many charities and groups such as ours.
I do not know its criteria for deciding how the pie is divided amongst the demographic groups, but I'll tell you this: seniors in Metro Vancouver just took a big hit.
I could spend this entire column writing about all the work we have accomplished over the past five years on the meager annual grants of $25,000, which covers a small salary for coordinating plus meeting expenses. The work includes surveys and a walkability study in our three communities, reports to council, workshops, forums, the Paterson Park Vision, information pamphlets, resource cards and so on.
We are not affiliated with any political party but we do have an agenda, which is improving livability in Delta for seniors. The areas requiring improvement are affordable housing, transportation and non-medical health services as well as for the municipality to reinstate the seniors advisory committee and hire a social planner.
We are determined to continue this important work and will be looking to our community to help where it can. If you want to join us as a volunteer or make a donation, you can send it to Deltassist with a note stating it is for Delta Seniors Planning Team expenses.
So why would United Way choose to stop funding these planning tables and other seniors programs when we're on the verge of a huge increase in our citizens retiring and moving to different communities and lifestyles? I suspect the Better at Home program recently funded by the province to the tune of $22 million has something to do with it. This is a good program that the Delta Seniors Planning Team supported that subsidizes lower income seniors needing help with nonmedical support services so they can remain in their own homes longer.
It seems to me the province chose to filter this money through the United Way, which may have completely skewed the percentages of the United Way pie being allocated to seniors. In other words, this is not money raised by United Way, but rather provincial dollars allocated for a specific program, which should not affect existing seniors programs that are doing such important work and doing so on next to no money.
Napoleon may have been a small man but he led a huge army. We in the 55+ demographic have a voice that is only going to get louder. I hope our elected representatives are ready to seriously listen.
