05 Jul Vital People/Vital Causes July 2024

Drawing on key data and themes from our Vital Signs 2024 report, we will present a new Vital People/Vital Causes online and in the Coast Reporter on the first Friday of every month.

Vital Cause: Seniors
The Sunshine Coast Foundation’s Vital Signs 2024 found that, as of 2023, 50% of the Sunshine Coast’s population was over the age of 55, and the highest rates of population growth were in the 65-74 and 75+ age groups.

Seniors’ issues intersect with almost all aspects of daily life and public policy decisions on the Coast: health care, housing, income security, transportation, and more.

Vital Person: Mary Caros
Executive Director and Seniors Planning Manager, Sunshine Coast Resource Centre

Mary Caros has a background in strategic communications and community development, but it was personal experience helping care for ageing family members that led her to work on seniors’ issues through the Seniors Planning Table.

“Many experience multiple and overlapping forms of disadvantage,” Mary says of the challenges facing the Coast’s seniors. “You might be a woman who’s 85 and low income. You don’t have appropriate housing, you don’t have accessible transportation, and you don’t have a doctor. So now you’re especially vulnerable to poverty, homelessness, frailty, and isolation.”

“Seniors are terrified that they will have to leave their community as they age. We try to build awareness of the issues facing seniors and bring in new voices and new thinking,” Mary says. “In the last year, we’ve focused on housing and  transportation and we’ve seen an incredible amount of collaboration.”

While the work of the Seniors Planning Table often addresses big problems, where the solutions may lie in significant structural changes, there are also situations like the one faced by the local old timer hockey club, the Rusty Cranks.

Mary says the team came to her when they were facing a huge increase in ice rental fees because the SCRD did not have a seniors’ rate and wasn’t willing to keep letting them pay the youth rate. With support from the Seniors Planning Table, the Rusty Cranks got the SCRD to institute a seniors’ rate.

“A group of seniors were facing a challenge that was unfair and potentially devastating in terms of their social life, their physical well-being, and their financial well-being. I think, in terms of the Seniors Planning Table, it’s that kind of work that we hope to do: create systems-level influence and change, but in a way that builds stronger, healthier communities for seniors.”

Supporting Seniors on the Coast

The Sunshine Coast Foundation has supported the Seniors Planning Table since its beginnings in 2014, when a grant of $2,300 helped fund the initial groundwork. This was soon followed by a grant of $20,000 which allowed the newly established Seniors Planning Table hire a coordinator for its first year.

Critical support of seniors in our community is a result of Vital People, like Mary Caros, and generous donor contributions made to the Foundation.

If this Vital Cause speaks to you, consider making a gift to the Mary & Cecil Gordon/James & Phyllis Parker Family Fund for Seniors, a newly established Field of Interest Fund specifically designed to support seniors in the community, increasing their ability to live independently and stay connected with others.

For more information on our Vital Signs program, click here.

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Interview and article by Sean Eckford.