Community librarian Kathy Burton from the Osoyoos branch of the Okanagan Regional Library and other staff are looking forward to hearing from local seniors who are interested in being part of the new Year of the Wise project. The idea is to have seniors share their wisdom, experience and knowledge with members of the public.
KEITH LACEY
Year of the Wise pilot project aims to have older residents share wisdom, experience
The Okanagan Regional Library (ORL) is hoping to use the experience, wisdom and knowledge accumulated by seniors to share their life experience and talents with others.
Management with ORL is sponsoring a new program they are calling Year of the Wise and asking seniors to share what they know with members of their community, said Monica Gaucher, public services manager with the ORL.
“At the beginning of the year, we were looking for a theme to use across our library system and we knew we wanted to focus whatever we came up with within each community,” said Gaucher. “Eventually, we came up with the idea of inviting seniors in each community to see if they would be willing to share their life experiences with others.”
The ORL has started a media blitz across the entire Okanagan Valley and is hoping to get seniors involved with every one of its 29 branches across the region, said Gaucher.
The concept will involve having seniors work with library staff in each community – including here in Osoyoos – and inviting members of the public to listen to, observe and learn from talented people over age 55, she said.
“The reality is seniors have an abundance of knowledge, wisdom, skills and life experience and we would like them to come forward if they’re willing to share what they know with other members of the community,” said Gaucher. “We would like them to come out to our local libraries and share what they know.”
Some ideas that have been discussed by library staff to attract seniors to the program include mentoring others with their financial knowledge; teaching others how to play chess or bridge; sharing their talent in painting, sculpting, and knitting; teaching a music class; sharing their cultural history with a group; sharing their knowledge of your local community’s history; teaching other seniors how to use their new technological devices, including iPad, kobo reader, or laptop; and sharing their global travel experiences.
Because this is a new program, exactly how that information can be shared with community members would be up to senior staff members in each community, she said.
Some options would include slide presentations, one-on-one mentoring, question and answer sessions and hands-on demonstrations, said Gaucher.
“The list of how these seniors would communicate and share their knowledge and experience is endless,” she said. “We will have our library staff work with the seniors and come up with a plan to share information in whatever method works best.”
Many school boards have requirements that include students having to acquire a certain amount of volunteer hours and in one community in the Okanagan, seniors have met up with students to share their knowledge and technical skills as part of The Year of the Wise program, said Gaucher.
In Vernon, a First Nations service club held regular card nights, but needed a new location and the regional library in that community offered the use of a large room to continue holding the card nights, she said.
“They wanted a place that felt safe and neutral and they took up an offer to come to the library,” she said. “While they are there, the staff have introduced them to all of the services and programs offered at the library and it has worked out tremendously well as many of these seniors have never used the public library in their entire lives.”
In West Kelowna a new “seniors show and tell” evening will be introduced to the library branch there later in February.
“Some of the ideas being thrown around are having seniors bring in artifacts from their youth or war medals or pictures from their travels around the world and sharing their stories with the public,” she said. “I know the library staff are very excited about this show and tell idea and they have received great response from seniors in that community.”
Gaucher is confident that this program will be successful in most communities across the regional library system.
“It’s a great way to engage seniors in each community,” she said. “If you are a senior, we want to hear from you and we want you to share your talents and experiences.
“I know our staff are very excited about this program and they’re excited to get things started.”
Any senior interested in participating in The Year of the Wise can contact or visit their local branch and talk to senior staff about wanting to participate in the program, said Gaucher.
The program will continue throughout 2015.
Gaucher said if there is sufficient response from seniors and members of the public, the ORL would like to continue the program after 2015 is finished.
“We will see how things go and evaluate the program at the end of 2015,” she said.
Anyone interested in being part of this program in Osoyoos can visit the local branch at the Sonora Community Centre or phone 250-495-7637.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
