Aging Readiness Task Force to discuss volunteer work at final workshop

Baby boomers love this region. By 2025, approximately 23 percent of all Clark County residents will be more than 60 years old. Clark County Community Planning has been trying to prepare for what a March 2010 Columbian article called “the silver tsunami” and improve circumstances for this burgeoning demographic.

Its Aging Readiness Task Force has held four workshops dealing with seniors’ issues, and its fifth on May 19 at the Red Cross building – 605 Barnes St. – will address community engagement between seniors and younger people.

“We’re going to be focusing on what opportunities there are for community engagement,” said Oliver Orjiako, director of Community Planning. “How do people volunteer? How do we leverage the talents and experience of adults?”

The first four workshops discussed various facets of the county’s capacity for the surge of older residents: housing, transportation, health care and supportive services.

Leslie Foren, the director of operations for the Portland-based Elders in Action, will speak at this workshop about community engagement issues. The organization focuses on quality of life issues for seniors through personal advocacy services, informational workshops and a commission to help advise local government.

Orjiako and other task force members hope to create recommendations for display at the Clark County Fair on how to better accommodate older residents. It will create its final recommendations by the end of August end present them for approval by the county commissioners by the end of the year, according to Orjiako.

The workshop is free, but space is limited. To register, call 360-397-2280, extension 4958.