If everything goes as planned, the Jasper Adult Learning Centre will soon host a new group dedicated to providing a range of learning initiatives for the town’s senior citizens.
April 4, JALC’s Executive Director Ginette Marcoux and Bob Worssold, the vice president of the local seniors association, sat down to talk about their hopes for the group.
A few years ago the centre had a well-attended computer class that many seniors took part in. The class collapsed after the centre lost the funding that supported it, and Marcoux thought now was the time to restart it.
So she called Worssold to try and get something going. Worssold liked the idea, but suggested taking it even further. Rather then simply offer a computer class, why not offer a broader senior’s learning club, using the computers as tool of learning instead of the main focus?
Marcoux loved the idea. She said the centre has always been interested in providing the town’s seniors with learning opportunities, and their newly-renovated upstairs computer lab would provide the perfect technology and space to facilitate that.
The idea, Marcoux explained, is to get a group of seniors together and teach them some useful skills in a pressure-free environment, with guidance from people who know what they’re doing.
“Our hope is that the focus is much more directed on things that will benefit seniors in their life: knowledge, information, access to webinars, access to senior’s benefits they can get online,” she said. She sees the computers not as the main point of the group, but simply a tool to facilitate learning.
“We look at learning as a continuum. Just because we stop working doesn’t mean we stop learning,” Marcoux said.
Since the idea first formed, Worssold has been spreading the word amongst the town’s seniors. He has high hopes for the program. He explained that while the club will be a great source of information and learning, he thinks it can accomplish even more.
Worssold, who identifies as an “emerging senior,” said he hopes to bring the full spectrum of retirees together—from those 55-year-olds who have just retired, to those in the later stages of their life—bending the definition of senior to make it easier for them to learn from one another.
“What I’d like to do is eventually start amalgamating the younger seniors with the older ones, to start breaking down the barriers,” he said.
This is especially important because many of the youngest generation of “emerging seniors” will bring technical skills to the group that their older peers might not have.
Marcoux used Worssold as an example, pointing out that “the knowledge and skills he’s bringing into that age group already is very different from the seniors that are 10 years older than he is.” And bringing them together under the auspices of the senior’s learning group makes transferring that knowledge easier and less intimidating.
“That increased sense of belonging is such an important part of it—that they can come to the space and just share. Seniors bring a lot of experience, knowledge and wisdom that are so important to share,” Marcoux said.
April 14, at 9:30 a.m., Worssold and Marcoux will hold a focus group to test interest in their idea, and hear any feedback from the senior’s community.
Worssold said he hopes to see a wide range of people stop by, and stressed that “anyone who has any ideas is more than welcome to come out.”
 Trevor Nichols
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