Veiner Centre getting funding for programs that improve lives of seniors

By Medicine Hat News on June 9, 2023.

Medicine Hat’s Veiner Centre is one of six Alberta organizations chosen for a new funding initiative focused on enhancing services that support seniors living independently.

Financed through Healthy Aging Alberta – a coalition of Alberta organizations, agencies and groups, including United Way and the provincial government – the initiative aims to not only enhance existing services but also explore the efficacy of various service models for potential future implementation across the province.

More than $1 million will be distributed among the organizations throughout the first phase of the initiative, which launched last November and will run until March 2025.

The funding will go toward specific services offered through each organization. Funding provided to the Veiner Centre will be used to grow the centre’s wellness, food security and transportation programs.

Larry Mathieson, CEO of Unison for Generations 50-plus, Veiner Centre’s parent corporation, said all three programs play an important role in supporting Medicine Hat seniors living independently.

He said the transportation program allows local seniors to safely travel to their medical appointments and run errands, but also facilitates social connection, as it makes leaving their homes easier.

Veiner Centre executive director Cori Fischer added that the transportation program is instrumental in seniors being able to visit the centre itself and access its wellness and food security programs.

Others within the community are also pleased to see an investment directed toward older individuals.

Root Cellar executive director Melissa Mullis is glad to see additional funding go toward the centre’s food security program, especially as the number of Medicine Hat seniors experiencing food security continues to rise.

“We’ve been seeing between 150 to 250 new clients every single month for the last 16 months, and a large majority of those clients are seniors,” Mullis told the News. “Seniors who have never accessed (the Root Cellar) before are now struggling with food insecurity.”

Mullis estimates roughly one-third of new Root Cellar clients are over the age of 65, and she says her organization is not the only organization to notice an uptake.

“We are working really closely with the Veiner Center to (support) them,” said Mullis.

In 2021, the Root Cellar and Veiner Centre partnered to create a no-cost community food pantry at the centre, which Mullis says has been well-utilized.

“(It’s stocked with) breads, fruits and vegetables and pastries,” said Mullis. “And it goes really fast. (Veiner Centre staff) can’t keep the food on the shelves.”

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