Happy Queensland Seniors Week everyone!
(from left to right): Councillor’s Personal Assistant Nayda Hernandez, Community Engagement Volunteer Jasmine Wratten, Forest Lake Councillor Charles Strunk, Community Engagement Manager Haley Kiata, Healthy Ageing Program (Acacia Ridge) Coordinator Larissa Vaiomanu
On Monday 21st August 2017, Inala Community House Healthy Ageing Programs were invited to promote our services in the inaugural Forest Lake Ward Seniors Week Expo – hosted by Councillor Charles Strunk.
The Expo was held in conjunction with Queensland Seniors Week (19-27 August 2017).
Queensland Seniors Week provides the opportunity for older Queenslanders to explore programs and services, events and activities, connect with people of all ages and backgrounds, to celebrate the many contributions older people make in their communities. To find out about information and services for seniors, visit: www.qld.gov.au/seniors
From 10am to 2pm, the Expo was held at Old Inala Hall, Abelia Street, Inala. The Expo started with a Welcome to Country by Inala Elders to show respect for the Traditional Owners and Elders.
“This is our first ever Seniors Week Expo to acknowledge the importance of our seniors in our community. Seniors Week invites people of all age groups to come together in celebrating and paying tribute to our seniors. Seniors are critical to the growth of our community, especially in contributing high volume of volunteering work in today’s society. This reduces government’s burden and cost in paying the work that these wonderful volunteers do.
Today’s first ever Seniors Week Expo aims to connect our local seniors with service providers. It is also a good learning process for service providers to learn how to better identify, communicate and respond to the current needs of our local seniors, especially those over the age of 65.
We would also like to acknowledge the number of local service providers supporting us today, including Inala Community House, Devicentris, Vietnamese Seniors Group, Inala Primary Care, Inala Respite, Probus, Litter Pick-Up Team, Inala Bushcare, Mission Possible and National Seniors,” said Councillor Charles Strunk in his official speech.
Throughout the Expo, there were short, important and insightful information sessions promoting various services to benefit local seniors and their daily lives.
Attendees mainly included diverse group of senior residents of Inala and Forest Lake.
Free lunch and refreshment were provided for all to enjoy.
Councillor Charles Strunk visiting our booth, while our Coordinator Larissa introduced our programs to an interested client.
“We welcome everyone to come and have fun at our Inala Community House Healthy Ageing Programs at Acacia Ridge and Skylarkers, Inala. We have different interesting activities every day such as morning tea, exercise, craft, card playing, mah jong, darts, indoor bowls, tai chi, snooker and so much more to suit everyone’s needs,” said our Healthy Ageing Program (Acacia Ridge) Coordinator Larissa Vaiomanu, while distributing program timetable flyers and one-week free passes to the public.
“Lastly, our Inala Community House team sincerely thanks Councillor Charles Strunk for sponsoring this eye-opening Seniors Week Expo. This event is also a wonderful platform for us to collaborate and build robust relationships with other local service providers to achieve greater outcomes for our local seniors,” said our Community Engagement Manager Haley Kiata.
If you or know someone who would like to join our Healthy Ageing Programs, please feel free to contact us (07) 3372 1711 | reception@ich.org.au:
