STEVE: Alright. Let's move on then to, let's move on now to the main subject is, out of that event, the youth riots of 30 years ago. It still strikes me as very strange to think of youth riots here, but certain things happened that lead to the creation of the Capalano Services Society.
LINDA: Absolutely. It brought people together and so that the Society was formally organized. I think we were actually incorporated in 1976 as a non-profit. At that time there was also some activities looking at our frail and isolated seniors. And so we had sort of two programs that were developed around the same time. At that time I think some of the seniors work and our offices were located in the fire hall in the community and over time we were invited to participate in a forum that was run by the district of North Vancouver to take a look at this space, here in the Delbrook Recreation Center to create an environment where small non-profits could come and share office space at a reduced cost so that it could support a number of organizations within the community. And so that really was the impetus for us to begin sort of another arm of our work. And that was if we were to take on this space at a very reasonable cost, we were to just provide admin support to other non-profits. So, for example, in our building today we have Lions View Seniors Planning who rent an office from us and they share our photocopier and our fax machine and we do reception for them. They use our phone system. We have North Vancouver Restorative Justice who also has an office and of course, these organizations then have access to a meeting room as well. And the district is supportive of this and resultingly we get a very reasonable rent but then we as the prime non profit managing this space give back to the community making it possible for other non profits with small budgets to exist and do good work in our community.
STEVE: Ok, but now we get back to 1976 and we have a youth riot situation and we say, well we're going to try and do or find more things for youth to do. And then you said you have a problem with isolated and frail seniors. So then, there was an attempt to somehow bring the two together?
LINDA: Not necessarily together, but the people that were involved in the establishment and the incorporation of this society were involved in programming in those two areas and so those were, it's very interesting, those two needs, identified needs and the response to those needs by the society are very entrenched in the community. They were established many, many years ago and they continue to be the prime focus of the work that we do. And so, our two, we have three programs, including the Red Cross Loan program, but the prime programs are the youth program and the seniors program. And our seniors program is very specific in what it does. It is a program for seniors that are isolated and they may have multiple health conditions and they are still living in their homes but for many seniors their involvement in our program is sort of the last program that will include them prior to them going in to care. The next stop is very often going in to care. And so the average age of a senior in our program fluctuates between 83 and 86 years old.
STEVE: And so what services then do you provide? What specific services do you provide to these seniors?
LINDA: Specifically, there's about 10 programs that we deliver to the seniors and I must say that we have a small budget for this program. We can staff probably 2 full time positions and we use about 200 volunteers then to do all of the other work that we do with these 10 programs. Some of those programs are for example, are monthly social. We have a monthly social that we have up in the Delbrook areLinda: We also have another one that we do down in the Norgate areLinda: Each of those socials are a half a day, and afternoon event where we will transport seniors to a church hall. We will provide entertainment and then we will do a formal tea and then we'll take the seniors back to their homes. So it's a full afternoon of activity. We may have, let's see, in our social up in Delbrook, we may have about 50 seniors that attend for that afternoon. Creates a real opportunity for them to network with and be connected with other people their age and we ensure their safety so for many of them they are using mobility aids such as walkers. We've got a bus that we use to go out and pick seniors up and we also have drivers that will go and ensure that the seniors are supported in arriving at the event, that we have enough volunteers to support the seniors so that they're safe at the event and then we take them back home. STEVE: So that is one of your 10 programs and I imagine that you have volunteers that help at those socials? And what again, but then I think we'd like to go through all of the different programs and then you can explain how the different volunteers you know, get involved. And then, also I think you explained to me earlier that the youth somehow also get involved with the seniors in some way or the seniors with the youth or something, but at any rate, let's go on to the next one.
