Palisades Alliance for Seniors to Hold Planning Meeting Jan. 9

The Palisades Alliance for Seniors will hold its first meeting of 2017 on Jan. 9 in the Palisades Library community room, 861 Alma Real.

“Rather than having a single topic and speaker as we typically do at our Monday programs, this meeting will be interactive and focus on plans and strategy,” said Alliance leader Karen Stigler, a recent Golden Sparkplug recipient.

“In the first half of the program, we will share and listen to one another’s thoughts on aging in the Palisades: the good, the bad and the missing,” Stigler said. “We will then organize to address individual and community needs.”

All community members are welcome to join the meeting, from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon. Attendees are invited to stay afterward and socialize.

“Following are some initiatives that we’d like to undertake if we had people willing to lead them,” Stigler said.

• Survey community organizations to identify services currently provided, and gaps to be filled;
• Prepare and maintain a list of community resources;
• Prepare and maintain a calendar of community events of interest to seniors;
• Organize social functions;
• Work with churches/synagogues to see if the Alliance can coordinate and expand efforts on behalf of seniors;
• Explore/push efforts to establish a senior center;
• Explore feasibility/funding for a shuttle bus or DASH bus in town;
• Explore pluses, minuses and legal ramifications of pursuing/not pursuing incorporation and tax-exempt status, including possibility of establishing a “village”;
• Hire a coordinator to connect people who need rides for errands/community events, or help with small things at home—with volunteers who can help them (if liability issues are manageable);
• Produce bi-weekly programs at the library;
• “Find a webmaster other than me,” Stigler concluded.

Palisades Alliance, in conjunction with the Palisades Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, offers programs of particular interest to seniors on the second and fourth Monday morning of every month. The programs are open to all, and free of charge.

The Alliance is an intergenerational group helping seniors in Pacific Palisades to stay in their own homes and stay connected with their community even as they grow older and encounter some limitations. The 2010 census identified 1,414 Palisadians— 6 percent of the population—aged 80 or greater.