![Pictured are members of the Milton Senior Advisory Council. From left: Richard Collins, Jimmie Melvin, Brenda Roland, Suzanna Jones, Joe Paschal and Muriel Jones. Seated is John Norton, Milton director of Parks and Recreation. [File photo]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-4fde5991-dd26-063e-e053-0100007f06ed-d1428b30.jpeg)
MILTON — The Milton City Council tasked the United Way of Santa Rosa County with creating a Community Lifecycle Plan to discover and address seniors’ needs starting with a senior survey.
What surprised United Way Major Gifts Manager Kyle Holley as the top concern from the survey was seniors not knowing what services are available.
“That was what we found for sure…,” Holley said. “The three major problems were communication, transportation and affordable housing.”
One reason seniors may not be seeking help, Holley suggested, was a character trait.
“Maybe they’re from a generation where it’s not customary to ask for help. They’re not a subpopulation eaten up with entitlement, a population whose values are such that they’d rather be givers than takers of services.”
Another reason could be the way seniors receive information.
“It’s interesting how seniors prefer to receive news,” Holley said. “Traditional, print media is important to them, and television.”
“Information is out there but for average seniors, especially in their seventies and eighties that don’t have the internet, it's hard to figure out where that resource is unless you know an organization like the United Way,” Retired Senior Volunteer Program Director Brenda Roland said.
Ten years ago, seniors were getting community information by phone and through the mail, according to Roland, but now that’s all online.
“I’ve got (a senior volunteer) who was really up to date before the internet started taking off,” Roland said. “Now she asks me when and where all of that is.”
Roland is referring to 23-year RSVP volunteer Muriel Jones, who agrees with the survey results.
“It’s very true. I do lots of things to try to spread the word around. I find that people do not know,” Jones said.
She also agreed that the transfer of communication primarily to the internet is leaving her generation behind.
“Imogene (Theatre) has good programs but the only way they advertise is online. A lot of people don’t know (schedules) because of that … They put a blurb out in front of the Imogene. This week they’ve got music, but if you’re not driving by then, you don’t know.”
With the lack of transportation being the No. 2 senior problem, according to the survey's results, not many seniors drive by the Imogene.
In addition to advertising events through the newspaper, Jones said the Guy Thompson Community Center does a good job of letting seniors know what’s going on there, but this only accounts for programs and activities at the community center.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Survey results: Seniors unaware of local resources