Since many older adult patrons can't make it to Coventry Public Library's in-house programs, we decided to offer both a senior fitness class and a chair yoga class at the Coventry Housing Authority, which is conveniently located near the senior living center. We run the classes twice a week for six weeks, and the seniors are always begging for more!
Advanced Planning
We have a very active adult program at our library, but the elderly don’t always have transportation. Programs are often at night when they don’t want to go out, and we felt we could expand our programs to the whole community by not only offering a senior fitness class, but offering a chair yoga class as well.
We were going to have the classes in our building, but we don't have an activities room, and since we share the building with Town Hall we have to use the Council Chambers for programs. Those aren't always available, so we started looking elsewhere.
We talked to the senior center, but the community rooms at the local Housing Authority facilities were better, and the Housing Authority was already looking for activities. That’s worked out very well because some of the folks come from the community, but some of the folks come from the housing units right by the Housing Authority.
We started chair yoga in 2016 and the fitness classes in 2017. The instructors for both of those classes came to us asking if we would want them to teach a class.
Marketing
We get the word out mostly through The Reminder (a local shopper's weekly), our own newsletter, our website and posters that we put up around town. Word of mouth works well too, especially because the seniors all live together.
Budgeting
We don’t pay anything for our rent, so our only cost is the instructor's fee. She charges $35/hour, and twice a week for six weeks ends up amounting to $420. We alternate the fitness and yoga sessions so we are never paying both instructors at the same time.
Day-of-event Activity
The maintenance and janitorial staff at the Housing Authority set everything up for us, so we don't have to do anything on the days of the classes. That staff ends up being very helpful. We couldn’t have class this week because of a snowstorm, so the Housing Authority called everybody in the senior housing development to tell them we didn’t have class.
Once the class starts, the instructor does all the work. She teaches them different exercises, and if it's the senior's first session, she has them sign a waiver.
Program Execution
We feel like this program has been a successful way to reach the older community. We get about 20 people each class.
At the end of the last session one of the gals wrote a lengthy thank-you note to the instructor. The instructor has a great sense of humor and is always laughing, so it works out to be a very pleasant class.
Advice
The key to our programs is our instructors, so make sure you have good ones. The yoga instructor created her own program, and the fitness instructor is older, herself, and has been doing programs like this most of her life.
Supporting Materials
- Feedback (Coming Soon!)
- Programming Librarian Facebook Group
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