Workshop For Seniors Educating On Aspects Of Retirement

Seniors are receiving a chance to learn about retirement education with another set of free workshops later in July, and hosted by Gig Harbor’s Aging Smart, a network that focuses on bringing together the different kinds of information a retiring senior citizen needs to know.

The workshops started as a way of combining community resources and bringing seniors a variety of relevant information all at once, Aging Smart president Rebecca Rainsberger said.

“We all have different elements of our job that helps seniors retire,” Rainsberger said. “So we thought, instead of constantly having to educate our clients about things we’re all doing professionally, we thought it’d be great to have free classes for people to learn about different topics.”

Education is the key part of the workshops in making people aware of resources and options that they may not otherwise be aware of.

One such example is the difference between the term nursing home and the actual variety of long-term care options, such as assistant and independent living, she said.

Another example is reminding people of accessibility options for transportation besides taking cabs, added Rainsberger.

Aging Smart contacts professional speakers for their events, such as real estate agents, to educate learners who want to learn more about the differences of buying later in their lives.

“Sometimes, it’s having a large house that you’ve lived in most of your life with all your kids and then you’re downsizing, what do you take with you?” Rainsberger said. “It’s so dramatic, it’s not like a 30-year-old getting a new house.”

Workshops in person give people the opportunity to ask a question when something comes up that they don’t understand, as opposed to looking it up online, added Rainsberger.

“We’ve been really appreciated all the way around, either teaching or learning,” Rainsberger said, adding that the community is always very involved in the feedback with the workshops.

“We’re trying to reach out to the community to say ‘There’re so many things that keep changing in retirement years, this might be a topic that you’re interested in,’” Rainsberger said. “Half the time, it’s the children of retiring adults that come to learn.”

The next Aging Smart workshops are happening July 22 and 24, at 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. and 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Gig Harbor, and are focused on senior real estate and senior living communities.

Upcoming workshops in August include Medicare planning, and general retirement income mistakes not to make. More information can be found at http://www.agingsmarteducationalworkshops.org/.

Seattle-area based native Reed Strong is a college senior at Western Washington University majoring in journalism, working with Northwest Prime Time to talk with local seniors and baby boomers to report on local issues to get those issues back to the community at large.