Six or seven years after doing 50+ oral history interviews, ohoberlin is being repurposed to serve as a public journal for my Spring 2021 internship toward my Public Administration degree at Lorain County Community College. Thanks to the Oberlin Recreation Department (for which I also sit on the city’s commission), I am interning with the purpose of finding out the social and recreational needs of seniors in the city for their purpose of identifying how the city might engage those needs.
Kathy Burns, client services coordinator for Oberlin Community Services, has been with the agency for 14 years. For their purpose, “senior” is defined at 60 and older.
“It’s difficult right now with Covid, in addition to the financial and food aid we’re here for them just as somebody to talk to,” she shared. “One senior in particular wanted me to type her will for her.” During pre-Covid times, the agency’s Saturday distribution would include grilling and outdoor music events.
“People would come early. They would just sit and talk,” she said.
The agency, this week, starts its five-year planning.
Oh, Oberlin 