Meeting centers in Ostend attract more people

The meeting centers organize all kinds of activities and you can also enjoy a hot meal in the afternoon. The efforts of the city to also attract people in loneliness to the meeting centers are paying off, says Ostend.

The meeting centers do not want to compete with local catering establishments. That’s why they raised the price for alcoholic drinks. Furthermore, an analysis was made of all districts. The activities in the centers are adapted to the residents and their needs.

For this they work together with various organizations and associations from the neighborhood, such as in Stene.

“For the older people we have a successful petanque club. For the people who don’t speak Dutch, we have language lessons, such as the Ukrainians. For the younger people we also have homework classes and homework supervision”, says Marie Vermast, coordinator of the meeting centers in Ostend.

From this summer, the city will also deploy bicycle taxis in six meeting centers to pick up less mobile people. They are still looking for volunteers for this.