Public Service: Senior Center Tour

Yesterday, I toured the Town of Gilbert's Senior Center and Recreation Center. I met with Rene Carlin, Recreation Supervisor and talked about funding  the senior center as well as volunteer work. Since I am interested in Nonprofit management, I was very interested to talk to Rene about the many challenges she faced providing services and resources to many of the seniors in Gilbert and outlining municipalities. The senior center along with the Chandler Christian Community Center provides meals at the senior center cafeteria and also delivers meals to seniors through their Meals-on-Wheels program at the cost of $5 a meal (a sliding scale prices also available). Plus, the senior center partners with another local nonprofit organization, Friends for Life, to provide food  for their client's pets.

Volunteerism is the backbone of any nonprofit organization, so it is only natural the senior center relies heavily on the citizens of Gilbert to care for the elderly by volunteering for the many programs offered by the center.  Even seniors are able to volunteer in the kitchen, teach classes, and perform other jobs around the facility. Volunteer retention is always an issue for many nonprofit organization, but not for the senior center! Many of the volunteers have been working with the center for years. Volunteer recruitment might be an area of interest and getting the word out is something the Town of Gilbert works closely with local organizations and nonprofit organizations to help fill the gap in human service needs. Just recently the town hosted a volunteer day on October 25th, and the Gilbert senior center had as many as 100 volunteers help with the meals on wheels program.

Funding is always a challenge for many nonprofit organizations when public and private spending has dwindled during the economic downturn. The Town of Gilbert had reduced their contributions to nonprofit significantly within the past years. The town council voted to reduce their funding to human services to $0 over a five year period ( Gilbert Human Needs Assessment (2014), p.19), which will ultimately affect the senior center ability to provide services to Gilbert's seniors. The organization realized they must find additional funding elsewhere, so they partnered with other organizations like the Silver Sneakers program and other nonprofits to make up in the gap for funding. Donations, grants, and generated income from a small gift shop also provide additional revenue to fund senior programming.

We talked about the need to get  promote the available resources out there to the public. The senior center has an outreach coordinator who helps individuals find the necessary resources and information they need. Rene also mentioned communicating and reaching out to other nonprofits to build more collaborative partnerships in these touch economic times is very important. Gone were the days when organizations could stand solely on their own without outside help, now working together is the only way they can survive and keep their doors open to help those in need.