A New Senior Center in Raleigh

Thursday was an exciting day for senior citizens in Raleigh. The day marked the ground breaking ceremony of the 20,000 square foot city-run senior center. Funding in the amount of $7.7 million was approved in October, 2007 for a city-owned senior center as part of an $88.6 million parks bond issue. This project has been in the works for 4 years with many senior center participants giving up hope that they will live to see their dream center come true. The name of the new endeavor is Five Points Center for Active Adults and is going to be built on the on the beautiful plot of land just outside downtown Raleigh (the same land that the current senior center is housed). The project should be finished next summer 2012!!

You may be asking, why build another senior center in the same plot of land? The current senior center is run by a wonderful non-profit organization Resources for Seniors, Inc. The senior center is housed in a county building which is shared with Adult Senior Services, and county human services employees. The almost 100 year old building is BEAUTIFUL on the outside, but leaves much to be desired on the inside. Needless to say, when the building was designed and built in 1913, a future senior center wasn’t in the radar. With only one wing of the building housing the senior center, and around 4,000 square feet of usable space, it was time for some upgrading!

I am interested to see what programs will be in place, how they use the space, what costs will be involved with the activities and if the age criteria will change from 55 to 50! I’m excited for the city of Raleigh seniors that they will finally have a large building to call home.

I only hope and pray that the huge new building is utilized to its fullest! Recently visiting the Durham Center for Senior Life and seeing how well their programming is run is a testament to their hard work and dedication to improve their activities and numbers. The center came under attack a few years ago because of its lack of use and Durham county officials stepped in to address the situation. During our visit a few weeks ago, I was impressed by the number of participants, diverse activities and the professionalism of the staff. I will be interested to see how Five Points Center for Active Adults is first received by the community of seniors in Wake County!

For the full article on Durham Center for Senior Life scrutiny...click on the title of this post.