May 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 44

REJUVENATING
THE

SENIOR CENTER
Municipalities and nonproﬁts rethink
senior facilities and programming
BY E L IZ A BE T H B E A R D

Turning pancakes into computer classes

A L BUQU E RQU E
Twelve years ago, a nonprofit organization in Chicago began to experiment with a new type of senior center. Mather LifeWays had provided
senior housing for decades but wanted to reach out to urban, workingclass retirees-those who don't require or qualify for traditional senior
services but who want a sense of community and engagement as they
age in place. And thus the Café Plus concept was born.
" We tried to develop a different kind of place...a community venue
where we could...focus on enabling and empowering [older adults] to
be healthy, engaged, renewed, and independent, " says Betsie Sassen,
vice president of community initiatives for Mather LifeWays. " The initial
lure into this experience...is through the restaurant, but the benefit is intended to be much more than food and nutrition....We're really trying to engage people to take the time to invest in themselves. "
Today, three modern, inviting cafés called
" Mather's-More
Than a Café " are promotM AT H E R S
ed to the community using what Sassen calls
" ageless marketing. " For example, seniors
are only referred to as " customers " and activities are always " classes " or " events. " And
with the restaurant open to the entire community, one-third of the restaurant patrons aren't
seniors-even local businesses take advantage of the cafés' wi-fi for lunch meetings. But
once lured inside the intentionally small and
intimate 3,800-5,000-square-foot cafés, older
adults can't help but notice the classes going
in the computer lab or the fitness activities in
the multipurpose classroom.
" It's the same four walls-all of the spaces
connect, " Sassen says. " What we're trying
to do is convert someone who thinks they're
just there to have pancakes into someone
who's taking a computer class. "
The model seems to be working-surveys
indicate that 77 percent of the cafés' customers have tried new activities as a result of

w w w . N R P A . O R G M A Y 2 0 1 2 Parks

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May 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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