A new center aimed at reducing loneliness and isolation in seniors in South Bend has received a boost in its efforts to open this spring.
For years South Bend had a vibrant senior center in Howard Park but it was lost when the city redesigned the park in 2017. This year REAL Services, the area’s aging services nonprofit, did a community needs assessment and found that seniors miss the center.
Meanwhile Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow early this year moved the trustee offices out of their longtime home on Taylor Street downtown so the space could be renovated. Once he got into the larger and more modern space, he realized the trustee needed to be there permanently.
So Critchlow pitched the senior center concept in the former trustee building to REAL Services, and they enthusiastically bought in.
On Friday they announced the project has won a $40,000 grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County.
“It’s a big empty building that’s been renovated and the space is ready to go but it doesn’t have furniture, it doesn’t have office supplies, books and games, health supplies that they might need for classes, programming needs that they might have, none of that has been provided yet, and that’s what this grant is expected to cover,” Critchlow said.
Critchlow hopes the center will be open by February.
