After eight years without one, South Bend is getting back its senior center. Organizers have created Portage Commons and they invite the public to an Open House next week.
For years the city of South Bend operated a popular senior center in Howard Park but they closed it when they revamped the park in 2017.
Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow last year moved to larger, more modern space in the River Glen office park and Critchlow also serves on the REAL Services board. As the nonprofit heard from seniors who missed the center, it also was discussing a national epidemic of isolation and loneliness among seniors.
Critchlow offered the township’s former building at 133 N. William St. free of cost to REAL Services, which will do the programming.
The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County has helped with a $40,000 grant for a digital kiosk for volunteers and members to check in on, and things like furniture, flooring and bathroom renovations, and supplies.
On Tuesday, March 25 they’ll have an Open House from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a Grand Opening event April 1.
Sandy Chambers, volunteer services manager at REAL Services, says the center is long overdue.
"We've had a lot of the folks that were participants at the Howard Park Senior Center, that have flocked to us, and are working with us and are very excited," Chambers says. "A lot of those folks will be volunteering with us at the center. Those are our Senior Ambassadors."
To start, REAL Services plans for Portage Commons to be open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but Chambers says those hours likely will change and expand once the center gets up and running with programming. REAL Services also plans to offer some of their own free programs there.
"Several different health programming, Matter of Balance, helping our seniors work on maintaining their balance, we have a chronic illness class, we have Bingocise, so we will have a lot of that programming going on in this main room as well."
The St. Joseph County Public Library on Wednesday plans to bring about 200 books to create a small library annex. Books can be checked out with no return due date.
"So we're going to have genealogy classes, we've got quite a few that want to play particular games, we've got crocheting and knitting coming into the mix. And pretty much whatever just presents itself as our seniors start to come in. We will be serving them to determine what programming that they want to see."
The library also plans to bring in a multi-generational technology class. The center is meant for people age 60 and over, and that would include people who are still working.
"So whether it be a cell phone or a computer, they're even willing to bring in the computers for the seniors to use. So if they want to figure out how to check their email or get on Facebook and videochat someone. They also have a resume and employment class that they do, so to show our seniors maybe how to not only do a resume and an application, but the technology part of it."
And for seniors who no longer drive, the center is on a Transpo bus line, and REAL Services also plans to offer rides to the center.
77-year-old Marilyn Nace will be one of the center’s volunteer senior ambassadors. Her husband James died nine years ago but she’s stayed active working from home as a commercial insurance agent, work she’s done for 50 years.
She says she won’t mind making the 20-minute drive into the city to hang out at Portage Commons.
"Seeing the center come to life I think is going to be a real boon for people in my age bracket," Nace says. "I actually spend several months in the winter in Fort Myers and they have some senior centers there that are just state-of-the-art kind of thing.
"It's nice to see this start and I think the potential for people in my age bracket to have a place to come to socialize, and meet some other people, and get a chance to just have a social interaction, I think it's going to be great."
