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Date: 10/25/2023
WESTFIELD — The city’s Senior Center opened its new office suite on Oct. 18, providing private spaces where family members can get counseling on the some of the sensitive and difficult issues that can accompany growing old.
“This is personal for me,” said state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield) prior to a small ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open three offices on the Noble Street building’s second floor.
“I’m going through it with my family,” Velis said before adding he had visited the center only the week before not in his role as a legislator, but as a family member.
Velis said the new offices would allow space to provide mental health services to the elderly.
“We are seeing … mental health concerns with our older adult population. We need to have a place where people can go and have candid conservations,” Velis said about the new office space that will allow a safe place for those difficult conversations.
Changing subjects, Velis spoke briefly about “something I never thought I’d hear … older adults and homelessness … they’ve done everything right and in the latter years of their lives and are confronted with being homeless. Just let that sink in. How sad is that? That shocks the conscience.”
Mayor Michael McCabe, one of 30 or so public officials who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, picked up on Velis’ comments on elder adult homelessness.
Velis “is absolutely right when he speaks to housing problems with our elderly citizens. It’s unconscionable that we’re in this situation,” McCabe said.
McCabe urged everyone who attended the ceremony to contact their local legislators to let them know the methodology of the state’s Common Housing Application for Massachusetts Program, also known as CHAMP, need to be changed.
Speaking about CHAMP, McCabe said it is used to place people in public housing.
“We have a need,” he said about housing elderly residents, “but we can’t get them into housing because of the difficulties of the CHAMP process. It’s not serving us well.”
Before Velis and McCabe spoke during the ceremony, former Senior Center Director Tina Gorman spoke of the project to renovate the space, formerly an unfinished storage area.
She said Velis secured a $100,000 grant using American Rescue Plan Act funds for the renovation project, but that didn’t cover the entire cost. With additional funds needed, Gorman said the Friends of the Westfield Senior Center stepped up.
“[We’re] fortunate for the Friends Board of Directors voted to give the city the additional funds needed for this project,” Gorman said.
Tom Keenan, the president of the Friends Board of Directors, said the nonprofit organization that supports the center was proud to help complete the renovation.
“We’re happy to step in and make that happen,” Keenan said. “The results are spectacular.”
Gorman also said there was a generous donation from the estate of Barbara A. Zygarowski used to fund the project.
Two of the three new offices will be used for the companion program coordinator and the newly created position of special projects coordinator, Gorman said.
The third office will be used if a new staff member is hired in the future, she said.
The new suite was designed by the Springfield-based Dietz & Company Architects, which designed the center when it was built nine years ago.
“To those visiting the center for the first time, the new suite looks like it’s always been here,” Gorman said.
She said the space was vitally needed because the city’s elderly population is growing, especially those 85 or older.
“Their service needs have become increasingly complex,” Gorman said.
The clients the center works with present with extremely complicated financial, physical and mental health issues, housing and family issues, food insecurity, and a lake of transportation, she said.
“We anticipate a need for expanded outreach, crisis intervention, and creative case management in the near future,” Gorman said of the need for the additional space.
For a complete list of programs and services offered at the Westfield Senior Center, visit cityofwestfield.org and click on the “Voice of Experience” link, or stop by the center at 45 Noble St., Westfield, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.