Of the 218 centers, 19 were open 7 days a week and 123 were open 5 days a week. All indicated that they had volunteer staff in addition to paid staff. În various communities, senior citizen programs are sponsored by a wide variety of agencies and organizations. They include adult education agencies, churches, social agencies, community centers, recreation departments, welfare departments, libraries, schools, men's and women's service clubs, nursing homes, labor unions, hospitals, universities, and industrial companies. Few clubs have no sponsors. Most of the public recreation departments in the medium and largesized cities have senior citizen programs. REENTRY INTO COMMUNITY LIFE One serious problem is that of reentry of a retired person into community activities. How does the older person indicate that he is available to join in community activities? How does the community know that he is available and what kind of activity he is able and willing to do? New links must be made which will enable the older person to find the place where he can make a contribution to society. The subcommittee believes that a major function of a multipurpose senior citizen center should be to provide this community reentry point for senior citizens. Centers cannot be an end in themselves. Rather they must be focal points for people to start or continue their participation in community life. Otherwise, they only perpetuate the social segregation of the older segment of the population from the community. The activities of senior citizen centers are highly varied, as might be expected, considering the wide diversity of the individuals participating. All are trying to help their members to get more out of life through creative, meaningful activities. In general, most senior citizen center programs try to provide the following: (a) A variety of recreational, educational, cultural, and community service activities during the day, planned by the participants with the assistance of trained staff. (b) An emphasis in the programs and in the individual contacts upon continued individual development to meet the challenges and the problems of later years. (c) Opportunities to open new vistas in the retirement years, reduce rigidity and narrowness in old age, and enjoy creative meaningful experiences. (d) A supportive environment of friends who can help the individual during periods of difficulty or stress. (e) A reentry point where the individual can choose how and when he wants to participate in community life. (f) Activity programs which contribute, directly or indirectly, to the individual's physical or mental well-being. As indicated earlier, research by the New York City Welfare Department showed that active membership in their senior citizen programs reduces physical and mental illness. In a statement to the subcommittee, Dr. Harry Levine who has been the consultant to that program said:" Meaningful use of free time is as important as an adequate diet. When older people are active, their muscle tone is better, they stand erect, they are more flexible. Activity Today's generation of senior citizens is poorly prepared for participating in activity programs. Most had little or nothing in their early schooling to help them. Much of adult education was vocationally oriented or limited to basic academic studies. Many of the present generation of senior citizens left school early and have worked long hours most of their lives. Studies of post retirement activities indicate that older persons generally do things they learned earlier in life. However, in a study of people participating in the Senior Citizen Hobby Show in San Francisco, it was revealed that many had learned their activities or hobbies after retirement. Similarly, most older people active in community life were active throughout their lives. However, in those communities where special efforts are made, an increasing number of older people have turned to community activities for creative and meaningful outlet. For many, this is the first time they have done so because of the pressures of raising their families. Increasingly, senior citizen programs are including both formal and informal education activities. Older individuals are finding that they not only enjoy these programs, but are enabled to meet the challenges and problems of old age in a changing world. With declining physical strength and coordination, senior citizens must increasingly rely upon mature minds and accumulated experience to solve problems. It is fortunate that the mind does not necessarily decline with age. Recent research indicates that while the speed of learning may decline somewhat, the basic ability to learn new things is not a function of the aging process.10 Even the older adults with the poorest learning results in this study were about equal in learning ability as the teenagers. Educational and Recreational Activities Many senior citizen programs receive assistance from public schools, colleges, and other educational organizations in developing the educational aspects of their programs. Often senior citizens first hear about various community educational programs through club meetings. While over one-half million people over age 65 participate in formal adult education programs (U.S. Census and Office of Education Study in 1957), it is not possible to determine how many of these came about through activities of senior citizen programs. 10 Edmund de S. Brunner, Adult Hearing, Adult Education Association, 1959. A few of the educational activities which are carried out through senior citizen clubs and centers include programs in Recreation is the most common denominator of senior citizen clubs. It is the biggest drawing card for the membership. For many, this opportunity to meet and talk with others and enjoy themselves constitutes the only daily or weekly bright spot in their lives. Some of the most common activities include: These activities are the backbone of most senior citizen programs. But the subcommittee has found that if senior citizen programs are limited to recreation alone, they are not meeting either the needs of the individual or the community. A Volunteer Service Corps Despite relatively small efforts to enlist the talents and energies of retired people in community volunteer service, senior citizens have already proven their potential value. The range of volunteer service is limited only by the imagination. Some of the more typical types of volunteer service provided by senior citizens include Giving assistance to health drives and united crusade drives. Assisting at centers for the blind. Assisting in community beautification. Making toys for needy children. Rolling bandages. Sewing clothes for welfare distribution. Providing assistants in schools and youth programs. Acting as church secretaries, handyman, or religious educators. Working in civic and political campaigns and social action groups. Assisting local governmental units. Working with the Red Cross and with State and local hospitals and clinics. With a concentrated effort, possibly 3 to 4 million additional volunteers could be recruited for some type of community service during each year. The effect of this upon our community life would be very significant. Much more will have to be done in volunteer recruitment, volunteer training, and volunteer supervision. Volunteer work through a senior citizen volunteer corps could make as great a contribution as the various civic and service organizations do. In Los Angeles, senior citizens have a "Buddy System" where those living alone select a "buddy" with whom they check by phone each day to make sure that everything is all right. Others have worked out arrangements with schools and public transit companies for reduced rates. Much can be done through cooperative efforts to help the older person maintain his independence and meet the problems and challenges of aging through these programs and services. Self-government is an essential part of a good senior citizen program, and participation in the program planning process is important. But the lack of well-trained paid staff to work with the membership in developing and carrying out their own programs is a serious limiting factor. Staffing often is borrowed on a temporary basis from recreation personnel, social group workers, educators, gerontologists, psychologists, from among senior citizens themselves, and other sources. While in most programs, the senior citizens themselves contribute something, almost none of the centers is self-supporting. They depend on public or voluntary subsidies and find themselves low in priority in the competition for scarce local tax or charity dollars. The mobility of retirees also makes local responsibility somewhat blurred especially in States like Florida, California, and Arizona. FACILITIES A shortage of suitable facilities has plagued the development of truly useful senior centers. Many mistakes have been made in planning. Too many programs are located in hand-me-down buildings with inadequate lighting, difficult to get to, and without the necessary equipment. New facilities are costly. For example, the Los Angeles Recreation Department has allotted over $55,000 per building to add one room to each of the already existing park facilities, which are anything but elaborate. It is estimated that the Schenectady Center will cost $100,000 to rehabilitate. The Stockton, Calif., Center will cost about $90,000 plus land costs. Despite limited financing and inadequate facilities, about 10 percent of the population over age 65 participate in generally good, comprehensive senior citizen programs. Considering that 33 percent of the men over age 65 are still employed, that 4 to 5 percent are in institutions, that about 15 percent are seriously limited in activity by chronic conditions, that many others have competing interests or family responsibilities, and that a small proportion of older persons prefer to avoid other senior citizens even at age 80 or 85," the figure of ten percent participation assumes sizeable proportions. Estimates presented to the subcommittee indicate that about one-third of the senior citizen population could be reached at any one time with an attractive, meaningful program. This requires a program as important to a man as earning a living at regular employment and to a woman as important as raising a family. Over the years a one-third participation would mean that as many as 11 The Minnesota Governor's Committee found that one-fourth of those over age 65 did not wish to associated with others in their own age group. two-thirds of the older population might participate in the program at some time or other. For example, the Association of Senior Citizens of Los Angeles County estimated that 150 senior citizens clubs with a total of more than 30,000 were affiliated with it. In New York City, the welfare department has developed a program of senior citizen day centers which includes some 25 day centers involving over 9,000 persons. This program is supported in part by State funds administered through the State department of education and in part by local governments and community groups who help supply the facilities. There is a local board for each center. In 1959, more than 98 different types of activities were recorded and over 225,000 lunches provided. More than 1,000 counseling interviews were given each month to help members with problems ranging from housing, finance, and health to those of a personal nature. A lack of funds, however, produced a waiting list of more than 70 community groups currently requesting similar programs, which cannot be provided. THE INDIVIDUAL'S RESPONSIBILITY Longer life, together with the increased period of free choice of activity which our senior citizens enjoy, is a positive gain of our industrial and scientific progress. Retirement from regular employment may come earlier for many, but the individual is responsible for transferring his energy to an active new life of community service and self-enrichment. The selection of activity will be his own; the time and place and circumstances will be determined by him. And the resultant feeling of pride and satisfaction in important civic contribution will sustain his self-respect and status. Useful activity in retirement must become a social expectation and an individual responsibility. Retirement should and will be viewed as an honorable period in which new kinds of contributions can be expected. Opportunity for leisure, recreation, and social enjoyment must be satisfied-but only as avocations. Recreation should be combined with meaningful service to the community and the society. These are the individual and social imperatives which accompany the freedoms of aging in American life. Leadership-intellectual and financial-is required to sow and nurture the environment in which this concept of aging and retirement may flourish. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Preparation for retirement should be encouraged. Industry, unions, schools, social agencies, and other groups are encouraged to increase their efforts toward preventing many difficulties of old age, through greatly expanded programs of preretirement preparation. Such education and counseling should include consideration of the productive use of free time. In addition, the Federal Government should expand its preretirement preparation program, making it a standard personnel practice. 2. A major effort should be made to increase the number and improve the quality of multipurpose senior citizen programs. The subcommittee believes that no activity is more adaptable to voluntary-local-State-Federal cooperation than an effective program |