During the pandemic, most businesses were forced to explore innovative methods to better serve their clients. For York County’s fourteen senior centers, this meant finding a safer way for its 10,000 members to stay engaged, but without risking their health.
When the York County Association of Senior Centers began meeting via Zoom, they quickly learned how their centers could prevent duplicating efforts by building a shared network of support; thereby maximizing outreach and providing more efficient programming.
This realization led to the idea of forming the York County Senior Centers Co-Op Project – a cooperative of all fourteen local senior centers. A consultant was hired to identify the strengths, weaknesses, and commonalities of each center and used that data to determine the collaborative structure of the co-op.
Streamlining services was key to the co-op’s success. When the consultant explained the inefficiency of each center writing its own grants, it became easier to convince them to pool their resources to hire one grant writer who could submit grant requests on behalf of each center, rather than competing for resources. As a co-op, centers could also strongly advocate for more nutritious meals for their members.
“I don’t think we would’ve been able to get all of the centers onboard without the input provided by the consultant,” shared Tammy Miller, Executive Director of Windy Hill Senior Center. “The co-op encouraged greater collaboration and less competition between the centers.”
Data generated by the consultant was also used to obtain ARPA funds which were used to officially establish the York County Association of Senior Centers as a 501c(3) nonprofit. In the coming months, the Association plans to launch a website, collaborate on programming, grant writing, and marketing, and eventually hire a part-time administrator.
“Because of the initial grant from the Hahn Home Fund for Embracing Aging, all fourteen centers now work collectively to provide superior programming and better nutrition for over 10,000 older adults in York County, and we are so thankful,” shared Tammy.
