George T. Goodwin Community Center - Silver Eagles Club

About George T. Goodwin Community Center - Silver Eagles Club

Each weekday, between 9 am-4 pm, seniors participate in a variety of activities designed to keep them healthy, active, and engaged. Seniors benefit each day from educational programming, a nutritious lunch program, socialization activities, field trips, volunteer opportunities, access to social workers and direct access to food, health insurance, transportation and emergency housing assistance. Wellness activities include exercise classes, nutrition and healthy meal preparation classes (often disease-specific focused [diabetes, heart disease, etc]), Wii games and tournaments. Program activities take place at the Goodwin Community Center. Additional services and resources have been put in place to increase seniors' abilities to stretch their limited resources and to more successfully navigate complex benefits systems. Increased financial workshops, coaching and free tax preparation services help seniors to practice better money management skills and prepare for the future through budgeting exercises, Medicare benefits education, discussions about long-term care options, tax return education and individual specific concerns. One-on-one health insurance consultations are provided, and free, monthly on-site health clinics provide seniors a way to monitor their own health and receive referrals to low-cost providers as needed. Additionally, volunteering is an important program component. Seniors volunteer once each month at Second Helpings, sew quilts for area nursing homes, and have also recently begun to provide valuable "volunteer staffing" for the food pantries at Goodwin Community Center. The Goodwin seniors also participate in intergenerational activities that take place between the seniors and Head Start / elementary / middle school / high school children during school holidays and on special occasions.