New senior center opens in Mission Hill

Yawu Miller

By all accounts, La Alianza Hispana’s Senior drop-in center was a success. The program, located in one of the organization’s Dudley Street buildings, served the community for more than 20 years as a place where Spanish-speaking elders could enjoy each other’s conversation, receive education about health issues and spend their day in a safe, supportive environment.

When the program moved last month to a space on Mission Hill, the seniors, some of whom have been clients of the organization since the ’70s, were supportive of the move.

“Our old space was so small that we could only serve 18 seniors at a time,” said Program Director Marisol Amaya. “We saw a real need in the community for more people to have a place where they can bring their seniors.”

When La Alianza was founded, elders in the city’s Latino population had few options to obtain services. The drop-in center, staffed with a registered nurse, helps seniors remain in their homes while receiving medical attention.

The new center, which accommodates 36 people a day, occupies a ground-level floor in Parker Hill Avenue at the top of Mission Hill. Amaya says the clients, who live in neighborhoods throughout the city, are dropped off at the center in the morning.

“It’s more convenient,” she said. “It’s closer to the hospitals. We’re not just serving people from Roxbury and Dorchester. We serve people from Brighton and Brookline and Hyde Park, too.”

The center offers seniors exercise programs, arts and crafts, field trips, health and nutritional workshops and Latin American meals. It also give musically-inclined seniors a chance to play their favorite instrument.

“They bring their own instruments and write their own songs and poetry,” Amaya said.

Many of the programs are designed to help the seniors manage health problems that would otherwise limit their mobility.

One of La Alianza’s founding members, Conchita Rodriguez, visits the center to educate the seniors on Alzheimer’s Disease — a condition that many in the Spanish-speaking community don’t know about.

“They are very attentive,” she said of the seniors. “They ask a lot of questions. They want to learn more about Alzheimer’s.”

La Alianza Hispana Executive Director Willie Rodriguez said the center meets an acute need in the Latino community for health services.

“Our adult day program and drop-in center are institutions in the community,” he said. “People have been coming here for 25 years.”

For City Councilor Felix Arroyo, the center is both an institution and a place where institutions — like the music — are preserved.

“For me, the center is a very special thing,” he said. “It’s a commitment to life. A commitment to love. It says our elder people are valuable. We benefit from their participation in out community. Their ability to keep our culture alive.”