CA senior centers offer critical services

By 2030, the number of Californians age 65 and older will likely exceed those who are under 18. Some of these estimated 8.6 million residents will experience loss and grief, intensifying feelings of loneliness.

But as CalMatters’ Joe Garcia explains, senior centers can offer a vital respite — helping elders live out their golden years in the Golden State more meaningfully.

Making sure older Californians have significant social interactions and stay active in their communities is important to their physical and mental health. One in five older Californians live alone, and a 2023 U.S. Surgeon General advisory equated the long-term health effects of social isolation with smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Social interaction is also one of the key parts of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Aging. 

Subsidized lunch programs offered in congregate spaces are crucial to combat isolation: In 2024, these types of meals accounted for over 2.3 million older adult meals in the city and county of Los Angeles, a figure that also includes meals in senior care facilities and other older adult group spaces.

At the Lincoln Heights Senior Citizen Center, social events including games of la lotería and holiday parties — which can draw crowds of over a hundred on some occasions — cater to the mostly Spanish-speaking members.

Group fitness classes at the Culver City Senior Center have helped members like 67-year-old Selvee Provost. After losing her husband Jim to COVID-19, she began taking tai chi classes and there met a new companion whom she moved in with.

• Provost: “I knew if I sit at home and keep thinking about Jim, I’m going to get more and more depressed. That’s what motivated me to come here and try a class or something — just try anything.”

Read the whole story here, or check out the main takeaways. Also take a look at images from L.A.-based photojournalist Isadora Kosofsky, who documented the long-term effects of pandemic-related senior center closures.

Assemblymember Mia Bonta unveiled a new legislative caucus Tuesday focused on California children and improving their quality of life. The Oakland Democrat said the bipartisan group of over 40 state legislators will target proposals related to childcare access, foster youth, housing security and more.

• Bonta, at a press conference in Sacramento: “One in every five California children is living in poverty in the fourth largest economy in the world. Certainly we know that this is driven by federal policy and state policy alike. And we know in California we could do better for our kids.”

During the caucus’ launch Bonta also introduced two related bills: One that would establish a grant program to “advance economic mobility for children and families disproportionately affected by intergenerational poverty,” and another that would establish a statewide goal to halve the rate of child poverty in California within 10 years.

California leaders paid tribute to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at the age of 84. The civil rights activist and two-time presidential candidate passed away in Chicago from a rare brain disorder, according to his family.

Gov. Newsom in a statement recalled Jackson’s social justice efforts in California, meeting with labor leader Cesar Chavez in the Central Valley to address farmworkers rights in 1988, and protesting racial injustice in L.A. and Oakland.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called him a “tireless advocate,” and the state Assembly held a moment of silence on the floor in Jackson’s honor. The California Legislative Black Caucus also expressed its condolences, saying Jackson “never stopped pushing America to confront its conscience.”

• The caucus: “As we reflect during this centennial era of Black History Month, we are reminded that leaders like Reverend Jackson did not fight for symbolism, they fought for structural change, economic equity, voting rights, and the full promise of democracy.”