Christine Beatty of Madison, Wisconsin, spent much of her Tuesday and Wednesday looking with a critical
eye at the operations of the Wood County Committee on Aging.
She was visiting as part of the renewal of the national accreditation process for senior centers across
the country.
Wood County Committee on Aging was Ohio’s first nationally accredited senior center and has maintained
its status every five years through these evaluations.
“I am not comparing this program with others. I am comparing their operation to a set of standards
established for all senior centers across the country,” Beatty said.
She explained that a pilot program tested these standards in various types of senior center operations
from small rural programs to large metropolitan models, and the standards were found to be applied to
all the programs in the pilot. Beatty indicated one of those in the pilot program was a Korean senior
center, while another was a small storefront in rural Iowa.
Beatty indicated she is looking at nine areas of the operation, including having bylaws and other
governance matters and financial concerns such as audits and budgets.
“I look to see how all these manuals and paperworkreally works,” she said of her site visit, pointing to
an extremely thick binder. “I talk to the leaders in the organization, and I talk to the seniors
themselves and get their thoughts.”
She went from table to table, talking with those waiting to eat the lunch being served on Wednesday. She
then picked spaghetti with meat sauce over the other choice of honey mustard chicken for the meal of the
day prepared for the seniors.
“We spend 12 years in school, and then often more years in college teaching us what we need to know. But
nobody teaches us how to get older,” Beatty said. “One of the things I look for are programs to promote
successful aging.”
She said one of the goals of a successful senior center is to keep people independent in their homes
longer. “It’s all preventive,” she said.
Beatty said such programs have goals including physical, mental and spiritual connections and keeping
people engaged in the community. Those are accomplished by avoiding disease and disability and
maintaining mental and physical activity.
“I think senior centers are special for people, and I enjoy doing this. It also provides ideas for me to
take back to my center,” Beatty said.
She will send her report into the national accreditation board, which will make the final decision. She
gave no indication of any problems, but in her role she may offer some suggestions as she shares ideas
and goals for ways to employ what she calls “best practices.”
Her visit included trips to a water class, the WCCOA Production Kitchen as well as a meeting with the
board of directors and seniors involved in an exercise class, to name just a few.