LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A Perspective on the Sedona Community Center

Editor's note: This letter to the editor was submitted in response to the this email submission

SEDONA, AZ - Jan 7, 2009 - As a member of the Board of Directors and the Treasurer of the Sedona Community Center, I have been asked to provide a statement on the status of the Center as we review the accomplishments of 2008 and head into the challenges of 2009.

Some time ago, prior to my involvement with the Center, the decision was taken to change its name from the Adult Community Center to the Sedona Community Center, a change I agree with both in principle and in practice. The change was never intended to shift the focus of the Center away from services to seniors, particularly those most in need, but supplement the focus with a broader perspective to the benefit of seniors, adults in general, families and youth. This perspective is best illustrated by our current and ongoing Mission Statement:

The Sedona Community Center is a non-profit organization providing support services to older adults in Greater Sedona and responds to the community with programs and activities for people of all ages.

The primary support service of the Center continues to be the Meals on Wheels and congregate lunch program, which has drawn national attention for some of its innovative aspects. In a time of economic uncertainty and reduced funding, the Centers meals program has actually grown and expanded. We continue daily deliveries during the work week when the national trend demonstrates that over 50% of Meals on Wheels programs have cut back to once or twice a week delivery.

A challenge in delivering hot meals to the Village of Oak Creek, given the distance and ongoing construction delays, has been successfully met by establishing a substation at the Blue Moon restaurant supplemented by new restaurant partners in the VOC- Marketplace, Mulligan’s, PJ’s, Dessert Flour, and Red Rock Café. VOC residents as well as businesses have responded to the call to the point where there is an excess of volunteers to deliver to home bound recipients.

Another recent success of the Center was partnering with the Sedona Sunrise adult day care center to provide funding and consultation during its formative stage. It is anticipated that the Sedona Community Center will contract to provide meal and transportation services to Sunrise to meet the community need for adult day care.

This is similar to assistance provided to the Verde Valley Sanctuary when a three year contract was extended to house their Sedona outreach at no charge. SCC has also housed the offices of the City of Sedona Senior Information Referral Specialist and the Verde Valley United Way in our commitment to meet the needs of the broader community.

Funding for an expansion of the existing kitchen and transportation capabilities are priorities in improving the Sedona Community Center going forward. During the past year or so, the Center has utilized private funding sources primarily to bring its facilities into compliance with the access requirements of seniors and to become ADA compliant.

The technology base of the Center has been expanded both to support existing programs and to provide computer access to its client base. Senior computer classes have been popular and ongoing for three years and are taught not only as SCC classes but also OLLI learning groups and workshops, within the context of serving as a a Yavapai College Satellite Campus. Additionally, SCC member enjoy free computer and internet access on a daily basis at the Center.

Going forward, communication capabilities will be expanded from the existing website to encompass a video link for seniors with distant family members and a “care page” for those more homebound.

From a financial perspective, the Center operates with a primary focus on support services to these older adults. Other programs and services exist to support this primary focus, not to detract from it. The Sedona Community Center is cognizant of the responsibility to be a modern, clean and safe venue for its clients and members.

A major project for 2009 and beyond will be Project VOICE, where the Center was selected nationally for funding to develop an intergenerational approach to community needs. This project appropriately expresses the philosophy of the Center’s Board and management that the needs of seniors are best addressed not in isolation but within the content of the broader community. We are most grateful for this national recognition of our approach, which coordinates the Community for All Ages concept within the state through the Arizona and Sedona Community Foundations responsible for this grant.

In general, SCC has made significant steps toward being a more professional, progressive and accountable non-profit organization in the past three years. We have established Rules of Governance, a Strategic Plan, and an Annual Report in our efforts to become both more efficient and transparent. National recognition, awards and grants have rewarded this effort. We are proud to be serving as a model of the new paradigm for addressing the ever shifting and expanding needs of our aging population.

Jeffrey Buresh
Treasurer
Sedona Community Center