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Costa Mesa senior-center staff present model for delivering social services at statewide conference
Summary
Senior center staff described a four-part framework they presented at the 2025 California Parks and Recreation Society conference for providing social-service supports through senior centers, including intake forms, community partnerships and funding strategies; commissioners asked about staff training, funding and referrals.
Costa Mesa Senior Center staff told the Parks and Community Services Commission on April 10 that they presented a model for delivering social-service supports through senior centers at the 2025 California Parks and Recreation Society (CPRS) conference in Sacramento.
The presentation, titled “Bridging the gap of social services in aging services,” described a four-part approach: (1) define the scope of social-service support for a given senior center; (2) build partnerships with community providers; (3) identify and pursue funding sources (including nonprofit grants and Community Development Block Grant funds); and (4) create protocols for wellness checks and elder-abuse referrals. Staff said they provided intake forms, sample partnership packets and USB drives with resources for other cities to take back to local legal and administrative review.
The presentation team included a recreation coordinator and a licensed clinical social worker from the Costa Mesa Senior Center. Staff said their 60‑minute CPRS session had about 80 attendees, of whom three reported they had social workers embedded at their senior centers. In a live problem-solving portion, staff walked conference attendees through a typical intake — identifying preferred language, determining housing needs and connecting people to transportation or legal-help resources — and spent roughly 20 minutes on that casework exercise.
Commissioners asked how the senior center trains front-line staff and volunteers to handle social-service requests. The speaker said the center uses regular staff meetings to update staff about recurring issues, provides a staff/volunteer guide that lists common issues and referral resources, and makes the licensed social worker available for one‑on‑one client assessments when cases become complex. Staff said the senior center’s social-service work is partly funded through the city’s Community Development Block Grant allocation and by city support; the center also partners with outside agencies such as Orange County Transportation Authority for transportation options and with a community legal-aid provider that offers monthly pro bono consultations.
Commissioners and staff noted recurring needs they see locally: transportation assistance for seniors who cannot drive or do not feel comfortable parking at hospitals, legal advice for estate or housing issues, and mental-health supports for seniors still experiencing loss and isolation following the pandemic. Commissioners also asked about scaling the “train‑the‑trainer” element of the CPRS session; staff said attendees told them they wanted longer, more in‑depth trainings and the ready-to-use materials the Costa Mesa team provided.
Commissioners praised the senior-center team and asked staff to brief the commission when the center’s intake tools or training guides are finalized so commissioners could help promote the approach to other neighborhoods and to potential funders.
Ending: Staff said they would bring more program updates in future meetings, including additional briefings from aquatic and teen program staff. For more information about the senior center’s social-service offering, staff provided the center’s phone number at the meeting.
