The big picture
Yolanda Perez, San Antonio human services administrator for the Senior Services Division, said that the 12 comprehensive senior centers offer a variety of services free of charge to residents 60 and up. These include The Healthy Eating Aging Living Program, a congregate meal program served everyday at noon at 44 sites throughout the city. The centers also offer a variety of educational classes, art and crafts, sports and wellness screenings.
Senior services partners with several organizations to provide a wider array of services, such as the San Antonio Food Bank.
“We bring the commodities to the senior centers," Perez said. "That way [seniors] don’t have to go all the way to the food bank or to any specific areas where the food bank may be doing distributions."
Perez said that senior services bring in a lot of different organizations that offer nutrition education, assistance with Medicare and Medicaid and presentations from nurses on a variety of topics. They've also partnered with WellMed Management Group, which provides free basic health screenings at any of the 12 centers.
Perez said the contracts with health organizations offer some seniors education on how to coordinate care for others.
“We have the WellMed Caregiver SOS programs, because a lot of older adults are also caregivers, so they give them information and education on caregiving but also a respite that they may need themselves.”
Each of the comprehensive centers offers free fitness equipment and classes through the YMCA and YWCA.
Zooming in
The city’s general fund is the primary source of funding for the centers. In addition to the city’s funding, senior services receives a $2 million federal grant allocated by the Bexar Area Agency on Aging as a source of funding for the congregate meal program.
“We’ve only got two sources of funding for all of our senior centers,” Perez said. “One of them is through the Older Americans Act, which is primarily for the congregate meal program, but the majority of our funding is either [through] the federal grant or the [city’s] general fund.”
In fiscal year 2023-24, the city allocated $28.933 million to the senior services division and $30.255 million in FY 2024-25. As of FY 2023-24, the centers have 43,508 actively enrolled members.
What else?
Perez said senior services aim to address needs that may not be directly expressed by the community, such as technology and financial literacy.
“[Senior services] engages several partners within San Antonio, like Oasis and OATS—which stands for Older Adult Technology Services—to bring services into our centers,” Perez said.
These services include a variety of classes on how to use devices like computers, tablets and smart phones. Perez said these classes help seniors learn how to navigate portals for doctor’s appointments, learn new skills that can help them find a job and help them become more technologically adept.
“Another challenge is financial security, and one of the things that we have had in the past is the Financial Empowerment Center, where we try to work with older adults to figure out if there are any benefits that they qualify for, but weren’t aware of it, or haven’t taken advantage of it,” Perez said.
Perez said that one of the newest challenges is educating people on fraud and scams targeting seniors. To combat this issue, the city has allocated funding for three new positions, who will educate seniors about fraud, fraud prevention and what to do if they become involved in a scam.
The takeaway
Perez said that the senior centers offer seniors a place to socialize that may not be readily available otherwise.
Each center offers a variety of activities that anyone can join. These include field trips, pool tables, chair volleyball, bingo, plant exchanges and card games.
Senior services also has a contract with Bihl Haus Arts, who offer art classes like sketching, painting, writing and jewelry making.
Each location also offers morning pick-up and afternoon drop-off to and from the centers for any enrolled seniors that live within a five-mile radius.
