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Celebrate National Senior Center Month

Recognizing the Role of Senior Centers

This month, the National Council on Aging together with its National Institute of Senior Centers is encouraging us to recognize the dynamic role that these centers fulfill in facilitating creativity, relationships, purpose, and resilience among our community’s older adults.

The national theme this year, Happier Birthdays Happen Here, suggests a snapshot of aging adults—picture your family members or friends—having joyful experiences through:

• stronger social connections
• regular programs to support vitality
• resources that foster stability and independence
• and a culturally enriching and belonging environment.

This is precisely what senior centers do on a daily basis. The U.S. Surgeon General has identified loneliness as a national epidemic—but senior centers have several remedies. They are places where people gather, support one another, and build community.

This month, ponder the question: Why don’t more people take advantage of what senior centers have to offer? Perhaps it is hard for aging adults to take that first step and reach out. Friends and relatives can help within that. Maybe isolation makes it harder for older adults to see the opportunities around them. One of the answers is outreach—bigger programs of contacting and communicating the positive experiences that are right around the corner. 

Ultimately, focusing greater attention and resources on reaching our aging population with the services that centers provide will get us all to a better future for those over 65.

So this month, celebrate National Senior Center Month by supporting the places that help older adults stay connected, engaged, and independent. With your support, Sound Generations can continue connecting older adults to the programs, resources, and communities that make aging with independence a joy, while  transforming the experience of aging for generations to come.

More than Staying Inside the Lines

Coloring books for adults gained popularity in 2013 after Johanna Basford’s best seller, Secret Garden, hit the stores and the internet. Some people saw such books as beneath them, or “child’s play.” But others began to recognize that the act of coloring could have a calming effect for adults needing to disengage from the demands and stresses of daily life. Choosing colors, doing the fine handwork to fill in the sections, predicting and envisioning the outcomes—these engage and re-integrate areas of the mind in a relaxing way, and turn off the brain’s cycle of stress. Remember the simple coloring assignments handed to us as young children? As an adult, coloring into a detailed line-drawing can have real benefits.

We know that older adults face possible isolation, health worries, transportation dilemmas, or food insecurity. Each day’s framework of thoughts and feelings may offer little room for mental relaxation. Research has demonstrated that setting aside time to step out of one’s worries and actively focus on a world of colors and patterns can have a surprisingly deep effect. As highlighted by a Time Magazine article: “…coloring improves mood, reduces stress, and helps people feel more focused and present, and adult coloring books serve as a low-barrier entry for those who are otherwise hesitant to explore their artistic side. You don’t need any special skills or training and can benefit from just a short session.”

Need suggestions?

Freelance writer Lauren Corona, in a 2023 New York Magazine article, reviewed adult coloring books and offered a few that strike the balance of creating a calming effect while stimulating positive thoughts.

1. Moments of Mindfulness: The Anti-Stress Adult Coloring Book with Activities to Feel Calmer, by Emma Farrarons, contains 60 hand-drawn scenes to color and 30 prompts to help readers de-stress. Find it in Amazon’s book section: Coloring Books for Grown Ups.
2. Image Copyright © 2016 Emma Farrarons
3. Magical Jungle by Johanna Basford
4. Mindfulness Coloring Book for Adults by Your Notes

Become a Believer!

Recent Yale research indicates that a large percentage of aging adults improve as they grow older. Our attitudes have so much to do with how we experience and move through the world. Most of us probably were taught this truth as we were growing up; or maybe, as an adult, we were reminded by a mentor to approach life and work with hope and confidence.

In a recently published long-term study conducted by Yale University, researchers confirmed that positive beliefs can significantly boost the overall health of older adults. The study found that 45% of adults over 65 improved physically, mentally, or both over time. Aging adults with more positive attitudes about getting older were more likely to show these gains. This suggests that society should flip the prevailing narrative—the myth that our later years are typically associated with inevitable and steady declines in health. Instead, advanced years can lead to advanced health and capabilities.

These improvements in cognitive function and/or physical function in later life are not confined to a limited class or segment of our society. The correlation between positive beliefs and improved health remained strong even after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, education, chronic disease, and depression.

Read what Becca R. Levy, lead author of the study and professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) concluded:

Many people equate aging with an inevitable and continuous loss of physical and cognitive abilities. What we found is that improvement in later life is not rare, it’s common, and it should be included in our understanding of the aging process.

Our findings suggest there is often a reserve capacity for improvement in later life.

And because age beliefs are modifiable, this opens the door to interventions at both the individual and societal level.”

The authors of the Yale study point out that the findings support greater investments in preventive care, rehabilitation programs, and other health-related assistance for older adults. Levy presents an in-depth look at how attitudes affect aging in her book: Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & How Well You Live.

Each year for the last 62 years, this month has been designated as a time to recognize older adults—to actually see them. This means giving them the kinds of attention and support that ensure they can remain active, independent, and connected to community. We know that an increasing share of our society’s population in the immediate years ahead will be over 60. As much as 30% of that age group will experience poverty and isolation.

But older adults, when kept woven into neighborhoods and communities, are a resource, not a burden. The best approach for individuals, organizations, and our governments is to continually invest wisely in older Americans. Let’s leverage our collective strengths to foster connections and build bridges that support community resilience. We can invest by making contact with older loved ones and participating in small or large initiatives and activities that bring the different generations together for good. Individually, we can set aside time and funds to contribute to the groups already making a big positive impact in aging adults’ daily lives.

Let’s erase the stereotypes about our aging population, and take the time to learn about their diverse experiences and strengths. Celebrate in May!

April is National Volunteer Month in the United States, a time dedicated to honoring the impact of volunteers and inspiring greater participation in community service. Throughout the month, individuals and groups are encouraged to support nonprofits, schools, and community programs. Volunteers constitute some of the critical threads that weave communities together. Every act of service contributes to a more connected and livable world. This month, grab hold of the impulse and lend your time, talent, and energy to making a real difference in your locality.  

In recent years, Sound Generations’ programs have benefited greatly from the time and energy of 750 to 1,000 volunteers—critical support helping with rides, meals-on-wheels, community dining, events, senior center activities, and more.

“For Sound Generations’ fundraising events, we have 38 volunteers who make all our occasions possible and successful. Whether it’s helping us with mailings, welcoming someone at an event, or simply showing guests to their table, we couldn’t be effective without the gracious help of volunteers. Our events generate resources for 13 critical programs, and when we all come together, the enthusiasm is contagious! Our gratitude always surrounds volunteers for their time, energy, and support.”  — Kaitlyn Redwood, Mission Engagement Associate

Storytelling is as old as humanity. Perhaps stories were told even before language developed, through movement, through shadows cast from the light of a fire; accompanied by chanting, or by the twinkle in the eyes of an elder as a drama was reenacted.

While listening to a story, our whole brain becomes engaged in a shimmering response of imagination, visualization, memory recall, and language and symbol processing. An emotional reaction and learning posture emerge as the story unfolds. Stories stay alive and pass on to the next generation a culture of connectedness, wisdom, faith, and meaning.

It is no surprise, then, that older adults have been prominent storytellers throughout history. They have lived through crises and triumphs. The passage of time has enabled them to make sense of life’s swiftly moving events and deeply felt experiences. Our popular culture focuses on youthful energy, style, and the sensational entertainment of events and streaming media. All around us we see rapid change. But our hearts and minds need a balanced exchange of memory and meaning. Our emotional and social lives benefit from the deeper, quiet stories conveyed in conversation. 

World Storytelling Day Is March 20

World Storytelling Day brings our attention to the art and importance of in-person storytelling. Find a few opportunities in March to break free of preoccupations and encourage your aging adult friends and family members to tell their stories. 

In 2025, the Seattle-area Puyallup Tribe of Indians became aware of World Storytelling Day, which occurs every year on March 20 across the world. Stories–especially those handed down by elders—are an essential aspect of their culture. The Tribe’s Language Program hosted a stories celebration that brought out more than 100 participants. Tribal managers, adult and teen members, and children shared stories rich with history and metaphors. Language Director Amber Hayward was thrilled with the event’s impact: “It was very wonderful for our community to be sharing together in this way.”

Stories will be at the heart of Sound Generation’s Inspire Positive Aging Awards event when we gather to present awards to adults 60 and over whose achievements and ongoing contributions to community deserve to be celebrated.

Tickets are now live for the awards luncheon. Register today at https://go.soundgenerations.org/awards-2026.