Poway Approves New Staffing to Expand Older Adult Services

At the Sept. 20 Poway City Council meeting, councilmembers approved a staffing increase that will allow the city to expand older adult programs and services at the Mickey Cafagna Community Center. This opportunity was made possible by a recent Friends of Poway Seniors donation and the community group's continued commitment to partner with the city to support older adult services in Poway.

The city will now be able to hire a new full-time recreation coordinator dedicated to older adult programming and increase a part-time administrative assistant position to fulltime to support the expanded programming as well.

At the council meeting Mayor Steve Vaus expressed his support for the expansion of services and that it couldn't have been done without the help of the Friends of the Poway Seniors.

"We are eternally grateful to them and it's really going to allow us to do more for seniors in Poway," he said.

Friends of Poway Seniors provides funding support for municipal-run senior programming and material provisions for other local nonprofit agencies. The money is raised through the organization's ReRuns ReSale Shoppe and twice-weekly bingo at the community center.

"We are so happy to see the culmination of all our hard work come to fruiting in this manner!" said board president Cynthia Elizondo. "We can't wait to see the exciting programs these new employees come up with to keep our seniors engaged and socializing."

With the additional personnel, the shared goal between the city and the Friends of Poway Seniors is to expand older adult programming to include a volunteer program for seniors, a quarterly newsletter, improved program marketing, additional recreation classes, workshops covering a variety of topics, senior dances, and health services. The city will also work with an outside provider to offer free transportation similar to rideshare programs.