When Senior Services Associates celebrated its Golden Jubilee last year, not much time was spent throwing a party. Too much was going on at this nonprofit agency tasked with serving as the hub of the community’s aging population in Kane, Kendall and McHenry counties. And as the agency continues to grow older along with the rest of the population, its role has only become bigger and more critical.
Which is why a few years ago Senior Services moved out of its longtime Aurora center in an old bank on Lake Street into the freshly renovated first floor of a building at 2111 Plum St. in Aurora. The move got more complicated than planned because it occurred as COVID-19 was rocking the country.
But it doubled the agency’s space, with 22,000 square feet. And that turned out to be a critical move because since then the organization has continued to expand – its staff, its programs, its partnerships – and certainly the number of local residents it has helped. In 2023, during its Jubilee year, some 26,000 seniors were served in some capacity in Kane County alone, noted Kathryn Harrison, director of community services for the agency, and that left little time to celebrate its new digs or that half-century milestone.
This year, however, a much-energized staff is taking a breath. And on Aug. 1, from 3 to 6 p.
m., Senior Services will finally host that pandemic-delayed open house at its new Senior Center on Plum Street. Since the pandemic, the Aurora agency has created a bigger footpr.
