News

Center reaches out to Spanish-speaking seniors

Fiesta set for next weekend

By Chris Cassidy
STAFF WRITER
Published: July 11, 2009

SALEM — It began with a knock on the door.

A small band of city workers, college students and volunteers canvassed The Point neighborhood about a year ago, armed with surveys, brochures and an invitation — come visit the senior center.

It would be the first step in a broad outreach to the city's estimated 1,000 Spanish-speaking senior citizens, a group that rarely used the Broad Street facility.

In the last year, the senior center has hired translators, offered Spanish versions of its newsletter and Web site and tried to entice non-English-speaking seniors to check out programs and classes.

All of this culminates Saturday, July 18, with a fiesta, featuring Latino music and authentic Hispanic food at Forest River Park.

"Frankly, this is something that should be going on as a matter of course," said Bill Woolley, the city's assistant director of parks, recreation and community services. "We should be doing everything we can to reach out to populations for whom English is not their primary language."

In a city where an estimated one of every eight senior citizens speaks Spanish, services have not always reflected demographics. Three years ago, the only outreach to Spanish-speaking seniors consisted of a poorly translated paragraph in the monthly newsletter.

This sudden outreach started in the spring of 2008. Woolley, a volunteer named Domingo Alvarez and some advanced Spanish students from Salem State College went door to door in The Point over several days, handing out information to Spanish-speaking seniors and urging them to take advantage of the services at the senior center.

Even the mayor joined the group one day, inconspicuously dressed in a winter jacket and a baseball cap.

At first, the effort was greeted with a degree of skepticism.

"One of the first people we spoke to was somebody on a sidewalk just sitting on a chair," Woolley said, "and his response was essentially, 'If the people at the senior center don't want to come here, we're not going to go to the senior center.'"

That would be a reference to the bitter and emotionally charged debate in 2007 over a plan to transform the former St. Joseph Church into the new senior center. Many Point residents hoped it might be the spark the neighborhood needed to revitalize the area.

But many seniors from other neighborhoods protested, raising safety fears and citing high crime statistics in The Point.

Some — including then-ward councilor Lucy Corchado — felt the objections were racially based, that critics were quick to blast the neighborhood but rarely offered any solutions.

So the debate was still fresh in many Latino seniors' minds as Woolley and others canvassed the neighborhood, Woolley said.

"Part of this is trying to mend some fences with the Spanish-speaking community," he said.

In March, the senior center was awarded a $6,000 grant to hire four part-time bilingual translators. One was a certified medical interpreter able to translate information from doctors. Another helped organize a 15-minute Salem Access Television program in both languages — part of a series — that highlights the senior center's van service.

Two of the center's drivers are bilingual.

Salem State College foreign language students have also helped out. Some have served as interns at the senior center, while others have manned a hot line that Spanish speakers can call with COA-related questions.

The students have also translated COA newsletters and brochures about services and helped create a Spanish section of the COA's Web site.

"What we found is students at the end of the semester say it's one of the most life-changing and enjoyable experiences of their academic careers," said Kristine Doll, a foreign languages professor at Salem State. "I think it allows the person to expand beyond their limitations and learn about new cultures."

Saturday's fiesta will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at the pool by Forest River Park. Food will be catered by the Merengue restaurant in Boston. The Latin band Grupo Fantasia will perform. The entire event is being paid for through a state grant, and seniors can get in for free.

"I just hope it'll be a good way to interact with the Spanish-speaking community," Woolley said.

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salemnews.com.