National Accreditation

Wow, its been a while since I wrote a note here, and although I’ve been busy as you will read below, that’s no excuse! So I will try to write something here more often. Anyway it’s another fun and exciting summer as we continue our “Passport Around the World” programming and our regular classes, programs and services. The A/C is on so come down and enjoy all we have to offer in comfort and with some great company! Following a year of rigorous preparation, which included: forming a self-assessment committee comprised of staff, board, community and senior center members that met every other week for 5 months and the compilation and submission of 3 copies of a phone book size binder of required documentation such as policies and procedures, licenses, plans, charts and job descriptions and then an on-site visit from a Peer Reviewer, who was also joined by the new Accreditation Program Manager from the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC), the Wallingford Senior Center received its letter of Accreditation from NISC which is a unit of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) based in Washington, DC. There are only 7 Accredited Senior Centers in Connecticut and just over 130 in the entire country. This shows our community as well as any donors, insurers or other organizations and agencies we work with that we meet and exceed the highest standards of our industry. I’m very proud of our staff and volunteers and grateful for the support we receive from our town and our members that have made this achievement possible. Providing great programs and services to the older adults of the Wallingford community has been our mission for over forty years and is reward- ing in itself but having this type of validation of the quality of those services is really satisfying. Hope we see you soon, Bill