{"id":55982,"date":"2025-05-31T22:15:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T02:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=55982"},"modified":"2025-05-31T22:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T02:16:08","slug":"local-groups-push-to-bring-senior-center-to-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/05\/31\/local-groups-push-to-bring-senior-center-to-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Local groups push to bring senior center to Lakeland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through the doors of College Heights United Methodist Church, the Rath Senior Connextions Center<\/a> runs its daily operations, working to meet the needs of seniors across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Inside, calls from community members roll in throughout the day. Longtime volunteer Charlie Burdette says those calls range from people needing a ride to those looking for housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe get such a variety of things, and then we get really hard things,\u201d Burdette said. \u201cIt is particularly difficult for seniors who have moved here and don\u2019t know anything about the resources available \u2014 and even people who have lived here all their lives aren\u2019t aware of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executive director Dr. Rose Marie Lamm says she created the Rath Senior Connextions Center for that very reason. Before starting the nonprofit 21 years ago, Lamm says seniors in Lakeland didn\u2019t have a place to go for resources or services. Fast-forward to today, she says in many ways, the need is still the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a central center where people can go physically and hear about actual services that are available,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite U.S. Census data<\/a> showing that residents age 65 and older make up more than 20% of Lakeland\u2019s population, Lamm says the city is one of the few areas in the Tampa Bay region without a central location for senior services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of pushing for a senior center, the Lakeland Senior Hub<\/a> \u2014 a collaborative initiative that includes several groups, including the Rath \u2014 got the chance to present a plan to city commissioners in 2024. However, Lamm says the idea received mixed reactions from leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe already have services for seniors. We have services, but nothing is coordinated. And how are people supposed to find things when they\u2019re not coordinated?\u201d she said. \u201cAnd remember, we also have to keep in mind that seniors aren\u2019t all online. It\u2019s hard for younger people to even begin to understand that. So, we had to present that, and I\u2019m not sure it was completely understood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, city officials agreed to a $100,000 contribution on the condition that the Senior Hub can match the funds. Now, the Rath and its collaborative partners are working to raise the money to bring the center to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Lamm says they\u2019ll need the community\u2019s help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny amount would be wonderful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, volunteers like Burdette will remain by the phone, continuing to connect with those who rely on their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about how you can support the Lakeland Senior Hub, visit their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through the doors of College Heights United Methodist Church, the Rath Senior Connextions Center runs its daily operations, working to meet the needs of seniors across the city. Inside, calls from community… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDVcLzQ4NjMwMTg3Ml8xMjIxMTY0OTE1ODQ3MzA5MTBfNTc4OTU4NzY2ODE1ODc2OTE1OV9uLndlYnA_Zml0PTUyNiUyQzUyNiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkxvY2FsIGdyb3VwcyBwdXNoIHRvIGJyaW5nIHNlbmlvciBjZW50ZXIgdG8gTGFrZWxhbmQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.IWjN1YJbi3dIRFCgHwbASL_g-kP_6_VR8qS-rJ6GHUkMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55983,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/486301872_122116491584730910_5789587668158769159_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[11578],"class_list":["post-55982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-local-groups-push-to-bring-senior-center-to-lakeland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55984,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55982\/revisions\/55984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}