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Center may be on its way to national accreditation
By PATRICK COOPER © St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001 ST. PETERSBURG -- Martha Frappier wanted the reporter to know one thing about the Sunshine Center for seniors. "It's not just a place you to go play bingo anymore," she said. Sure, you can play bingo there -- if you can squeeze it in between the tai chi, the Internet classes, the exercise sessions, the community events, the meals at the snack bar and the dancing: belly, Hawaiian, line and square. The Sunshine Center, which Frappier supervises, has entered the second stage of a vigorous effort aimed at becoming the first senior center in Florida to be nationally accredited. A representative from the National Senior Center Accreditation Program visited the center at 330 Fifth St. N Thursday to see it in action and at the end of the day recommended that the center join about 45 other centers nationwide as accredited. If the Sunshine Center gains the final approval of the program's board, the center's leaders said it would become part of a group of U.S. senior centers with solid reputations and garner more popularity for the activities and events they direct every day. "It's bringing the field of senior centers into the new millennium," Frappier said last week about the accreditation program, run by the National Council on Aging and the National Institute on Senior Centers. Attendance numbers at the center have dropped in the last several years as the percentage of seniors in the city has declined, but still an average of 650 people daily in 2000 enjoyed "one of the best hidden secrets the city's got," Frappier said. In addition to their lineup of activities, the center features social services, "Lunch and Learn" noontime discussions, information sessions for children of elderly parents, and deliveries every day of about 130 Meals on Wheels. The center also regularly plays host to community meetings and political forums. The long road toward accreditation started about two years ago as the center began to assess how well it adhered to nationally suggested standards and guidelines, said Jay Morgan, director of the city's Office on Aging. After they assessed themselves and learned from that experience, the center's leaders decided a push for national accreditation was the next logical step, Morgan said. A committee led by Frappier was formed to implement any changes necessary at the center to fulfill the accreditation program's requirements. The process improved on what was already a top-quality senior center, Morgan said. "Just by going through the process, you only get better because of it." Opening in 1977 as one of the first Florida senior centers put the Sunshine Center in a position to be first accredited in the state, but Frappier said the variety of activities and events that the center offers greatly helped as well. "There's not a whole heck of a lot that we don't do around here," she said. "Senior centers are looked at as places to play games. Where in fact, senior centers are the first entry point to anyone in aging." Sitting in the center's lobby, St. Petersburg resident Art Rose said he shoots pool with friends every day, but the jazz band that regularly visits gets high marks in his book too. "The price is right, no doubt about that," he said. "It's an all-around good place." Rose liked the folk guitar player too, but the name slipped his mind temporarily. "Earl J.," his friend Tom Wright said while reading a news magazine. They've both been coming here for years. "I'd be lost without it," Rose said. If all goes well, Frappier hopes the center will be approved for accreditation within three to four weeks. The center would then be accredited formally in March at the American Society of Aging conference in New Orleans. "We've done everything that we can think of. I am as assured as I can possibly be assured," she said. She called Thursday's review "excellent" and praised the hard work of her staff for impressing the reviewer. In remarks at a breakfast beginning the day, Mayor David Fischer said the center "has been such a star in (the city's) crown all these years." After speaking he left the breakfast early, but he wasn't headed out of the building quite yet. Downstairs in the center's auditorium he was scheduled to open a forum on "Turning the Tide" against Medicare and Medicaid fraud, abuse and waste. There were tables of displays and pamphlets set up outside the large room, and about 70 people inside waiting, including 10 panelists. The event was heavily promoted around the Sunshine Center, and staffer after staffer mentioned it. This was how they wanted the center to be known. In the front the mayor stepped up to the microphone. In the back television cameras rolled. And in the middle dozens of people concentrated on hearing about a problem that to them was certainly no game. Bingo.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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