WELCOME...

For over 100 years, St. Barnabas has served people living in the urban center of Los Angeles. today we are an independent, nonsectarian, nonprofit public corporation and the oldest senior services agency in Los Angeles. In the past few years, as St. Barnabas has expanded its services to such forward-looking, state-of-the-art programs as its Adult Day Care Center and Cyber Café, we find seniors commuting from considerable distances -West LA, Alhambra, Monterey Park, Highland Park, Encino, Tujunga -because there is nothing comparable near where they live.

Wether contending with such challenges of aging as financial, health, safety, or loneliness, seniors can be assured of assistance from St. Barnabas. Thanks to St. Barnabas, thousands of seniors -many without families to help them- are able to enjoy a dignified independence to live well, feel well, and age well.

The mission of St. Barnabas Senior Center (SBSS) is to enable senior citizens to live independently and with dignity for as long as possible, not only through the provision of comprehensive social services for those in need, but also by promoting a viable community life where seniors have routine social contact with others that is the foundation of good mental and physical health, supports inter-dependency, and gives seniors access to information and resources that empower their own problem solving and allow them to choose their own destinies.

Fifty-three (53) employees provide a continuum of care, which includes case management, transportation and escort, congregate meals, home delivered meals, grocery shopping and delivery, in-home supportive services, money management, legal aid, power of attorney, recreational activities, geriatric medical and dental clinics, Alzheimer's day care, Adult Day Health Care (ADHC), and more to clients who range in age from 60 to over 100 years of age.

St. Barnabas Senior Center intends to change the face of aging. Aging is not the past; aging is the future- for all of us. Old age should not be a terminal for used people waiting to die. Aging should be yet another developmental phase in the growth and completion of a human being, a life stage with its own purposes and pleasures.

Such a view of aging requires an acknowledgment of the role of the elderly: not the same as middle-aged adults, not the same as children, but as self-directed elders who have the right and the responsibility to determine their own destinies.

Society must be prepared to support elders in this phase of life as they support the young through their developmental stages - accepting of their limitations because we believe they ultimately contribute value, whether in personal relationships, life wisdom, or a perspective of the world that younger people cannot yet see.