Community Corner

Community Center Aims to Address Needs of Shifting Demographics in Queens

Forest Hills' Queens Community House has staff that speaks a variety of languages, offers social work services.

A Forest Hills community center said it is attempting to adjust to the needs of a changing demographic of seniors in Queens following a recently released report by the Center for an Urban Future.

The center’s study “The New Face of New York’s Seniors” found that Queens has seen a 36 percent increase of immigrant seniors between 2000 and 2010.

The borough is now home to the largest senior immigrant population in the five boroughs, according to the report.

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The Queens Community House, located at 108-25 62nd Drive in Forest Hills, has been aiming to address the needs of this growing population of borough seniors who were born abroad.

“We see every day how immigrant older adults face particular needs and obstacles to services, including limited English proficiency, lower incomes, isolation, unfamiliarity with social systems and various cultural barriers,” said Naomi Altman, the community house’s associate director for older adult services.

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The Queens Community House provides services at its Forest Hills locale as well as to in-home seniors in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Flushing and Forest Hills.

Programs include senior case management, Meals on Wheels deliveries, transportation, caregivers’ support and an adult day services program for the physically frail and cognitively impaired.

Nicole Vaughn, director of center-based senior services for the community house, said one way that the center has attempted to assist the demographically changing population is that members of its staff speak Russian, Spanish, Korean and Yiddish.

“One of the things we are doing currently to address the shift is that we offer case assistance in a variety of languages because we find a lot of immigrants coming in need concrete social work services,” Vaughn said. “We’re trying to help them get the benefits they need to help with their transition here.”

Activities currently offered to seniors at the Queens Community House include lectures, computer classes, wellness activities and volunteering.

However, Altman said the center has struggled to keep the programs intact as government funding has declined in recent years.

“It’s a classic case of penny wise and pound foolish since we are weakening the very infrastructures that will be so crucial in the years ahead,” she said. “New York has a reputation for being welcoming to immigrants. We need to step up and extend that sense of care to our older adults as well.”

For more information on the Queens Community House, visit the center’s website.


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