Wishing everyone a wonderful 4th of July holiday! The town will be celebrating on Monday, July 5th, and the Council on Aging/ Senior Center will be closed.

As always, there is an abundance of information in our monthly News & Events. You can find the July edition as well as any past or future editions of the newsletter here: https://www.brooklinema.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=37

The Senior Center has been open to the public during regular business hours (M-F 8:30AM-5:00PM) since June 1st, and we have enjoyed welcoming back programs and participants.

Please remember that the lifting of these COVID-19 restrictions does not signal the end of the pandemic and that the best protection continues to be vaccination. If you are still in need of a vaccination, please contact the Health Department at 617-879-5636. As we transition to this “new normal”, we want to assure you that the Town will continue to remain vigilant with the intent to keep our staff and members of the Brookline public safe. We intend to comply fully with CDC guidelines and we will continue to provide updates as they become available. We thank you for your patience as we navigate this next step together.

December 2, 2020

As we welcome December, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our ability to gather in large group settings. In fact, at the time of this printing, the COVID-19 numbers are increasing at a potentially alarming rate. With the addition of flu season and increased indoor activity, we are bracing for an increase in COVID-19 cases locally. The Senior Center is currently open on a limited basis, by appointment only, in compliance with the Governor’s “Safer at Home” advisory. We urge you to comply with public health recommendations.

We recognize that the impending arrival of the winter holidays will add additional stress as family and friends attempt to make decisions that will keep everyone both safe and connected. With that, we also know that feelings of anxiety and sadness may occur at this time of the year. Our advice is to be mindful of your feelings, talk honestly and openly with others, and seek professional help when needed.

The Council on Aging social work staff are available during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 am-5:00 pm), so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything or if you would just like to say hello. You can leave messages for us at 617-730-2777 or 617-730-2770.

We are pleased to offer an abundance of programming online. Thank you to our staff and program leaders for making this transition. As always, be patient with technology glitches. We are aware that there continue to be issues with some of the links that we have included in our December edition. While we have resolved most of the issues, here is a direct link for the Medicare.gov link listed on page 11: https://www.medicare.gov If you experience a problem with any of the other links, please let us know.

You can find the december edition, as well as any past or future editions of the newsletter here:

Are you receiving more than one copy of this email from us? Please let us know by sending an email to Jessica Milley-Gee at .

Be well!

Ruthann Dobek, LICSW
Director
Brookline Council on Aging/
Brookline Senior Center

October 28, 2020

As we welcome November, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our ability to gather in large group settings. In fact, at the time of this printing, the COVID-19 numbers are increasing at a potentially alarming rate. With the addition of flu season and increased indoor activity, we may see an increase in COVID-19 cases. The Senior Center is open on a limited basis, by appointment only, in compliance with the Governor’s “Safer at Home” advisory. We urge you to comply with the public health recommendations.

We recognize that the impending arrival of the Thanksgiving holiday will add additional stress as family and friends attempt to make decisions that will keep everyone both safe and connected. With that, we also know that feelings of anxiety and sadness may occur at this time of the year. Our advice is to be mindful of your feelings, talk honestly and openly with others, and seek professional help when needed.

We encourage you to complete our “Living with COVID-19” survey. The information gathered will assist us in planning future programs and services. An online copy of the survey is available here. If you would like a hard copy of the survey mailed to you, please call us at 617-730-2777.

We are pleased to offer an abundance of programming online. Thank you to our staff and program leaders for making this transition. As always, be patient with technology glitches. We are aware that there continue to be issues with some of the links that we have included in our November edition. We are working to resolve the issue, but we have included some of the direct links below as an alternative way of accessing this content.

We hope that you and your loved ones stay healthy and well in the days ahead and we look forward to celebrating with you all when we are able to safely reopen the Senior Center more fully. The Council on Aging social work staff are available during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 am-5:00 pm), so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything or if you would just like to say hello. You can leave messages for us at 617-730-2777 or 617-730-2770.

You can find the November edition, as well as any past or future editions of the newsletter here.

Be well!

Ruthann Dobek, LICSW
Director
Brookline Council on Aging/
Brookline Senior Center

June 5, 2020

At the time of this printing, the Senior Center is open on a limited basis, by appointment only, in compliance with the Governor’s “Safer at Home” advisory.  For more information on that advisory, please visit: https://www.mass.gov/news/safer-at-home-advisory

Since it is uncertain as to when we will be able to safely begin hosting any of our special or ongoing programs at the Center, we have been working to develop a list of online programming options with some of our regular group facilitators, as well as with some of your favorite performers and presenters. Please remember that these “virtual” programs are new to everyone so there will be glitches, but we hope that you will continue to give the online programming options a try.

We realize that there are lots of questions regarding our reopening and we appreciate your patience during this uncertain time.  Please feel free to leave your questions on our voicemail or to submit your questions to info@brooklineseniorcenter.org. Many of you may have the same questions so we hope to address some of them in future editions of the newsletter.

We hope that you and your loved ones stay healthy and well in the days ahead and we look forward to celebrating with you all when we are able to safely reopen the Senior Center.

The Council on Aging social work staff are available during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8:30 am-5:00 pm), so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything or if you would just like to say hello. You can leave messages for us at 617-730-2777 or 617-730-2770.

Follow This Link To Read Our June Edition:
https://www.brooklinema.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=37

March 18, 2020

In order to proactively slow and reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community, the Senior Center is Closed To The Public at this time.

The Brookline Senior Center will be monitoring its phone lines during the Covid-19 emergency. Older adults can leave their names and phone numbers on our voicemail at 617-730-2777 or 617-730-2770. Staff will be responding to questions and concerns Monday-Friday from 8:30 am-5 pm. Emergencies should be directed to 911.

In order to address the many questions and concerns that exist in the community, the Town of Brookline would like to share the following information :

For general COVID-19 questions, please call the State 2-1-1 line. For Brookline specific medical or public health inquiries, please contact the Department of Brookline Public Health at 617-730-2300. For non-medical questions specific to Brookline, please call the Brookline COVID Information Call Center at 617-879-5636. These call centers, for the time being, will be operational Monday through Friday from 8am – 5pm, these hours will be adjusted as needed. Messages can be left after hours and will be returned the next day. You can also email your non-medical inquiries to:

Stay up to date on COVID-19 updates here: https://brooklinecovid19.com/senior-center/

Please remember the importance of social distancing to reduce the impact of COVID-19, and please stay home as much as possible. Thank you.