Iowa City Senior Center 2025 Annual Report

A Note of Gratitude & Looking Ahead

2025 was a year of holding steady while also imagining forward—and that is no small thing.

At the Iowa City Senior Center, we showed up every day as a place of connection, care, creativity, nourishment, and belonging. We did this in the middle of construction dust, temperature swings, shifting systems, growing needs, and a world that often feels louder and less patient with aging. And still—this building stayed alive. To our members: thank you for trusting this space as part of your daily rhythm. You bring humor, wisdom, critique, joy, grief, curiosity, and care into these rooms. You remind us—constantly—that aging is not a problem to solve, but a life stage to be supported, honored, and fully lived. To our volunteers: you are the connective tissue of this place. From food access and front desk support to special events, set-ups, clean-ups, and quiet acts of noticing—you carry the spirit of service that makes this center feel human and responsive. We could not do this work without you, and we do not take that lightly. To our instructors and facilitators: thank you for your patience, flexibility, and deep commitment to learning and well-being. You taught through disruptions, adapted to changing conditions, and continued to show up with care for our members’ bodies, minds, and creative lives. You help make this center a place of growth at every age. To our staff: there are no adequate words—but I will try anyway. You held systems together while we rebuilt them. You served people while navigating change. You balanced urgency with compassion, boundaries with generosity, and exhaustion with humor. You are thoughtful, skilled, and deeply committed to this community. This work happens because of you. To our community partners: thank you for walking alongside us. From food access, health and wellness, arts and culture, education, housing stability, and intergenerational connection—your collaboration expands what is possible inside these walls. You help ensure the Senior Center is not a silo, but a shared civic space rooted in relationship and mutual care. In 2025, the Senior Center continued to evolve—not just as a building, but as an idea. A downtown anchor. A social connector. A learning hub. A safety net. A creative space. A place where the past, present, and future of aging meet. This is the mythology of the Senior Center: not simply what we offer, but who we are becoming together. As we move into 2026—our 45th anniversary year—we do so with gratitude for those who built this center, care for those who sustain it now, and responsibility to those who will need it in the years ahead. Forty-five years is not just a milestone; it is a reminder that aging, community, and belonging are long games—and we are still in them. Thank you for being part of this story. Thank you for believing that older adulthood deserves investment, imagination, and joy. And thank you for walking with us as we continue to build a Senior Center that is future-ready, rooted, and unmistakably human.

With deep appreciation, LaTasha DeLoach Senior Center Coordinator Iowa City Senior Center