DEPARTMENT: Human Services
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Melody Woosley
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: Citywide
SUBJECT:
Senior Services Strategic Plan Briefing
SUMMARY:
This item provides a briefing on the San Antonio Senior Services Assessment conducted by The University of North Texas to examine the capacity of city services to remain responsive to the needs of a growing older adult population in the City of San Antonio.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
At the request of City Council, a comprehensive strategic planning process for the City of San Antonio Senior Services program was conducted by KGBTexas on September 16, 2011. The report outlined multi-year recommendations to improve Senior Services programming through FY 2018. Since FY 2011, the number of active senior center participants has grown 168% from 9,000 to 24,127 and the total General Fund contribution for senior services has increased by 132% from $3,520,864 to $8,162,424.
On March 21, 2019, City Council approved an inter-local agreement with The University of North Texas, Department of Public Administration to conduct a Senior Services Strategic Plan. The plan aligns with the City of San Antonio’s commitment to being recognized as an Age Friendly City.
ISSUE:
This report examines the capacity of the City of San Antonio, including but not limited to the Department of Human Services, to respond to the needs of a growing older adult population in the City of San Antonio.
The research emphasized current conditions and recommendations in the three key areas:
• Evolving Demand for Senior Center Services: an assessment of current users and services provided at City of San Antonio operated Senior Centers relative to future demand and need in the context of advancing the city’s work in the area of becoming an age friendly community.
• Location Decisions for Future Senior Centers: a protocol to guide future senior center location selection relative to the themes and policies of creating age friendly cities and in alignment with the changing demographic makeup of San Antonio seniors.
• Integration of Age Friendly Policy Action across Departments: identification of opportunities to achieve tangible outcomes in age friendly policy action and recommendations relative to the proposed plans, studies and work programs of relevant city departments.
Based on department interviews, literature reviews, and best practice research, the plan also identified Age Friendly policy actions and approaches for potential implementation, These recommendations includes those that could be implemented through government action and advocacy and programmatic options that can be pursued by individuals, nonprofits, and others individually or collectively.
ALTERNATIVES:
The needs of a growing older adult population in San Antonio will no longer be met by the services currently provided by the City of San Antonio.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This item is for briefing purposes only. Fiscal impact will be developed upon recommendations from the community engagement process along with Mayor and City Council input.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the development and initiation of a multi-year implementation plan across departments with a focus on interests and needs expressed by specific subpopulations based on gender, age, race and income.
Based on report recommendations and senior population utilization of services, the Department of Human Services will work with city departments and community stakeholders to implement targeted initiatives and strategies to improve access and quality of services for seniors in the community.