TENDERLOIN-BASED SENIOR SERVICES PROVIDER TO CELEBRATE LAOTIAN NEW YEAR

Central City Seniors to participate in New Year's Blessing Ceremony and Celebration

On April 15, 2004, Curry Senior Center (formerly North of Market Senior Services) will host a Laotian New Year's celebration in its new facility at 315 Turk Street.   It is anticipated that more than 100 Central City Seniors, including Laotian refugees and Cambodians who survived the Cambodian Holocaust, will gather to celebrate the event.  It will include an invocation of blessings for the New Year by a Laotian Buddhist Elder followed by a lunch of Laotian and other ethnic foods prepared by Curry clients..

Founded in 1972 by then Director of Public Health, Francis J. Curry, MD,  Curry Senior Center (CSC) provides a comprehensive range of medical services, case management, meals and nutrition, substance abuse treatment and social programs to more than 2,500 low-income, uninsured and homeless older adults residing in the Tenderloin and South of Market areas.  With its mission of “providing services that promote independent living while maintaining their dignity and self-esteem”, Curry Senior Center provides services in eight languages to the culturally and ethnically diverse residents of this low income area of the City.  Although a small agency,  Curry opened a new facility in late 2003 for its social programs and new permanent housing for 13 formerly homeless seniors, in an effort to address  the complex  needs of the growing number of “at risk” seniors in the Tenderloin and South of Market areas.

"This is a wonderful event for celebrating the diversity and vitality of the various communities residing in the Central City", says Gay Kaplan, Executive Director of the Center.   " These seniors came to our country and City with next to nothing except the clothes on their backs.  Our community programs have helped them acculturate, learn English, and successfully obtain  U.S. citizenship.  With budget cuts looming, we are very concerned that these services, which have made such a difference in the lives of these and hundreds of other older immigrants, as well as the other vulnerable elderly living in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, may be jeopardized."