The Senior Center, located at 7 Washington Street, will soon be a much busier place, with their cash grant received in January finally being put to work to help the center. At the beginning of the year, a statement was posted on the City of Malden website, stating that the Senior Center had received a grant from the state totaling $45,000. The release went on to say that the money would be used to upgrade existing accessibility features and add more, such as wheelchair ramps and handicapped stalls in bathrooms.
Mikeneil Paul, program coordinator at the Senior Center, has held his position for some seven months now, joining the Senior Center in August 2021.
Paul stated that the grant was a yearly offering from the Massachusetts Office of Disability, ostensibly for organizations to improve their facilities and make them more accessible. The advocacy of Malden’s Disability Commission was a deciding factor in getting them the grant. “The Commission focused on the Senior Center because we serve the elderly population… they wanted to make sure that all our members are afforded access and an equal opportunity to participate.”
In terms of definitive improvements to the Senior Center facilities, Paul stated that there were two main areas of concern. Automatic door openers would be added to all the bathrooms in the facility, and ramps would be improved in the facility’s auditorium. Paul stated that these upgrades would be helpful to the teens as well, as the Senior Center’s facilities are shared between the seniors and the teens.
All in all, these new upgrades to the facility are sure to be welcomed by both the senior citizens and the teens. Work on the project is scheduled to start in April and continue over the coming months into the beginning of summer, ending sometime around late May to early June.
