The Senior Resource Center for Douglas County provides a wealth of resources for older people and their families, but at a cost. The SRC’s fund balance could dry up within five years at the rate things are going.
Becoming a county department could help the center find stability, Megan Poindexter, executive director of the SRC, told Douglas County commissioners during their meeting Wednesday.
Among its services, the SRC provides transportation with its Senior Wheels program, onsite activities, and counseling on health care, housing, legal matters and more for seniors and “future seniors,” as Poindexter calls younger folks.
The SRC is also the local Senior Health Insurance Counseling for Kansas (SHICK) provider — staff helps seniors find cost-effective Medicare plans for no charge to the clients, where insurance brokers would make a profit and may not be motivated to help find the cheapest plan.
The talks initially began over the summer during the commission’s budget process. Jill Jolicoeur, assistant county administrator, said she and county staff have been working with Poindexter over the last few months to determine what it would look like for the SRC to become a county department. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, she said.
Poindexter said the center’s costs continue to increase, and their overhead does not include expenses that can be cut. Moving the SRC under the county would help by merging some of those overhead costs.
The SRC’s current 501(c)(3) status could be modified to a “Friends of the SRC” nonprofit, so the center would still have a way to take in private and tax-deductible donations. The current board of directors would become the board of the “Friends” arm. Diane Adamson, chair of the board, told the commission they supported the move.
Many other senior resource agencies in Kansas operate as part of county governments and still have nonprofit arms. The change wouldn’t jeopardize the SRC’s funding from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, Poindexter said.
County Administrator Sarah Plinsky said this wasn’t about a nonprofit having a financial crisis and the government swooping in. It’s about how much more the SRC could achieve with the support.
“We think this service and the quality of the work that happens are so important that we want to preserve it, we want to stabilize it, and we want to see it persevere,” Plinsky said.
Commissioner Patrick Kelly said the county has a “constitutional expectation” to provide for seniors — people who have paid into their government systems for many years — and he thinks the SRC is the right group to do it.
Commissioner Shannon Reid said she was happy to hear conversations had been going well, and she said it was helpful to hear how Poindexter felt, given the totality of circumstances the organization is facing.
Commission Chair Karen Willey said she thought the other two were “a little further along” with their level of comfort with the idea than she was, but she was glad they’re having the conversation around it.
The commission did not need to take any action on the agenda item but gave staff consensus to keep moving forward with talks and determining timelines.
Learn more about the SRC on its website, yoursrc.org, or call 785-842-0543.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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Douglas County commissioners open to bringing Senior Resource Center in as a department
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