Graceland Center is Awarded INSPIRE Grant!
Graceland Center for Purposeful Aging receives INSPIRE Grant from IMPACT Central Illinois!
Graceland Center for Purposeful Aging received the IMPACT Central Illinois Inspire Grant during the group’s annual meeting on June 3, 2025. As a smaller non-profit organization, Graceland Center was chosen to receive this grant to grow our programming! The need for a fulltime senior center to enhance the lives of older adults in Peoria was fully endorsed by the members of Impact Central Illinois!
How will Graceland Center utilize these funds? We plan to:
· Increase the number of days that programming is provided, one day at a time. Funds will help pay for
additional rental space costs.
· Increase the small stipend provided to program coordinators for their time in planning and
implementing the programs.
· Increase public awareness through marketing for the need of a fulltime senior center in Peoria to
promote attendance and donor support of this critical need for older adults in Peoria.
Our campaign with this new grant is to apply National Council on Aging’s slogan “Flip the Switch on Aging” which means to embrace aging as a part of life and to live the later chapters of our lives well without discrimination or stereotypes. When the Older Adult Act of 1965 passed, it made provision for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and for senior centers to be built to help retirees transition with socialization, meals, and resources. Many communities took advantage of funding and created senior centers such as Springfield, Pekin and Normal. Some communities were flipping the switch early on and making plans for their communities’ aging members. Unfortunately, Peoria did not.
Presently, aging is still seen as a taboo and something we do not want to face. Rather than fear or ignore this part of our life cycle, Graceland Center has chosen to bring a new way of thinking about aging to Peoria. We believe that Aging is a Privilege!
Graceland is “Flipping the Switch” on Peoria’s way of aging by offering hope, nutrition, education, resources and to encourage the Peoria community to change our culture to age well! We INSIST that Peoria have such a resource and have every intention of making this an institution to last for decades just as other many other communities have already done. We call it “Graceland” because it is a place of grace, dignity, and respect for older adults and “Purposeful Aging” because every one of us needs to know we have a purpose and that we are needed in life. We are changing and saving lives at Graceland Center. The smiles and the light in people’s eyes when they leave our programming are so heartwarming!
We see a future for Peoria where our services grow from our current small programs into a visionary senior center that serves as a hub of community resources, of physical activities designed for older adults, of learning how to age well and healthfully, of community and friendship and JOY! Join us in our work to create a full-time community-based senior center for Peoria! Programs are Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 am to 1 pm at the Life Together Center, 3625 N Sheridan Road. There is no cost and no pre-registration.
For more information about Graceland Center and Impact Peoria, go to:
https://www.impactcentralillinois.org/about.php
or call 833-503-7773 and follow us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/