What We Offer
Senior Centers
The Spanish Speaking Elderly Council-RAICES currently sponsors 9 congregate senior centers; 5 in Brooklyn and 4 in Queens, New York. These programs provide valuable nutrition, health, educational, social and recreational services to a diverse elderly and minority population. The overall goal of the centers is to combat isolation and promote a healthy lifestyle so that they remain independent and engaged members of their community.
Each Senior Center offers the following services:
• Cultural, recreational and educational activities,
celebrations, trips and outings, case assistance
services, benefits and entitlement counseling,
information on other RAICES sponsored programs
and referrals.
• Hours of operation are from Monday through Friday
from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and lunch is served daily at
all locations; breakfast is also served at the Red Hook,
Raices Times Plaza and Wyckoff Gardens Neighborhood Senior Centers.
Licensed Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic
Raices Casa BienEstar, the first Latino geriatric outpatient behavioral health clinic in Brooklyn, addresses the particular behavioral health needs of low-income, African-American and Latino adults and immigrant older adults in particular. The program provides a full array of behavioral health services that includes individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, and psychiatric medication management. These services are complemented by our in-house case assistance division and the provision of effective referrals to, and linkages with other service providers.
RAICES ACCESS Program
One of the Spanish Speaking Elderly Council-RAICES’ major accomplishments was the development of the RAICES Access Program in 1985. ACCESS, the case assistance division of the organization, is a model program on the application of the principles of cultural competency as a means by which to reach and serve underserved minority populations and thereby increase access to aging services.