YCASC History

The York County Association of Senior Centers (YCASC) was founded, in the fall of 1985, by senior center staff members who were passionate about providing quality services to seniors in York County. There were 16-17 senior centers in York County at that time, and the center's founders wanted to create an environment where staff members from all the centers could come together to share program ideas, determine how to educate the “community” of our services, advocate for the needs of all older adults, create strategies to market senior centers, and to develop ways of serving a community of older adults with diverse backgrounds and ideologies. YCASC also supported and joined with York County Area Agency on Aging (YCAAA) and/or PA Department of Aging when necessary to advocate for the rights and/or issues of older adults. Many times York Senior Centers joined together with their participants in Harrisburg to see their legislators, and to speak out on older adult issues. Additionally, center directors have always been available to assist other directors with valuable information and advice, even when they were in competition for the same funding.

In 1990, the Association membership was restricted to the Director of each York County senior center. A program sharing meeting was added in 1991 to allow communication among programming staff, and to improve diversity, access, and quality of each center’s programming.

The YCASC continues to be a thriving organization that continues to serve York County older adults. The Association is now a nonprofit organization, which is expanding its efforts to unite York County senior centers and older adults by developing this website with the assistance of Penn State Computer Science and Information Technology students.

Additionally, training will be available for board members for all of the centers. Efforts are also underway to unite organizations involved with serving food to the older adult population, in an effort to improve the quality and availability of appropriate food choices for older adults.

During the late 1980s, members of the YCASC reached out to surrounding counties and established a five county quarterly meeting of senior centers to expand the collaboration efforts for older adults. Additionally, there was a movement among directors to establish a state wide association of senior centers. These efforts succeeded in establishing the Pennsylvania Association of Senior Centers (PASC).

For many years, senior centers were required to submit a competitive bid for a three year contract with YCAAA. During an Association Meeting, center staff discussed contract requirements to be sure everyone understood what was needed in order to receive continued funding. Questions regarding the contract were submitted by the group rather than individually to YCAAA. Collaboration has been the core of the Association from the beginning.