As Swampscott begins discussing a request for proposals (RFP) for a potential new community life center, the town’s high school may lose its unique status as the only one in the world connected to a senior center. 

“It’s a wonderful space,” said Heidi Whear, the director of aging services. “It’s wonderful to be connected to the highschool, but we are constrained space-wise.”

During planning for the new high school, the idea emerged to share space with the Senior Center as a way to promote the project. Initial plans included shared use of facilities such as the cafeteria, dance studio and weight room, according to Whear. But she said increased security concerns have made shared use less feasible today.

“In the summer we’ve been able to use the dance room, which is great because it’s nice and cool,” Whear said. “We kind of go as we can.”

Despite space limitations, the Swampscott Senior Center has fostered intergenerational connections through programs like Opening Minds through Art (OMA). 

“This is one of the coolest programs,” Whear said. 

OMA is an evidence-based art program that pairs students with older adults living with dementia for creative, intergenerational collaboration. The older adults with dementia, who are the artists, are paired with volunteers, the students, who help art come from imagination rather than memory. There’s a focus on retaining strengths rather than focusing on skills that have been lost.

Whear said students in health classes at the high school learn an introduction to dementia and brain health. Then they come to the Senior Center for about an hour a week and work on abstract art.

“They talk about different things and share their stories and their thoughts,” Whear said. “I think they’re learning more and more, friendships that are developing between two different generationals and how they can be so much more relaxed. There’s just the difficulties of kids communicating with kids and some kids feeling kind of awkward or a little bit different. When you sit down with seniors, you might not have that anymore.”

The Senior Center has been able to collaborate with the Swampscott High School to hold sessions of the program throughout the school year, thanks to a Title III grant from the Greater Lynn Senior Services.

There will be more sessions throughout the summer, Whear said. 

In May, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order to update the state’s plan for supporting older adults. OMA was a part of it. Healey’s five-year roadmap outlined goals to make the state “a great place for everyone to grow old and thrive.”

“I believe that our culture has done a huge disservice to our seniors by segregating them…In the United States, we have so much ageism,” Whear said. “Now (with programs like OMA) they’re able to be together.”

Whear said she’s working to “reframe” the Senior Center, to become a “Center for Active Living” and more welcoming.

But now the Community Life Center Feasibility Study Task Force has started its work. The advisory board was created to look at the community’s needs and if there is a place in Swampscott for a multigenerational community life center. 

“The dream is that it’s not just for seniors,” Whear said. “The dream is that it’s intergenerational.”

There’s a much larger senior population in Swampscott than high school aged students. According to 2023 data from the US Census Bureau, there are 2,936 people in town over the age of 65. Swampscott has 628 high-school-aged residents, between the ages of 15 and 19. 

To meet diverse needs, the Senior Center constantly transforms. The dining room doubles as an exercise space, and sometimes even a conference. The space holds events like creative writing, yoga, chair pilates, knitting group, cribbage, art club, bingo and mahjong.

At the task force’s most recent meeting, on June 16, the group discussed the RFP creation process.

“It became a smaller senior center than originally anticipated,” Whear said. “I would hate to move away from the high school, but it’s depending upon space.”