Forum Discussion

Help!. I'm frustrated and bored with my activity program and don't know how to bring it to life.

I am the director of a Senior Center in Southwest Alabama.
We are a rural community and don't have the budget or resources for much of a program.
I am a one woman show most days, so I don't have the staff support to be everywhere and do everything. Our main focus has to be serving lunch and if we don't have enough volunteers to help, I end up in the kitchen or helping to deliver meals.

I joined Golden Cares, because they have so many great printable options I can adapt for our group. I am just bored with doing printables.

My group is constantly changing day to day with a small core group who generally attend every day. Unfortunately that group consist of mostly men who just want to drink coffee and talk. The few ladies who attend are content to just do word puzzles and chat. I have 2-5 who might do arts and crafts but they don't show up all at the same time or day. None will participate in exercise. If I schedule a guest speaker the seniors will avoid coming or wait until 5 minutes before lunch to show up. No one will play any of the games we have on hand, except the 2-3 people who will work on a jigsaw puzzle. Any visitors rarely return, because the place is boring.

Between the seniors lack of interest, inconsistent attendance, and my inability to carve out dedicated interrupted time to lead activities, I am at a loss on how to bring in new life and motivate the ones who come faithfully.

I have no budget and no staff. I rely on donations, volunteers, and end up spending way too much of my money just to try to do something fun once in a while. I just can't keep paying for it all.