• Home
  • About Us
    • Our Board
    • Our Team
    • Our Partners
    • Annual Report 2020
    • Strategic Plan 2021-2023
  • Services
    • Mental Health Services
      • Survivors of Torture and War Trauma (CANA/Survivors)
      • Project Safe Space – Children’s Programming
      • STEPS to Better Health
    • Social Services
      • Case Management and Care Coordination
      • Case Management for Caregivers
      • Health Insurance Referral
    • Macklind International Senior Center
    • Naturalization Assistance
      • Immigration Services
    • Language Services
      • Interpretation
      • Written Translation
    • Advocacy and Education
  • Opportunities
    • Volunteer
    • Career Opportunities
    • Practicum / Internship
  • In the Media
    • Newsletters
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Bilingual International Assistant Services

Providing Interpretation and Social Services in the St. Louis Are for over 12 years

Home > Events > Macklind International Senior Center Opens
Macklind International Senior Center Opens

Macklind International Senior Center Opens

March 23, 2014 By Jason Baker

Macklind International Opens Doors

City’s First Multicultural Senior Center Welcomes Its First Groups

GRAND OPENING OCTOBER 23, 2013, 2PM – 7PM

1329 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110

St. Louis, August 15, 2013 – For more than one decade, Bi-Lingual International Assistant Services (BIAS) has faithfully served elderly immigrants and refugees living in the St. Louis region with a variety of socialization and naturalization services.  This month, BIAS opened a fully functional international senior center in south St. Louis.  This is a defining moment in the agency’s evolution as it serves the needs of this important population.  On August 15, the center provided support for the first time to a group of Albanian seniors.  The group – organized by BIAS case worker Emiranda Gace – came for fellowship, benefits assistance, recreation, health education, and a nutritious meal.  What makes this center stand out from others is the nature of the culturally appropriate service provided – right down to the native Albanian meal served.  The BIAS senior center is intended to provide basic supports, but in a comfortable and familiar environment that will improve the experience of seniors as well as their ability to live independently in the community.  To that end, BIAS built a complete kitchen, trained Vietnamese, Bosnian, Nepalese/Bhutanese, Albanian, and Russian cooks, and will be able to serve high-quality, authentic, culturally specific cuisine to the seniors that attend.  Additional groups, including Latino and Chinese, are planned for the near future.

“People need a place where they can feel at home,” says BIAS Co-founder and President Julia Ostropolsky, LCSW, “where they can socialize and maintain their cultural identity while also learning about the new culture and the new country they call their own.  We have the ability to pair culturally specific senior groups with same-culture, same-language, US-trained professionals to help seniors adjust to American culture and maintain their independence while doing so.”

Thanks in part to the generous funding provided by the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging (SLAAA), BIAS was able to rent a 15-seat bus to help bring seniors to the center, many of whom would not otherwise have any means of transportation.

Older adults who participate in senior center programs can learn to manage and delay the onset of chronic disease.  They also experience measurable improvements in their physical, social, spiritual, emotional, mental, and economic well-being.  Senior Centers are especially important for aging refugees and immigrants due to the tendency to experience heightened isolation and suffering from previous war trauma and loss, which can exacerbate significant health-related concerns.

“We are going to bring people together and foster independence.  Part of the mission of the Macklind International Senior Center is to help seniors maintain the dignity of self-determination for as long as possible.  Our agency is able to address many of the needs that these seniors have, and now we have a beautiful, new location to serve them in.”

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Aging, Culture, Elderly, Immigrants, Julia Ostropolsky, Macklind International, Macklind International Senior Center, Missouri, Out, Refugee, Seniors, St. Louis

A Voice for the Underserved Since 2002

Providing multilingual social, mental health, and educational support to over 3000 consumers annually

Contact Us

Give us a call. (314) 645-7800 x 200.
E-mail is great too: connect@bilingualstl.org

Contact

Support Our Work

Help us sustain services to immigrant and refugee populations in Missouri

Donate

Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

The Facebook News

Bilingual International Assistant Services

5 days ago

Bilingual International Assistant Services
Riverfront Times has been killing it lately. Two great restaurant write-ups in two successive days. What the article doesn't say is how much the Lopez family and Taqueria Durango does for the community, like when they hosted a no-questions-asked food pantry out of their shuttered location for most of the pandemic. Proud to have a Lopez on our team continuing her family's legacy of service. ... See MoreSee Less

St. Louis Standards: Taqueria Durango Is a North County Institution

www.riverfronttimes.com

The Lopez family had no idea they would open a grocery store and restaurant when they moved to St. Louis from California in 1993. In...
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Bilingual International Assistant Services is at Soldiers Memorial Military Museum.

6 days ago

Bilingual International Assistant Services
Come visit our staff and volunteers at this weekend’s PrideFest (St. Louis)downtown STL and learn more about the wide variety of programs we have at BIAS! Don’t forget tomorrow’s Grand Parade starts at 11am right on Market Street 😁🥰 ... See MoreSee Less
View on Facebook
· Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

Archives

Copyright © 2022 Bilingual International Assistant Services · Log in

Notice of Privacy Practices