By Lisa Watts
The Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging is marking its 10-year anniversary.
Carol Hamilton is quick to credit the work of UMass Boston’s Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA) when she looks at the newly expanded senior center that she directs in Marshfield, MA, and at the wide range of programs the center offers to older residents.
Over the last 10 years, CSDRA has conducted two studies for Marshfield’s Council on Aging. CSDRA-collected data on the needs and preferences of Marshfield’s rapidly growing older population spurred the town to allocate $8 million that was used to expand the senior center and its staff, provide better public transportation services, and seek national accreditation for senior center programs.
“Informal surveys are not the same as a thorough study to give credence to what we were seeing as far as the demographics and feedback,” says Hamilton.
CSDRA has conducted more than 75 similar community studies over the past decade. It has also trained graduate and undergraduate students in applied research and primary data collection.
Read more about the center’s work at the UMass Boston Gerontology Institute blog