Reinventing what it means to grow older on the mid-Peninsula - active, connected and independent, for more than five decades.
In 1969, a group of Palo Alto residents noticed something the fast-rising valley around them had overlooked: its oldest neighbors had nowhere to turn for help. Their answer was modest - an information and referral desk tucked inside the public library, staffed to point seniors toward transportation, counseling and health services. That desk was the Senior Coordinating Council of Palo Alto. Today it is Avenidas, and the modest idea has grown into one of Silicon Valley's most durable aging-services nonprofits.
Avenidas exists to answer a deceptively simple question: how does a person keep living a full life as they age? Its programs span the whole arc. There are fitness classes and art studios, lifelong-learning lectures and a technology lab. There is adult day health care for frail elders, door-to-door transportation for those who no longer drive, and a caregiver-support operation for the family members quietly holding it all together. For those who want to stay in their own homes, Avenidas Village provides the network - vetted handymen, rides to the doctor, a 24/7 phone line - that makes independence practical rather than aspirational.
The organization serves older adults and their caregivers across Palo Alto, Mountain View and the surrounding communities. It does so from three sites, anchored by a downtown enrichment center at 450 Bryant Street - a renovated former police and fire station that reopened in 2019 as a 22,000-square-foot hub, roughly double its previous size. The building is a fitting emblem: a place the city once used for emergencies, repurposed for the ordinary, essential work of aging.
What sets Avenidas apart is not any single program but the way the pieces fit together, and the fact that they have been refined over half a century rather than launched in a hurry. Where a startup might pilot one idea, Avenidas runs a full continuum - from a healthy 65-year-old taking a Mandarin calligraphy class at its Chinese Community Center to a 95-year-old receiving supervised care at the Rose Kleiner Center in Mountain View. The through-line is dignity, and a refusal to treat "seniors" as a single, undifferentiated group.
That refusal shows up in the details. The Chinese Community Center runs programming in English and Mandarin - Tai Chi and mahjong alongside brush painting and karaoke. The Rainbow Collective builds community, case management and cultural-competency support for LGBTQ elders who have often been overlooked by traditional senior centers. A Senior Planet partnership brings digital-literacy classes to people who came of age long before the internet. Each is a recognition that later life is not one experience but many.
Everyone, at every age, thriving.
"For more than five decades, Avenidas has been a trusted partner helping older adults stay active, connected and independent."
Avenidas is less a single service than a portfolio - each program aimed at a different moment in later life, from vibrant independence to intensive daily care.
A 22,000 sq ft downtown Palo Alto enrichment center for fitness, arts, lifelong learning and social connection - in a renovated former police station.
Adult day health care - Santa Clara County's first state-licensed ADHC - with supervised care, therapy, meals and activities for frail elders.
Membership program helping adults 50+ age in place: 24/7 phone help, vetted vendors, rides, social life and volunteers. ~300 members.
Personalized care management, navigation and respite for the family caregivers doing the daily, often invisible work of aging.
Programming in English and Mandarin - Tai Chi, mahjong, ping pong, calligraphy, brush painting and dance, online and in person.
Socialization, case management and cultural-competency support built for LGBTQ seniors and their caregivers.
Digital-literacy classes helping older adults navigate technology, delivered with OATS / Older Adults Technology Services.
Door-to-door transportation getting older adults to medical appointments, errands and programs when driving is no longer an option.
Avenidas is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its roughly $9M in annual revenue blends program and membership fees, donations, foundation and government grants, events, and a decades-old public-private partnership with the City of Palo Alto.
Who uses it. The customers are older adults across the mid-Peninsula and the families who care for them. Some come for a weekly art class; others depend on daily supervised care or a ride to dialysis. Avenidas Village alone counts about 300 members, most in their 70s through 90s.
The problem it solves. Aging in America is fragmented - transportation here, health care there, social connection nowhere in particular. Avenidas stitches those threads into one trusted place, reducing isolation, easing caregiver burden, and helping people stay in their homes and communities longer.
Where it fits. It sits alongside peers like Peninsula Volunteers, Sourcewise, the Institute on Aging and the national Village-to-Village network. Its edge is longevity, a genuinely integrated continuum, and cultural programs - Chinese Community Center, Rainbow Collective - that broaden who a "senior center" is for.
In April 2024, Kristina Lugo, LCSW, was named president and CEO, succeeding Amy Yotopoulos after leading Avenidas' programs for six years.
Lugo is a licensed clinical social worker who earned her master's in social work from Virginia Commonwealth University and was a LeadingAge California EMERGE fellow in 2018. Before Avenidas she held operational and senior roles at San Francisco's Institute on Aging and the Fresno-Madera Area Agency on Aging.
Inside Avenidas, she is known for roughly doubling the number of clients at the Rose Kleiner adult day health center as vice president of programs - a promotion-from-within story that says something about how the organization sustains its mission.
A promotion from within is not sentimental - it is how a mission-driven institution keeps its knowledge and its character.
Palo Alto residents set up an information, referral and counseling desk for older adults inside the public library.
A comprehensive study of area elders produces recommendations that become the blueprint for local senior services.
The Rose Kleiner adult day health center launches, and a central senior center opens in the former Bryant Street police and fire station - beginning the City of Palo Alto partnership.
Avenidas Village pioneers the aging-in-place membership model in the state.
A renovated historic building plus new construction reopen as a 22,000 sq ft enrichment center, doubling program space.
Kristina Lugo, LCSW, is named president and CEO after six years leading the programs team.
Avenidas' Palo Alto home is a renovated former police and fire station on Bryant Street.
The oldest Avenidas Village member is 108 and still lives in her own home.
"Avenidas" is Spanish for "avenues" - a nod to the many paths through later life.
The whole thing began in 1969 as an information desk for seniors inside the public library.
The Chinese Community Center pairs karaoke and mahjong with calligraphy and Tai Chi.