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Correction, May 16, 2025 5:57 pm:An earlier version of this article referred to Jody Mathewson by her maiden name. LkldNow regrets the errror.
2-minute read
On a bustling, stormy morning at Rath Senior ConNEXTions Center, volunteers hurry out of the rain, folders and umbrellas tucked under their arms, ready to answer calls.
They could be from a woman looking for an assisted living facility for her father who has dementia, or a grandmother who needs a ride to the grocery store.
The Rath center and The Lakeland Senior Hub are trying to fill a gap. The Rath center is the model for senior support in Lakeland, but it’s not a full activity center.
More than one-fifth of Lakeland’s 112,640 residents were 65 or older, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Yet while there are robust senior centers in St. Pete, Clearwater, Winter Haven, even in rural towns in Montana, Lakeland still doesn’t have one.
The Lakeland Senior Hub — a collaborative effort including Rath — has been trying to expand services and put those programs in a single, staffed building.
It would be a place where seniors can meet and help one another. An antidote for loneliness.
And it could be a salve: The National Institutes of Health has found that being isolated can increase the risk of dementia and stroke.
Lakeland’s seniors often are “people who lost their spouses or their children moved back up north and they literally have nobody,” says Karey Lewis, business development specialist at Wound House Calls.
A 2017 survey conducted by Age Friendly Lakeland, based on the World Health Organization’s eight domains of livability, found that 90% of respondents wanted to remain in Lakeland as they aged, yet more than half were unsure of the resources available to help them.
Lakeland could have had a senior center by now.
More than a decade ago, City Commissioner Don Selvage’s proposal for a senior center was dismissed. Since then, efforts have been privately led by Catholic Charities, Age Friendly Lakeland, the Rath center and others.
When Mayor Bill Mutz was approached about city help, the Lakeland Senior Hub and Rath were told to develop a plan.
In 2024, they did — receiving mixed responses and a $100,000 city contribution on the condition they match it.
And that’s where efforts seem to be stalled.
It’s left some of the Rath center’s board members wondering why the city can’t prioritize seniors the way it does youth.
There’s a persistent misconception, one member noted. “People feel that if you’re concerned about elders, you’re not concerned about young people — but that’s not true.”
Jody Mathewson, the board president of the Rath center, questions Lakeland’s and Polk County’s “age-friendly” branding.
Insight Polk examines community conditions and solutions in six target areas from UCIndicators.org: economic & employment opportunity, education, housing, food security, transportation & infrastructure, and quality of life.
LkldNow’s Insight Polk independent reporting is made possible by the United Community Indicators Project with funding by GiveWell Community Foundation & United Way of Central Florida. All editorial decisions are made by LkldNow.
Kayla Borg is a Lakeland native and graduate of Western Carolina University, where she earned her degree in English and film production. She began her media career in Atlanta at CNN, quickly rising from production assistant editor to technical director/editor, leading live broadcasts alongside field reporters. Since then, she’s worked in education, instructional design and independent filmmaking.
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