Growing Old in a Foreign Land:

SeniorLAW Center Launches New Services For Asian & Latino Elders

A walk through the streets of Philadelphia reminds us that Philadelphia is truly a city of neighborhoods and immigrant communities, one which reflects the diversity of our nation as a whole.  Growing populations of Asian and Latino residents in particular -- each with varied and distinct cultures, traditions, and languages within their larger community -- continue to expand throughout our region.  The population of Chinese Philadelphians alone grew by 52% in the past decade.  Members of racial and ethnic minority groups also constitute a rising portion of Philadelphia’s older population.  One in three older residents in 1990 was a minority individual.   Elderly immigrants face not only the challenges and changes of aging that are universal to us all, but also the obstacles of a new language, culture, government, and health system.  Too often, they also confront the added hardships of exploitation, isolation and poverty.

More than half of those 65 and over who speak Spanish or an Asian language were reported to speak little or no English.  Economic hardships are especially prevalent among immigrant elders.  Elderly Hispanics face poverty at a rate of 2 in 5 -- almost 40% of Hispanic elderly live in poverty.  All of these conditions further exacerbate the growing isolation and vulnerability of the elderly population in Philadelphia, and make the legal problems facing Philadelphia’s seniors more severe and more complicated. 

SeniorLAW Center is proud to respond to these needs with new programs and services to protect the legal rights and interests of Asian, Latino and other minority elders with limited English capacity.   SeniorLAW Center’s new services provide free community-based legal services for Philadelphia immigrant elders, age 60 and over, in their own languages and communities. 

As an independent public interest legal services organization, SeniorLAW Center has worked to protect the legal rights of senior citizens in Philadelphia since 1978.  Historically, approximately 75% of our clients have been minorities, primarily African American women, although we continue to reach out to those of all backgrounds and languages.  We know that many elders are facing legal problems for which they need -- but do not access -- assistance. 

Recognizing this, SeniorLAW Center launched community-based programs in North and West Philadelphia almost a decade ago, through which a SeniorLAW Center legal staff member provides legal services to elders on designated days at established senior centers in those struggling communities.   In 1998, SeniorLAW Center launched a legal program focusing on Hispanic seniors at a senior center in Kensington to serve Spanish-speaking seniors from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and many other Spanish-speaking countries, in their own language and community.  A second site providing legal services in Spanish opened last month, serving elders in another predominately Hispanic community.  SeniorLAW Center now has launched a bilingual bicultural program of legal services for Asian elders in Chinatown as well, at the Pennsylvania Chinese Senior Citizen Association in Chinatown.  Services are available in Cantonese and Mandarin, and other languages with advance notice. 

These new multi-lingual legal programs will provide the wide range of free SeniorLAW Center services available to all elders living in Philadelphia:  free legal advice, information, and referral services; community legal education; advocacy; and individual representation on a variety of legal issues, including elder abuse, financial exploitation, consumer protection, housing, landlord/tenant problems, mortgage and other homeownership issues, custody for grandparents raising grandchildren, and advance personal and health care planning.  SeniorLAW Center focuses on the needs of those who are low-income or otherwise vulnerable because of disability, language, extreme age, frailty, or isolation.   

SeniorLAW Center’s legal staff works with a panel of volunteer attorneys who provide free services to elders in need.  New volunteers are always needed to meet the growing demands of thousands of low-income senior citizens each year who cannot afford or access legal help.  Volunteers can handle either litigation or nonlitigation, transactional matters.  SeniorLAW Center will provide substantive training on issues as diverse as how to write a simple will to representing a grandparent raising a young child who has been abandoned or neglected. 

A Chinese proverb, loosely translated, states:  “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.”  This reminder that our elders are both our history and our future also reflects the mission of SeniorLAW Center -- that the elderly deserve not only our compassion and respect, but also our professional attention and efforts as lawyers.

For more information about SeniorLAW Center services or volunteering to help elders in need, visit www.seniorlawcenter.org or call SeniorLAW Center at 215-988-1244.