Brandywine Valley Active Aging eyes permanent location for Downingtown senior center

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Chester County Commissioners recently awarded a $450,000 grant to Brandywine Valley Active Aging (BVAA) to establish a permanent senior center campus in Downingtown.

BVAA is expected to purchase a new site in 2025.

“A new facility in Downingtown will ensure that these increased services can be provided in a spacious, accessible, and modern environment, something that has been needed for a number of years,” said Dolores Colligan, director of the Chester County Department of Community Development, in a press release.

BVAA launched in January 2021 as an amalgamation of two longtime senior centers in Coatesville and Downingtown.

Each year, the nonprofit serves more than 2,100 people with home-cooked lunches, community resources, counseling, health screenings and exercise programs. The organization has been leasing space at Brandywine Grace Church for the past few years to serve as a temporary Downingtown site.

The county delivered the check during a special presentation Friday at the annual BVAA holiday luncheon. Bill Pierce, the nonprofit’s executive director, thanked the church for providing a short-term home.

“But the time has now come to re-establish a place in the Downingtown area that can accommodate all the activities and programs we provide, and the meals we serve for more than 110 people every day,” Pierce said in the press release. “This funding from the county will help do that, and every one of us could not be more grateful.”

Chester County has five other senior centers in Kennett Square, Oxford, Phoenixville, Devon and West Chester.