Our Mission

Northshore Senior Center promotes healthy living and well-being in our community through programs, services, resources and civic engagement.

We envision a community where everyone leads full, healthy and inspired lives.  

Founded in 1972, Northshore Senior Center is believed to be one of the largest senior centers in the Country.  We focus on providing holistic services and support to older adults, people of all ages with disabilities, and their family caregivers.   Our dedicated volunteers, welcoming facilities and nearly 300 programs create a vibrant “home away from home” for people in our community, by meeting their social, emotional, recreational and health needs all in one spot.  

We serve the Northshore region of north King County and south Snohomish County, including the communities of Bothell, Juanita, Kenmore, Kirkland, Mill Creek and Woodinville.  We have Senior Centers in Bothell, Kenmore and Mill Creek and also provide extensive services at the Peter Kirk Community Center in Kirkland.  

Northshore Senior Center

Our programs focus on helping our community with issues that affect everyday life.

Social Isolation
  • 1 in 4 seniors have no one to help them if they become ill
  • Social isolation and loneliness is associated with an increased risk of mortality, decreased physical health and decreased mental health. 
Declining Physical, Mental and Cognitive Health 
  • Suicide rates amongst men over the age of 85 are more than 4 x’s the general population
  • There are 110,000 individuals currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in WA State and a projected 181% increase in Alzheimer’s over the next 30 years. 
Economic Insecurity 
  • 63% of people served by NSC are low income or extremely low income
  • 59% of seniors in King County have a high rent burden (paying more than 30% of income towards rent)

As a result of participating in our programs….

  • 95% say they have made new friends
  • 61% say their overall health has improved
  • 63% say they are more able to stay independent

Northshore Senior Center ascribes to the following values to guide our work both as an organization and as individual staff, volunteers and community members.

We are a WELCOMING community.  We treat everyone with respect, dignity, kindness and compassion.  We value equity, diversity and inclusion, and work to ensure our services are accessible to all who need them. 

Our services are HOLISTIC.  We work to meet the social, emotional, educational, recreational, health and wellness needs of older adults, people with disabilities regardless of their age, and family caregivers, helping to promote overall healthy living and well-being.

We are COLLABORATIVE, both within the organization and with others in the community.  We value working together as a team, and we operate our various programs and sites as “One Northshore”.

We aim to be IMPACTFUL on both an individual level and on a community level.  When possible, we employ best practice or evidence-informed practice, and we use data to evaluate our success.  We strive to remain innovative in our approach to the challenges facing our community.

Services are offered in a manner that best ensures the SAFETY of staff, volunteers, members/program participants and the community at large.  While not all risk can ever be eliminated, best efforts will be made to mitigate risk with science guiding our prevention efforts.

Northshore Senior Center believes that everyone in our community deserves to pursue healthy living and their well-being.

We are a welcoming community.  We treat everyone with respect, dignity, kindness and compassion and expect everyone in our community to do the same.  We value equity, inclusion and diversity and it is central to the mission and purpose of our organization.  We work to ensure our services are accessible to all who need them.

We believe that structural, cultural, and relational inequities must be courageously recognized and dismantled.  We recognize our responsibility to help create systemic change to ensure our community is one that is inclusive, equitable, and welcoming to all. We work to continuously evaluate all aspects of our organization, confronting our own biases and driving improvements with transparency.

Further, we know that hearing from a variety of perspectives helps generate better ideas to create more opportunities for those in our community each and every day.  We believe that listening, open dialogue and continuous improvement are critical to our success.