A version of the following article appeared in the Friday, August 7, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Senior centers have become a crucial support system for a growing aging population, but leaders say resources remain limited
Senior centers have become a critical place for recreation and community for aging Charlotteans. (Photo by Age Cymru on Unsplash)
by Cooper Hall
When Scott Ferriell retired, realizing he didn’t have a good way to fill his days, he decided to take up playing pool. The Levine Senior Center in Matthews, with its two billiards tables and pool players his age, was his destination of choice.
Now, Ferriell, 66, walks into the billiards room at the front of the Levine Senior Center almost every day, meeting up with a group of about 24 other seniors to shoot pool.
Dot Kobylinski, 81, picked up chair aerobics at the Levine Senior Center in 2022, looking for an easy entry point for exercise. Four years later, she is a volunteer at the center, and spends four to five days a week there.
For Charlotte seniors like Ferriell and Kobylinski, attending a senior center is a daily routine — a safe haven to exercise and hang out with friends.
“It's vital for our existence and our sanity, you know, to keep us moving and interacting with other people,” Kobylinski said.
The Levine Senior Center offers a wide array of classes from Pilates to pickleball to poker. It has a cafeteria for seniors to have lunch, and space for people to sit and be with each other. Other senior centers in the area, like the Tyvola Senior Center in south Charlotte, have similar offerings, including craft classes and chair fitness programs.
Beyond classes, Christiana Walters, program director of the Levine Senior Center, said these centers provide a community, a place for seniors to be among peers and find interpersonal support: something crucial as more older adults report experiencing loneliness.
“To the seniors, this is a service that is keeping them vibrant, is keeping them going, keeping them stimulated,” said Gwendolyn Wilson-Banks, the administrative support assistant at Tyvola Senior Center.
Despite the importance of senior centers in the lives of older adults, Dahn Jenkins, executive director of the Levine Senior Center, said that the center is always fighting for funding.
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