The outside Vernon Park view of Center in the Park. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)

Center in the Park (CIP) is amplifying its reach to senior care facilities across the city as the new citywide subcontractor for Philly’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program.

The 58-year-old organization’s service expansion follows a new subcontract with the Philly Corporation for Aging (PCA), which administers ombudsman services in Philly as the city’s Area Agency on Aging under Pennsylvania’s aging-services system.

Since 2011, CIP has provided ombudsman services to older adults in senior care facilities throughout the Northwest and Northeast sections of the city.

Through its contract with the state, PCA manages the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program throughout Philly. The program works to ensure that the rights and care of older adults are protected in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

An ombudsman is a state-certified advocate who investigates complaints, resolves disputes, and connects people with solutions, working to protect the rights of individuals receiving care from organizations such as healthcare facilities and government agencies.

Created in 1978 as part of the Older Americans Act (OAA), the program has long served as a safeguard for older adults in long-term care.

“It gives us the opportunity to expand our ability to provide advocacy and training to make sure that all [senior residents] know what their rights are, and that those rights are being respected,” said CIP Executive Director Reneé Cunningham.

“That’s something that we take very seriously and is something that we’re committed to.”

The CIP Ombudsman Director, Erika Barber, described the center’s ombudsman services as “resident-directed.”

She elaborated: “We make sure that residents are the drivers in their own seat, their own health, their own life. We understand that residents defer a lot to their family members to help make choices and decisions. But, at the end of the day, we definitely want to make sure our residents are very well educated on how they can represent their own care.”

Under the new contract, CIP’s funding for an Ombudsperson will receive a 40 percent increase in federal funding, enabling the organization to hire more staff, expand its ombudsman services to a wider service area, and oversee the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program for more than 190 senior care facilities throughout Philly.

Previously, CIP operated with a team of two full-time ombudsmen and a full-time director. With the citywide expansion, CIP has added two more full-time ombudsmen, a part-time ombudsman, and now has 17 volunteers, many of whom came from CARIE.

CARIE, the Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of Elders, had held the subcontract since the start of PCA’s agreement with the state, but the organization closed in November 2025.

Ombudsmen conduct site visits to educate older adults about their extensive rights and to help them uphold those rights. These protections include managing personal finances, having a say in care planning, accessing medical information and updates, being protected from abuse, maintaining quality of life through food and living conditions, and staying informed about transfers and discharges.

“Unfortunately, we find that there are many instances where a long-term care facility is not respecting the residents’ rights, and these are federally mandated rights of residents of long-term care,” Cunningham said.

“[Ombudsmen will] introduce themselves to residents and make sure to give them information and talk to them about their care: ‘How is it here? How’s the food? How’s the activities? How does the staff treat you? Are you happy here?’… Those kinds of things.”

“Ombudsmen really champion the rights of these folks to help them achieve the best possible quality of life,” she added.

The center previously had 8,900 beds in its service area; that number has now grown to more than 14,492 beds across over 190 senior care facilities in Philly.

“We are visiting all of the facilities in our new service area. We did that immediately, to introduce ourselves to administrators, staff, and residents,” Cunningham said. “As we are hiring new staff, we’re going to start reaching out to community organizations in areas [like] Center City, South, Southwest, West Philly, and these new service areas. In some cases, we already have some relationships, but in other cases, we’ll make new ones.”

Center in the Park is also actively recruiting more volunteer Ombudsmen, and volunteers would receive comprehensive, state-certified training and ongoing support. The organization is particularly seeking bilingual/bicultural volunteers to help meet the needs of Philly’s diverse communities.

“We want to be in as many places as possible,” Cunningham exclaimed. “The more information we can give and the more people that learn about their rights, the better the facility is, and the better equipped we all are to address concerns and complaints in facilities.”

Note: This article was updated on Apr. 2, 2026, to reflect more concise language around the funding increase and volunteer attribution. We send thanks to Reneé Cunningham for those corrections.

Pryce Jamison is Germantown Info Hub’s community engagement reporter and a Next City Equitable Cities Reporting Fellow. He covers Germantown and Philadelphia, with reporting that includes features, news, solution-focused and community-focused stories.