On Monday, Sept. 23, the International Community Health Center (ICHS) held an event to celebrate a milestone in the capital campaign for the Ron Chew Healthy Aging & Wellness Center. The event was held at the Pacific Village on Beacon Hill and the Panoramic Center at Pacific Tower in Chinatown-International District. ICHS CEO Kelli Nomura and guests of the event toured the construction site of the center.
ICHS Foundation lead a hard-hat tour of the newly built “shell” space for the center in the Beacon Pacific Village on Beacon Hill. The new location will quadruple the low income senior participant capacity in ICHS’ comprehensive wraparound healthcare and social services delivered by our innovative Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).
Advocates, elected officials, partners, funders, and friends heard from Leeching Tran, ICHS Foundation Board President and Kelli Nomura, ICHS CEO with an update on the new Ron Chew Healthy Aging & Wellness Center at an ICHS Foundation event held in the Panoramic Center at Pacific Tower.
This project will expand ICHS’s critical health and wellness services for low-income, frail older adults in our community. It was championed by community leaders such as Ron Chew, Teresita Batayola, and Paul Mar and is intended to create a health center to care for our aging population with wraparound services in a way that is culturally competent. (The center’s namesake, Chew, was one of its former executive directors.)
The new center will deliver comprehensive, affordable wraparound services, maximize quality of life for families, and keep our community elders healthy by meeting individual patients’ healthcare needs in one place.
The U.S. Census estimates nearly 25% of King County’s total population will be 65 years or older by 2040—up from about 18%. ICHS is helping Washington state prepare for an upcoming “silver tsunami” as the population becomes older and more racially and culturally diverse.