WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers A STITCH IN TIME- Anna Fletcher, foreground right, leads knitting and crocheting activities yesterday morning at Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks. Emilia Kinder had a smile on her face as she danced slowly to the big-band jazz streaming from the record player speakers.

The 80-year-old Thousand Oaks resident took small, light steps while a caregiver led her along the unmarked dance floor- a small area surrounded by about 20 fellow seniors who were watching quietly from their chairs.

Kinder, like most of the other seniors in the room, is part of the moderate-level care program at Senior Concerns Adult Day Center in Thousand Oaks- a nonprofit organization serving special needs adults throughout the county.

Carol Freeman, president of the organization, said the people who come to Senior Concerns have the opportunity to remain social even though most of them have suffered physical or mental impairments due to stroke, Alzheimer's disease or simply old age.

"Music is used as a communication kind of thing," Freeman said. "Sometimes the folks who don't talk will sing. You just see something different in their eyes and their demeanor when the music plays."

Senior Concerns is one of several nonprofit organizations awarded a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the city of Simi Valley earlier this month. More than $13,000 was given to Senior Concerns, with the goal of helping the program assist at least 300 of Simi Valley's senior population.

For the last five years, Senior Concerns has offered a free information and referral resource program at the Simi Valley Senior Center, where elders and their families can find help in just about every senior-specific issue, from coordinating Medicare and veteran's benefits, to receiving Social Security and finding housing.

This year's CDBG will also help the organization start a local case management program, where volunteer specialists will work one-on-one with seniors and their families to work out a care plan specific to their personal circumstances.

Kinder said some of the programs they offer, like the day center and the case management program, do come with a fee, but nobody will be turned away because of their inability to pay.

The organization shuttles some of Simi Valley's participating seniors from Wood Ranch to the Thousand Oaks day center three times a week.

The day program serves two purposes, Freeman said.

"For the participants themselves, they are engaged and they are social," she said. "There's physical and mental stimulation going on all day long. It really allows them to live their lives.

"And for the families, it gives them respite time- time for themselves, time to rest, time to work. It's difficult to have somebody with this level of frailty and be totally responsible for them 24 hours a day, seven days a week," she said.

Andy Kendrick of Simi Valley, 91, is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and has been attending Senior Concerns Adult Day Center three times a week for the last two years.

His daughter, 58-year-old Andrea Kendrick, said the organization has given her "peace of mind" to know that her dad is well cared for when she's at work.

Her parents were married for 58 years, she said, when her mother passed away in 2001.

"His mental state of mind just went downhill when she died," Andrea said of her father. "But (Senior Concerns) gave him back his life. They treat (seniors) more like honored citizens than just another person.

"They make him feel important, and there's just nothing better you can do for someone," she said.

Andy Kendrick can live at home with family because the center provides a place for him to go during the day.

"If he went to assisted living, we'd have a disconnect," Andrea said. "But here, he feels he has a normal life; he has a home to come to, and he feels he's still needed. It's a winwin situation."

Senior Concerns is at 401 Hodencamp Road, Thousand Oaks. For more information, visit www.seniorconcerns.org or call (805) 497-0189.