Seniors Program Awarded Tufts Grant

Aging Bodies Classes to be Extended to Assisted Living Groups

A $16,000 “healthy aging” grant from the recently created Tufts Health Plan Foundation will allow more people to benefit next year from BTC’s well established Tai Chi for Aging Bodies program. Now in its second year, the Foundation is giving $2.5 million to about 60 Massachusetts nonprofits. With the grant funding, BTC will provide daytime Aging Bodies classes and transportation to BTC for about 20 seniors from area assisted living centers, allowing them to experience the increasingly well documented health impacts of tai chi.

Specific centers have not been selected yet as of this writing. As far as we know, BTC is the only local tai chi school with an entrée program for seniors. Aging Bodies differs from our regular curriculum in incorporating sitting as well as standing and focusing more on body awareness than complex movement sequences.

Current students have reported improvement in areas of concern such as balance, flexibility, and tension as
they gain more body awareness. Says Ruth Schechter, one of the two Aging Bodies instructors, “As people learn to feel into their feet, their balance will improve significantly. Falling doesn’t have to go hand in hand with aging.”