SWAMPSCOTT — The Community Life Center Feasibility Study Task Force is going full-throttle to analyze the needs of the community and determine if a multigenerational life center/recreation space is the right fit for the town.
Task Force Chair Anneka Kumli said one of the primary factors that drove her to this initiative was the need to “build a community in the community.
“Swampscott offers so much from a quality-of-life perspective, and it was really important to make people feel like they had the opportunity to understand how to get involved if they wanted to, if they wanted to meet other people or join community groups,” she said.
For Task Force member Bob Powell, the interest in the life center stemmed from a variety of reasons, he said.
“With my involvement with the Senior Center, we’ve noticed that we’ve run out of space, and we’re unable to add more programs and attract more residents as the town population ages, so at a minimum, the senior center needs more space,” he said.
Powell noted that in conversations with the Recreation Department the notion of not enough space also came up.
“We have the library, but beyond that there’s not much for parents with young children to do in town,” he said. “So, we came to the conclusion that we had these different groups of people, all of whom need space.”
He added that the life center would serve multiple purposes for the varying groups who would occupy it.
“During the day it could be a senior center, and in the afternoon it could be after-school programs for kids, and at night it could be for basketball games or whatever the case may be,” Powell said. “What we’re trying to do is accommodate the diverse needs of a population that has diversity at different times during the day, but nowhere to go at the moment.”
Having something like a community life center would help people figure out how they can start to belong in town, Kumli noted.
“I think understanding how the community feels about a center like that is really interesting, and for me, it’s about understanding how we can further build community in our town,” Kumli said.
She added the task force has been considering the needs of every age group, from youth to senior citizens.
“We don’t really have any in-door recreational spaces for school-aged kids that’s town-managed, and we’re also looking into the needs of neurodivergent individuals, veterans, caretakers, individuals with different needs and disabilities,” she said.
Kumli continued, explaining that the process is about making sure there’s space as well as a firm understanding of whether or not the community needs the space. “The primary thing right now is to conduct a needs assessment to see if that’s what the town is looking for,” she said.
Kumli said the task force is currently in the process of looking for a firm that can help it conduct a thorough needs assessment from the community. The task force is working on completing a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), which would then lead the task force into the process of completing a Request for Proposal (RFP).
“We’ve received four bids for the RFQ that we’re evaluating right now, and we’ll determine which of those firms offer the option to do the RFP,” she said. “From that, once the RFP process has been completed, we’ll select a firm that will help us conduct the needs assessment.”
She clarified that the task force is in the “foundational stage” of the process, with plans to work on feedback from the community as the project continues. The task force, she said, is always open to receiving feedback from the public throughout the process.
“One of the things that’s paramount is really putting the experience of the firm in gathering community feedback at the forefront of what it is that we’re looking for in the firm we hire,” she said.
Powell piggybacked off that sentiment.
“One of the key requirements in the RFQ was the notion of community engagement,” he said. “We really need to hear from diverse groups of residents about their wants and needs.”
Powell explained that in the public forums and surveys the task force has conducted, there seems to be a desire on behalf of the town for a community center.
“There’s several sites that we’ll be looking at, like the Clarke School, Phillips Park and the old middle school,” Powell noted, though he reiterated that the project is still in the early stages of development.
