Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Pasadena Nonprofit Invites Seniors to Learn About Peer-Run Aging-in-Place Community

[photo credit: Pasadena Village]

Pasadena Village, a 501(c)(3) founded in 2012, holds “Meet Me At The Village!” on the second Thursday of each month at its office at 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 113. The March 12 gathering, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., is free and open to all. Members and staff host the session, which the organization describes on its website as “a casual information session to learn more about Pasadena Village.”

What newcomers find is not a senior center or a service provider but a member-run organization where adults over 55 plan and lead their own activities, according to the organization’s website. Members drive each other to medical appointments, help with grocery shopping, troubleshoot technology problems and provide household assistance — a peer-to-peer model in which, as the organization puts it, everyone has something to give and everyone has a time of need.

The activities extend well beyond mutual aid. The organization hosts more than 70 member-led gatherings each month, according to a March 2024 Pasadena Weekly report. Those include Friday walks, Thursday ping pong sessions, monthly hikes, outings to museums and botanical gardens, discussion groups on topics ranging from literature to world affairs, memoir writing groups and a decluttering support group.

“It keeps them engaged. It keeps them active. It gives them purpose and ways of connecting with other people in the way that they want to age,” Executive Director Katie Brandon said in an October 2025 interview with Pasadena Weekly.

The gathering takes on particular relevance for the Pasadena and Altadena community more than a year after the January 2025 Eaton Fire. More than 90 of the organization’s approximately 220 members at the time evacuated or sought shelter elsewhere, and 22 lost their homes, according to a March 2025 Pasadena Weekly report. Approximately 40 percent of the organization’s staff and volunteer efforts remain focused on fire relief and recovery, according to the organization’s GuideStar profile.

“Older adults can face barriers to access resources, as well as relief and recovery information,” Brandon said in a statement to the Pasadena Community Foundation in February 2025.

Pasadena Village was born in 2010, when a group of Pasadena residents began meeting to explore how they could help each other age in place, according to the organization’s website. They modeled their effort on Boston’s Beacon Hill Village, which launched in 2002 and helped spark a national movement that now includes more than 300 villages across the country, with more than 40 in California, according to Pasadena Weekly.

Bridget Brewster, a Pasadena Village board member and newsletter editor, described the range of offerings in a March 2025 Pasadena Weekly interview: “We have so many groups here. We have a group called ‘Cultural Explorations,’ which meets every month. ‘Ladies who lunch’ meet once a month. There’s a men’s group, a knitting group, a poetry group, and a ping pong group.”

The organization also hosts free educational programs open to the public on topics including finances, health, fraud prevention, legal issues, transportation and technology, according to Pasadena Weekly. It maintains AgingSGV.org, a resource website for older adults in the San Gabriel Valley.

“Meet Me At The Village!” takes place Thursday, March 12, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Pasadena Village office, 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 113, Pasadena. The event is free. For more information, contact the Village Office at 626-765-6037 or email Villager and Volunteer Coordinator Nathan Wolford at nathan@pasadenavillage.org. Additional information is available at www.pasadenavillage.org.

“It is remembering that our older adults, especially people who don’t have family nearby, are a critical part of our community,” Brandon told Pasadena Weekly. “They’re shopping in our stores. They’re voting. They’re volunteering.”