EAST LONGMEADOW — After a six month vacancy in the position, Emily Constantino started as East Longmeadow’s Council on Aging Director on Dec. 1.
Bookkeeper Sharon Giordano acted as director during the search process, keeping up with the day to day operations.
“I am pleased to announce that our patience in selecting the perfect candidate to be our new Council on Aging director has finally paid off,” Town Manager Tom Christensen said. “Emily comes to us with a plethora of experience and education in her field, and her personality will shine bright at the COA.”
The COA strives to support seniors in the community, promote their independence and encourage their social, physical and emotional wellbeing. Constantino said their mission is to provide a welcoming environment with activities, wellness programs, educational services, recreation and nutritional services.
“We have an amazing staff here,” Constantino said. “We have a wealth of services that we can offer to our seniors in town.”
Constantino comes to the role with an expansive background in social work, having earned her bachelor’s from Eastern Connecticut State University and a master’s from the University of Saint Joseph.
She began her career in police social work with the Willimantic, Connecticut Police Department. There, she dealt with big city issues, such as helping officers respond to calls for service relating to mental health and underlying social service needs that weren’t being met.
“I did a lot of crisis intervention. I did a lot of resource locating and social service support with our people in the community,” Constantino said. “I did a lot of outreach with our seniors in the community who were homebound and not connected to services. I collaborated with our town and our senior center to help them and make sure they were supported.”
After leaving that position, Constantino changed direction and worked in hospice with a team of nurses, chaplains, music therapists and other social workers to care for around 60-70 patients on a regular basis.
“My job as their social worker was to assist our patients and their families with any social support needs, emotional support needs as our patients were approaching end of life,” Constantino said.
Constantino said she really loved that job and discovered her love for working with the senior population, but she also missed working for a municipality and in a town setting.
“I started looking around and I was hoping to find some sort of work with a senior center,” Constantino said. “I very, very fortunately landed in East Longmeadow. We have a very great team here.”
She added that when many people are studying social work, they tend to gravitate towards a certain population or age range. She found interest in applying more in the needs of adults and seniors.
“I think there’s a lot of unique challenges that are facing our senior population,” Constantino said. “I think we need more people in our society to support them, so I’m happy to be here to do that. I feel like we can learn so much from our older population and it’s one of my favorite parts of the job, getting to know our seniors and hearing their perspectives and learning about their lives.”
Constantino said she feels very fortunate to be in East Longmeadow and added that she’s most excited about being in a new community and working alongside “such dedicated staff.”
“Based on just my interactions with our members and our patrons at the senior center, I feel like I’ve learned so much,” Constantino said. “Collaborating with the people who work in our Town Hall as well, I feel like I’ve learned so much about the community.”
