From a Waiting Room to a Network

CONTEXT: The Cost of Stagnation

In 2016, the Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens (MOSC) was an institution in name but a relic in practice. Founded in the 1960s during the "War on Poverty," it was built on a centralized, physical model: a downtown office where seniors came to find employment or sign up for the Gold Card. The office primarily provided job placement, computer skills training, and referrals to resources such as housing, health care, and food.

For decades, this "walk-in" model worked, but by 2016, the landscape of aging had shifted. Seniors were living longer and facing complex challenges; they wanted to "age in place" rather than commute to a government building in downtown Seattle. Furthermore, the resource needs were geographically more dispersed. Nonprofit service providers had grown across King County, meaning support was available closer to where seniors lived, yet the MOSC remained tethered to its downtown hub.

Three consecutive administrations recognized the office was losing potency. The data was clear: foot traffic was down, and the services provided no longer matched the urgent needs of an ageing population facing gentrification and isolation. Yet, the political will to act was paralyzed by nostalgia; no politician wanted to be seen "closing" the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens.

INTERVENTION: Co-Creation as Legacy

Instead of bringing in external consultants to "restructure" (dismantle) the office, the approach was Co-Creation. We recognized that the current staff were not the problem; they were the holders of the intellectual property we needed.

We sat down with the team, acknowledging their passion and the reality that many were approaching retirement. We reframed the transformation, asking: "Do you want your legacy to be this fading downtown office, or do you want to be the architects of a new system that actually reaches seniors where they live?". They agreed to transition from "providers of services" to "designers of systems," becoming internal consultants tasked with building a distributed model.

IMPLEMENTATION: The Transformation Journey

Phase 1: The Political Coalition

To dissolve a beloved legacy office, we needed unanimous support from the City Council. MOSC staff shared their designed "evolution" directly with Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, Chair of the Human Services Committee. The retiring staff told her, "Sally, we can't serve seniors this way anymore. Help us build the model you always wanted". Bagshaw became the champion, joined by Councilmembers Harrell and Burgess.

Phase 2: The Internal Consultancy

This phase shifted the staff from processing transactions to designing their succession. MOSC staff worked intimately with the Aging and Disability Services (ADS) planning team and an assigned internal consultant to map individual and team function transition needs.

o   The ADS Planning Team and MOSC staff collaborated to integrate functions into the Community Living Connections network, validating a 'no wrong door' model delivered by community partners like Sound Generations and El Centro de la Raza. This systemic shift reduced access barriers by embedding services directly into neighborhoods, ensuring that seniors, adults with disabilities, and caregivers could connect to the wider resource network regardless of which partner agency they initially contacted.

o   Simultaneously, ADS’s internal OD consultant focused on the people, ensuring that individual team members who wanted to continue working developed clarity around their skills, application materials, and interviewing practices so they could land in the "best fit" role for their future.

Because of this comprehensive and respectful support, the employee’s labor union became strongly supportive - an exceptional outcome when government needs to close an office. The ADS Project Planning office worked holistically to support customers, employees, and the organization's needs. As the union reps observed the process, they confirmed the staff felt treated fairly, noting that the change management had started on the right foot.

Phase 3: The Handover & Launch

The City Council voted unanimously to authorize the transition. The downtown office closed with a celebration, honoring each staff member for their unique contributions. Some staff retired, while others took on new roles within the Community Living Connections network. The team took a ferry ride together for a final lunch and each staff member was uniquely honored - a special ending to mark the transition. They left knowing they had successfully "downloaded" their institutional knowledge into a network that would outlive them.

RESULT: Integration and Extension

• Policy Success: The Community Living Connections (CLC) network strengthened, replacing the single downtown senior focused office with a distributed network of "hubs" across Seattle and King County.

• Human Success: The retiring staff left with dignity honored as the founders of the new system rather than casualties of budget cuts.

• Political Success: We achieved what three prior administrations could not: closing an ineffective legacy office with unanimous City Council support, turned from a "political third rail" into a celebrated modernization.

THE TAKEAWAY

Vision is not just about inventing the new; it is about honoring the old enough to let it evolve. By treating the retiring staff as partners rather than obstacles, we proved that the most effective way to dismantle a silo is to give the people inside it the tools to build a bridge.