Seniors and young volunteers with Joanne’s Safe Haven gather for a group photo. The Spartanburg nonprofit, which pairs older adults with younger people to fight isolation, will host its Senior Sneaker Prom on Oct. 10. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Shippy.
This October, Spartanburg’s seniors will have the opportunity to lace up their dancing shoes and enjoy an afternoon of community and fun with Joanne’s Safe Haven’s Senior Citizens Sneaker Prom.
Joanne’s Safe Haven, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing weekly programs and activities for the cherished local senior community. Their mission is to bridge the gap between seniors, young adults, and adolescents through companionship, shared wisdom, and meaningful engagement.
Rebecca Shippy, Founding Director of Joanne’s Safe Haven, shares that the mental health challenges many seniors face are often overlooked. “A lot of them live by themselves, they don’t drive anymore, and their children have moved on and started their own lives,” she says, “so depression rates are very, very high in seniors, and so we just try to combat that statistic.”
One of the biggest ways the organization works to keep seniors feeling cared for and connected is through their Adopt-a-Grandparent Initiative.
Through this program, young adults are paired with a senior who essentially becomes their adopted grandparent. They connect through phone calls and visits, and can engage in fun activities together such as going for a walk in the park or shopping at the mall. These relationships also provide both the young adults as well as the seniors the opportunity to learn from each other.
Shippy’s first spark of inspiration for this idea came during the pandemic. After the hospital where she had been working closed, causing her to be laid off, she began doing work in the community, sewing face masks for people in need—a skill she’d learned from her mother.
“People were needing them faster than I could sew them,” she says, “and so I recruited two young girls and taught them how to sew face masks. And then those young girls showed me how to do screen printing and put different images or logos on the face masks.”
It was this interaction that birthed Joanne’s Safe Haven. “A lot of older seniors have the skills and the know-how to do different things, but they don’t have the opportunity to share that with younger people,” Shippy says. “And then the young people, too, they have computer skills and understand technology, and they can in turn share that with our seniors.”
Joanne’s Safe Haven meets weekly, and currently serves about 16 seniors. They share breakfast, enjoy coffee and conversations, do Bible studies, take part in chair fitness exercises, do arts and crafts, and go on field trips.
On Saturday, October 10th, the organization will be celebrating a special event: the 2026 Senior Sneaker Prom. Seniors are invited to dress in formal attire, wear their most comfortable sneakers, enjoy a meal, dance, and celebrate together. Friends, family, and community members are invited, and it’s sure to be a night of joy and fun.
The Senior Sneaker Prom is also an opportunity for Joanne’s Safe Haven to fundraise to support their efforts. Participating seniors will be raising money through the Adopt-a-Grandparent program, and the senior who raises the most funds will be crowned Prom Queen or Prom King. All proceeds will go toward the organization’s weekly day programs.
“I’ve always worked in healthcare,” says Shippy, “and the seniors have always been my favorite patient dynamic because it’s impossible to sit in a room with a senior and not learn anything. Giving them that safe space to feel free to share their knowledge and share their wisdom with other people…I glean from them, I really do.”
Members of the Spartanburg community are welcome to join in the fun on October 10th from 2 pm - 6 pm at the Sha’Myc Experience Event Center, located at 3283 Reidville Road in Spartanburg. Donations are also always accepted at http://www.joannessafehaven.org/, and anyone interested in volunteering or serving on the organization’s board can apply on the Joanne’s Safe Haven website.
