What 50 Years Taught Us

• November 09, 2026

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• By Renee Buchanan

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• News

Dimity V. Orlet, J.D.
Executive Director, Pro Seniors

Last year, Pro Seniors celebrated its 50th anniversary.

As part of that milestone, staff spent time exploring our archives. We revisited old newsletters, photographs, correspondence, and program materials dating back to the organization’s earliest days. It was a fascinating look at where we have been and how much has changed since 1975.

What surprised me most, however, was not how different things were. It was how familiar they felt.

Fifty years ago, older adults struggled to navigate complicated systems, access benefits, protect themselves from financial exploitation, and find someone to help when they didn’t know where to turn. The specific challenges facing older adults have changed over time, but their fundamental needs have not.

Access to Justice is Still an Important Need

Older adults still need trusted advocates. They still need reliable information. They still need access to justice.

For 50 years, Pro Seniors has advocated for the dignity and rights of older adults. Along the way, thousands of older adults have turned to us for help preserving their homes, accessing healthcare and public benefits, protecting themselves from scams and exploitation, improving their quality of care, and maintaining their independence.

While we are proud of that history, our anniversary also sharpened our focus on the future.

One thing that became clear as we looked back is that the justice gap facing older adults remains real. Too many seniors still face serious legal and long-term care issues without access to the help they need. Too many are forced to navigate increasingly complex systems on their own while remaining vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

Closing that gap has been central to Pro Seniors’ mission for 50 years, and it remains just as important today.

The Challenges Older Adults Face are Evolving

At the same time, the challenges facing older adults continue to evolve. Longer life expectancies, changing family structures, rising housing and healthcare costs, increasingly complex systems, and

new forms of financial exploitation present issues that look very different from those of 1975. Yet beneath those changing circumstances, the need for trusted advocacy, reliable information, and access to justice remains constant.

We believe that serving older adults effectively requires us to evolve as well.

That is why, while honoring our past, we are also committed to embracing innovation and forward progress.

We are continually investing in technology, resources, and partnerships that make it easier for older adults to find help and understand their rights. We are strengthening our ability to respond to emerging challenges and looking for new ways to ensure that older Ohioans can access the information, advocacy, and support they need.

Pro Seniors’ Mission Remains the Same

Yet beneath all that change, some things remain constant.

The most important lesson from our archives is that Pro Seniors has always been about people. It is about the older adult who needs help understanding a Medicare issue. The nursing home resident seeking dignity and respect. The grandparent facing financial exploitation. The individual who simply needs someone knowledgeable and compassionate to answer the phone and help them understand their options.

Challenges evolve. Needs endure. Programs change. 

Our commitment does not.

The founders of Pro Seniors believed that older adults deserve dignity, independence, and access to justice. That belief continues to guide us today.

As we begin our next chapter, we are grateful to everyone who has helped build Pro Seniors over the past five decades: our staff, volunteers, board members, donors, funders, community partners, and, most importantly, the older adults who have trusted us to serve them.

The needs of older Ohioans will not disappear, even as the challenges they face continue to change. We will continue adapting, innovating, and seeking new ways to expand access to information, advocacy, and justice while staying true to the values that have guided Pro Seniors since 1975.

If our first 50 years taught us anything, it is that while the challenges facing older adults may evolve, the need for dignity, independence, and access to justice endures.

And that is work we are proud to carry forward into the future.

Dimity V. Orlet, J.D., is the Executive Director of Pro Seniors, who since 2019 has led the organization’s strategic direction, strengthened community partnerships, and expanded its impact on behalf of older adults across Ohio. She has a strong background in non-profit legal services, having served as Assistant Counsel and Director of Continuing Legal Education for the Cincinnati Bar Association for 18 years before joining Pro Seniors. Earlier in her legal career, Ms. Orlet served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable J. Howard Sundermann, Jr. of the Ohio First District Court of Appeals.

Ms. Orlet also serves as a leader and advocate within the aging and human services community, serving on the boards of several organizations, including Human Services Chamber of Hamilton County, Hamilton County Elderly Services Program, Ohio Department of Aging’s State Plan on Aging Advisory Committee, and the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Ethics & Professional Responsibility Committee.