ROCHESTER — The Rochester Council on Aging is getting a fresh face with new Director Eric Poulin.

Poulin, a Fall River native and UMass Dartmouth alumnus, is excited to begin work at the senior center and already has plans to resume several programs that were discontinued during covid, like week-day breakfasts, and to start some new ones as well.

“People have been anxious to get back to socializing and group activities,” he said, adding that almost all of the seniors he has talked to say they’ve been fully vaccinated and with Massachusetts’ covid restrictions being recently lifted, seniors can finally get back to the group activities they’ve been missing.

Poulin was born and raised in Fall River where he still resides. He says that one of the reasons he has stayed is that his parents still live nearby and it’s important for him to be able to visit them regularly and be available to help out if they need it.

He has worked for nearly his entire career in various public service and government jobs, including a four-year term as a Fall River City Councilman.

Most recently, he worked in the community affairs department of the Bristol County district attorney’s office where one of his jobs was to visit the county’s senior centers and educate people there about the litany of scams that target seniors, something that he will seek to continue in his new job.

“I want to bring [those programs] to the senior center because I saw so much of it at my old job,” Poulin said, adding that there wasn’t much the DA’s office could do for people after they had been scammed, making prevention all the more crucial.

Poulin made clear, however, that the schedule will feature a healthy mix of informational and entertaining activities.

“I want to do a mix of fun things that people like and that draw people in, and the educational stuff,” he said, adding that they were looking over attendance data from past activities to figure out which ones to prioritize going forward.

Breakfast — a popular draw for seniors and non-seniors alike before the pandemic — will start again on June 28 and continue on weekday mornings. In addition, Poulin says they are planning to expand their free lunch program, which now runs Tuesday through Thursday, so that it is also available five days a week.

An updated events calendar for the senior center lists about seven activities a day Monday through Friday including games like Scrabble, mahjong, and cribbage and active pursuits like ballroom dancing, step and stretch exercises, and chair yoga.

Poulin is also making an effort to bring in more people from the community at-large for events at the senior center as well as making the space available for seniors from neighboring communities.

“It’s looked at as a senior center but it’s really a community center,” he said, “We’re definitely welcoming seniors from Rochester but also from a lot of other communities in the area.”

Poulin said that during his time with the Bristol County DA’s office, he visited all 27 senior centers in the county and that Rochester’s is “definitely one of the nicest.”

He said that when he decided he wanted to work as a Council on Aging director, there were a few different opportunities available, but one of the things that set Rochester apart was its accreditation from the National Council on Aging, one of only nine senior centers in Massachusetts to earn the certification.

“It’s very difficult to get. It takes a lot of work,” he said, gesturing to an eight-inch-thick binder full of materials necessary for the accreditation process.

He said that having the accreditation makes his job much easier because it lets him know that things are already being done the right way.

“[The Council on Aging board of directors] have been very supportive,” he said, “they really want me to succeed.”

The senior center will hold a meet-and-greet with Poulin on June 24 from 4 to 6 p.m.