ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County residents who are 60 and older can now get two free round-trip rides each month to go wherever they’d like.

“We’re not going to bring you to a casino; we’re going to rule that one out,” said County Executive Daniel McCoy. “You want to go to a casino, you’ve got to get there on your own.”

The county launched the program, called GoGoGrandparent, on May 9 from its new senior headquarters on the former College of Saint Rose campus.

The century-old college, facing financial hardship, closed last summer. At the end of last year, the Pine Hills Land Authority, backed by Albany County, won the bid to buy the 48-acre campus for $35 million.

On March 10, the county legislature approved $6 million for the authority to maintain campus security and infrastructure as revitalization plans unfold and on March 13, ownership was transferred to the Pine Hills Land Authority.

Deb Riitano, the county’s commissioner for the Department for Aging, said of Saint Rose, “I started my life here.” She said she was happy to be back, noting a “feeling of safety here” and saying, “We’re in a great spot.”

The GoGoGrandparent program is funded by the state’s Office for the Aging, Riitano said. “It’s a program that will offer social transportation and help seniors maintain their independence. It allows them to live longer in their homes in the community; it gives them access to social interaction. It maintains connections that they may have had, combats isolation, and so much more.”

Any county senior can register for the program on a dedicated county line at 855-915-6601. Once registered, the senior then calls ahead at 855-464-6872 to schedule a ride. Rides will be provided Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

McCoy said that many seniors don’t know how to use Lyft or Uber to get a ride. “There’s a generation of people that don’t want the app on their phone, don’t understand it … They deserve to continue to live in our community with dignity and respect,” he said.

People can use a landline to call the number to book a ride and then will be taken, free of charge, anywhere Uber or Lyft drivers operate.

McCoy said that a “big day” for his 102-year-old mother is “getting out to get her hair done” and that everyday activities like that — going to a theater or a restaurant or visiting a friend — would be eligible — except casino trips.

On a serious note, McCoy cited figures from a surgeon general’s report that “lacking social connection increases risk of premature death by more than 60 percent.” He also said that a third of New Yorkers 65 and older report feeling lonely.

“We’re hoping, if this is very successful and this proves to be an energy changer for these seniors,” that the program can be expanded to more than two free rides per month, McCoy said.

A second new initiative, said Riitano, is a “state-of-the-art mobile office so we can go in the neighborhoods and park there and be able to do business with and help our seniors who have to sign things and do things with us.”

Riitano concluded, “We’re going to them instead of them having to come to us. It’s another effort to try to make things easier for the seniors of this community.”

Carolyn McLaughlin, who chairs the county’s Eldercare Committee, said the GoGo program will appeal to seniors “who are sitting at home, wondering, ‘What am I going to do today? I don’t want to sit and just watch black-and-white TV all day,’ which they do a lot. This gets them out of the house, access to facilities, access to an opportunity to interact with their friends.”

For elders who feel “nobody thinks I’m useful,” McLaughlin said of the new senior headquarters on the Saint Rose campus, “We’ve got something for you to do. In this building, you can swim; you can probably play the piano soon or get in a choir.”

She concluded, “We look forward to breathing life back into this building in a big way.”

Wanda Willingham, the deputy chairwoman of the county legislature, said, “The senior community is growing.” Three members of her church, she said, are 100 or older and each of the women is cared for by a daughter in her late sixties or seventies.

“Right now, age is almost just a number,” Willingham said, concluding, “I’m not going to lay down till you throw the dirt over me.”