Ann Walsh (left) with Eugenie Dorgilus, a certified nursing assistant at Abbey Delray South.
By Ann Walsh, Senior Vice President of Operations
True communication is full of opinions, input and compromise. We understand the importance of this reciprocal communication and explore ways we can amplify resident voices and make sure your feedback continues to help guide our communities and organization.
Earlier this year, driven by your responses to our second annual resident engagement survey, we formed six resident focus groups at four communities — Abbey Delray South, Friendship Village of South Hills, Grand Lodge at the Preserve, and The Waterford.
From these focus groups, participants expressed two significant themes:
- A desire for more opportunities to provide input before organizational or communitywide decisions take effect.
- More personal communication from the home office to give better context and understanding of the initiatives we undertake.
We couldn’t agree more. In the new year, our hope is that an even greater number of residents will want to engage with us through these focus groups and other channels, and we’re working to identify areas where your involvement can be most impactful on decisions made. The discussions we’ve had to date have already helped shape some of our plans for next year.
In 2019, we’ll also look to deepen our home office outreach, much like the tour John Couture, our vice president of information technology, led this year. John visited each community and shared an IT road map for our organization, giving you an overview of what to expect on the technology front. We plan to follow this approach with other key leaders to ensure you’re aware of what we’re working on, why it’s important and how it’ll impact your experience.
The success of our focus groups has also led us to explore the creation of a Resident Communications Advisory Committee. This committee, which would be made up of representatives from each community, would hold regular meetings with home office personnel to brainstorm ideas and help steer our direction. We’re excited about this initiative and will share updates as we advance the process.
With this final Lifespace LINK newsletter of the year, it’s an opportune time to share a change to its format in 2019. Based on your feedback, the newsletter will transition from monthly to quarterly distribution and will focus more on stories that have relevance across all Lifespace communities. Going forward, LINK should provide more meaningful communication from areas such as operations, health care, technology, social accountability and cuisine. While we still want to celebrate our residents and communities, you told us you want communication that personally impacts you and where you live.
In summary, these are the action steps we plan to pursue in 2019 based on your input:
- Additional focus groups to hear your input and feedback on some of the topics that matter most to you.
- The creation of a Resident Communication Advisory Committee.
- Another home office tour to each community with small group conversations.
- More frequent communication with home office leaders via video conferencing.
Happy Holidays and thank you for your support as we continue to make strides in our communication efforts.