Category: Kendal Network

Vitalize360 Launching This Week — Meet and Greet Friday in the Game Room

This is the week that our Vitalize 360 program gets its real launch and sign-up opportunity.  A project of Kendal, it provides us Collington residents the opportunity to get a “life coach,” who will help us bring together whatever resources and help to decide what they want to achieve next in our lives.  If one of us does not yet know what this is, our new staffer Kim Rivers will help us figure that out too.  Once a goal is identified, Kim will help pull together the Collington resources, staff and residents, to support the process.

Often this is thought of in traditional medical terms, such as achieving a particular “vital sign” milestone, or getting physically strong enough to, for example, get on a plan to visit grandchildren.

But many of us feel that the most exciting engagements that this makes possible are more intellectual, political, academic, etc.  Dianna Cox, who runs the project, and was here for a great presentation yesterday, gave an example of a man who had decided to challenge his golf club’s men only policy, and did so successfully.  (Other more transformative possibilities might come to mind.)

Tomorrow, Friday March 9 at 10:30 in the Game Room, there will be a meet and greet to get to know  Kim and learn more about the project.

Here is the PowerPoint that Nancy Cox presented.

Here is a short video:

It is important to note that Vitalize 360 is a key pat of our strategic plan, both as a specific element, and as something that will help build culture-transformative energy.

Indeed, a recent article in the Journal of Aging Research and Healthcare, here, concludes:

In this project, COLLAGE [Vilalize at one location] 360, a comprehensive assessment system and wellness coaching program that focuses on prevention and wellness was implemented in one continuing care retirement community. Following completion of two assessment tools through directed conversations with a wellness coach, older adults developed an individualized vitality plan that outlined life goals, supporting goals and action plans for goal achievement. Results from this program suggest engagement in the assessment and wellness coaching process via the COLLAGE 360 program translated into sample older adults sensing that they live in a more supportive environment when compared with elders not receiving any wellness coaching. In addition, the older adults had positive responses in the areas of mood and life satisfaction. Strategies to improve health and well being need an extended focus beyond the older adult‘s medical conditions and consider psychological, spiritual and social needs with personal preferences being paramount. These issues are foundational to a person- centered, health promotion approach needed among older adults.

Do not miss the opportunity.

 

Collington ED on Helping Harvey Victims and Beyond

Here is Marvell Adams statement.

Among other things, it shows the where the heart of this community lies and the value of being part of a larger community.  It also suggests some of the ways that emerging themes in our strategic planning process will deepen our ability to add to, in the words of the Kendal Values Statement, “the potential for fulfillment and continuing contribution during the later stages of life.”

Greetings Friends.  Undoubtedly you have all seen the tragic images coming out of Texas as a result of Hurricane Harvey. 

I am certain we all share in the heartache being experienced there right now.  As an organization committed to serving older adults, Collington and the Kendal System have a duty to respond when events such as these occur and greatly impact communities that share in our mission.  As such, Kendal has collaborated with LeadingAge, our national provider association of which I’m a board member, to provide assistance.  First and foremost, donations are needed in order to provide supplies and support for residents and staff of affected communities.  Each of us can help this effort by visiting Collington’s website, www.collington.kendal.org  and donating to the LeadingAge Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund.  There is a link there that will allow you to make an online donation as well as instructions on how to send in a check.  All proceeds will go directly to member communities, their residents and staff.

Secondly, Kendal has reached out to communities we assisted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in order to understand what might be the most helpful for our friends in Texas.  With this feedback and that of LeadingAge, the Kendal System will develop ways to provide further support beyond donations.  When we have more details on this I will share.  In the meantime, please keep those affected by Hurricane Harvey in your thoughts and consider making a donation to the LeadingAge Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fund.  Thank you.

 

Collington, Kendal and Sustainability

Kendal, the network of which Collington is a part, has a set of 13 goals on sustainability.

The attached is our Sustainability Committee’s Sustainability assessment, lining up goals, progress and additional needed steps with respect to each of those goals.

It has to be read.  The Committee and management are deserving of huge praise for our progress and for this clear monitoring and reporting.

 

 

Our Sibling Community, Lathrop, Is a Pioneer in Assisting Refugees

One of Collington’s sibling communities in the Kendal Network has recently held up a beacon for the rest of us to follow.

Lathrop in Northampton, Massachusetts, has found a way to put our values into practice in assisting the resettlement and integration of refugees.  As described by Executor Director Thom Wright:

We feel blessed to be a small part of the conversation related to refugee resettlement. As I’m sure you can attest, Kendal communities strive to put our deeply held beliefs into action each day and to foster inclusivity and diversity as intentional expressions of these values. This often leads us to consider the ways in which we can actively transform the experience of aging in community, on both a local and a global level.
 
At a fundamental level, Lathrop provides housing services for diverse groups seeking a place of refuge in which to engage with like-minded, value-driven contemporaries. Our inclusive environment speaks to the notion that for some who come to live at Lathrop, we are a place of ready-acceptance. We consider ourselves to truly be a safe haven.
 
At any given time we invariably have some unoccupied units (although our townhomes are generally 100% occupied), along with other property we own but currently do not lease, which led us to consider how we could bless others in need of transitional housing, such as homeless families and refugees.
 
Last year, Catholic Charities began the conversation around resettling refugees within the local community. The city of Northampton agreed to work with Catholic Charities to resettle 51 refugee families in 2017! Several of our residents subsequently joined the Circle of Care, a local volunteer cohort willing to come alongside refugee families to assist with starting anew; ESL classes, transportation, furniture, etc. Several housing providers met with the group to discuss options within the city.
 
It was at this point that I suggested that Lathrop might be of assistance. We have residents who teach ESL, one who speaks fluent Arabic, many highly-active caregivers and we have housing. We held a campus workshop to learn more about the resettlement process and to discuss the ways in which Lathrop could be involved.  We initiated an evaluation of a home we own on an adjacent property and were not too far into our process when I received a call 2 weeks ago. A mother and her two adult sons had been cleared to arrive within days and none of the local housing options were viable due to the need for a handicapped accessible dwelling.
 
Unfortunately, none of our accessible apartments at the Inn were available but the next day, a resident who is co-chair of the city’s Circle of Care, asked if she and her husband could give up their townhome for two weeks and invite the refugee family to stay there, instead. A perfect solution!
 
I was able to offer this couple an Inn apartment and meals on our Easthampton campus and the refugee family arrived within days and settled into their “new community. ” They have been busy learning English and looking for permanent housing, with assistance from Catholic Charities and the Circle of Care. One son has even joined in with a group of residents that plays ping pong and billiards on Fridays. I am happy to say that the family will be staying for an additional two weeks but have since found suitable housing to begin the process of assimilating into Northampton.
 
I must share that this one small act of humanity has united our community in wonderful ways. It has reaffirmed for many that Lathrop/Kendal truly lives its values and is not isolated from global matters that matter most. We continue to dialogue around this and other areas in which Lathrop can have impact. In the coming weeks, once this lovely family has been resettled and begins to tell their story in more detail, Lathrop will also share it more broadly, with humility and gratitude to our residents who are truly the ones transforming the experience of aging for all who call Western Massachusetts, home.

What more is there to say?

Can we all try to find ways to “unite[] our [broader] community in wonderful ways?”  Maybe the opportunity to experience an act of helping as a helper might covert some in the outside world who now fear such integration.