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Tag: hospitality

What Makes a Community?

Thu, October 27, 2016 Published by

Many of you know that when I first came to Beatitudes Campus, I had no intention of staying here beyond the one year agreement I made as Interim Vice President for Spiritual Life.  I made it clear that this is not the type of community I am about when it came to my understanding of my purpose in life – I was a preacher type – but felt I could help during the year I would be here.

Two weeks after I started I was being lured into one of the most beautiful experiences and communities that I ever thought was possible.  If I saw my life as trying to help create a community in the larger world where all are valued, empowered and treated equally, it suddenly became apparent to me it was happening here.  Seven years later I am still here because I just could not let go of what I witnessed then and still do today.

Just look at any given week and see all of the connecting that is taking place in our community.  Check out the weekly meetings of the Design Studio, you see the discussions evolve around bringing down the silos between Independent Living, Plaza View and all other venues.  They also celebrate there being no distinction between those with walkers, scooters, canes or using none of those – all are whole and valued just as they are.

If you walk through the Agelink building, you see our residents serving as instructors for senior aged immigrants and teaching English to willing leaners while bringing down this time between cultures.    Stroll through Plaza View and you might catch “Game On”, an evolving Game Day/Night bringing neighbors from all over the Campus together for good laughs.

For Oktoberfest, if you were in the Luther Life Center, you saw it filled with to the brim with Ompah- pah Band.  Head back over to Agelink, where The Beatitudes Center for Life Long Learners has over a dozen classes in session and brought hundreds of our residents together to learn new insights, as well as learn about each other.

I love it whenever I take a visitor on a little tour of the campus and by half-way, after a couple dozen greetings from residents and each of you as we enjoy our walk, they tell me this has to be one of the happiest and friendliest places on earth.    It never fails to happen.  And I think they are right.

Want a glimpse of our community at it warmest?  Come to the Welcome Coffee where new residents are celebrated, and just listen to why they wanted to come to Beatitudes Campus and how excited they are to be here (it will make you proud all over again that you are here) and feel the radical hospitality in return as they are welcomed.  And ask almost any resident after they have been here for a while and they will tell you how amazing the Beatitudes Crew is on any given day.

All of this makes what a community is all about, and thank you for making it one of the most special.

Peace always,

David

Radical Hospitality – How Do We Get To Yes?

Mon, October 3, 2016 Published by

In our day to day responsibilities, we may get wrapped up in rules, regulations, policies and procedures or the way we have always done things; all the while, maybe overlooking what our residents prefer. Additionally, it may cause some dissatisfaction and we may not meet the resident’s or the family’s expectations.  We don’t do it intentionally.

So what can we do about it?  We can take a few minutes out of our day and think through our actions or any resident interactions that day.  Is there anything a resident shared with you that they wish could be done differently? Anything that stands out, that if the roles were reversed you would not want to have happen?  For instance, would you want to be woken up at 6:00am to be dressed for the day when you like to sleep in until 8:00am?  If a resident asked you to not get them dressed until 8:00am but the schedule given to you was to get them up at 6:00am, what would you say? Do you feel like you could say yes?  If not, stop and ask yourself, “How do I get to yes?”

“How do I get to yes?”  Seriously, every time a resident or family members asks a question about a service we provide, we should ask ourselves “how do I get to yes?”  Are we really going to be able to say yes to everything?  Likely not, but how close to a yes can we get or what can we compromise on?  Who do you need to talk to about what could be done differently? Perhaps a supervisor, HR or even the resident’s family?

Let’s go back to the example of waking someone up at 6:00am. Why do we wake them up at 6:00am? Is it because that is when we start getting residents up to ensure we have enough time to help all of the residents assigned to us? Is it because most of the resident’s like to get up at 6:00am? Is it because “that’s what we have always done?” If the resident didn’t want to get up until 8:00am, how could you accommodate their wishes? Are there other resident’s that like to get up that early but you aren’t able to get to them until later in the morning?  Could those residents be switched?  What else could we look at doing so we didn’t have to wake her up until 8:00am?

What are some other situations this could apply to?  I am sure we all encounter many of them each day.  Could we turn that “no” into a “yes”?  Let’s remember to take the time to ask, “how do I get to yes?”