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Tag: hospitality

It’s Time To Recognize Our Residents

Mon, July 11, 2016 Published by

CAREcorps LogoHave you heard about CAREcorps? The CAREcorps program has several goals – to train and engage residents in volunteering on Campus as well as recognizing the residents that do wonderful things for each other are the first steps.  The Resident Services Teams, which includes Dining Services, Independent Living, Gift Shop, Life Enrichment, Publications, Spiritual Life, Success Matters, and Transportation, has come together to create this new program as part of the Campus’ WIG (Wildly Important Goal) program for fiscal year 2016.  Staff are already aware of the Radical Hospitality program and the “shout outs” you see regularly where staff and residents share feedback about the wonderful work staff is doing.   The CAREcorps program will have its own way of lifting up residents going above and beyond for others.  The CAREcorps movement is for everyone to highlight a resident who you feel exemplifies the CAREcorps philosophy.  We see those residents who are leading committees and representing the Beatitudes Campus on a daily basis, but we also have residents who are hard at work behind the scenes caring for others’ pets, watering plants, picking up mail and even cleaning others’ apartments while they are away.  Each month at the resident Town Hall, the CAREcorps Team will be choosing two residents from the Hospitality Box (located in the Recreation Room in the Administration Building) to highlight.  Each resident who has been recognized will receive a copy of their note brought right to their door. 

Now it’s your turn to join this Campus movement! If you’ve seen a resident community member who should be recognized, stop by the Recreation Room or Gift Shop and fill out the CAREcorp hospitality form.  Once you’re finished, slip it in the box labeled CAREcorps and watch our community of caring grow that much larger.  Together we achieve much more!

Thank you!

Didi Cruz & the CAREcorps Team:  Kathy Amend, Monica De La Rosa, Krystal Dickinson, Jackie Fuller, Gabi Holberg, Joe Kane, Chris Mason, Jessica Meyer, Andrew Moore, Korry Nelson, Peggy Roberts, Jon Schilling and Bob Van Riper

First Impressions

Fri, June 24, 2016 Published by

We have heard the term “First Impressions” in senior living for a number of years, however, as  often happens at Beatitudes Campus, we are redefining the term in the context of our Radial Hospitality program. We are adding “Operation Welcome” to our way of greeting prospective residents, their families and friends to the campus.  The entire team has made tremendous progress in many areas of hospitality in the last few years and now we are taking steps to elevate our staff, facilities and methods to the highest levels.

As a result, you will begin to see quite a number of improvements in the look of common areas in the residential buildings as well as Town Plaza.  “We judge books by their covers, and we can’t help but do it,” said Nicholas Rule, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto. “Furthermore, the less time we have to make our judgments, the more likely we are to go with our gut, even over fact,” he added.  In today’s increasingly competitive senior living environment, we are keenly aware that to meet our mission of service, we must pay close attention to all aspects of the experience.

It is rather thought provoking to learn after repeated studies that irrespective of the quality of care and services in a senior living community, the “look” and “feel” of the environment has a much greater influence on the decision to move forward in considering residency.  Quality is generally perceived as a given and is not, at least initially, weighted as highly as friendliness, cleanliness, state of repair and updated furnishings and colors.

However, “First Impressions” is not only about the look of facilities.  That is but one leg of the stool……the others are the human environment as well as the perception of quality of life.  Beatitudes Campus is well known for its world class “life-long long learning” programs as well as nationally recognized “Comfort Matters” dementia care which speak strongly to a superior quality of life.  On the human environment standard, we have determined that while we are certainly above normal standards, we are going to provide training to achieve that same “best in class” signature. As a result, the entire campus staff will be provided specific training over the course of the next few months in All-Staff meetings as well as a separate session which will be conducted at a number of times.  The sign-ups will begin soon, so watch for announcements here in the Team Talk newsletter as well as information from your supervisor.

These are indeed exciting times as we move toward higher occupancies, even more elevated standards and progress to superior service levels! Beatitudes Campus rocks!

Rod Bailey, SVP of Sales & Marketing

Rod Bailey,
SVP of Sales & Marketing

Rod joined the Beatitudes team in April of 2016. He comes from an extensive background in the healthcare field. He has a great passion for the work he does and is a great addition to the Beatitudes Team.

One and the Same

Fri, June 17, 2016 Published by

images (3)I can’t get it out of my mind. It haunts me. It is likely not one of us here at Beatitudes Campus, either resident or staff, has not been affected by the events in Orlando last weekend. One wishes that such brutality and terror were only in the movies. But not even a movie can portray the horror of what we all witnessed. It is impossible to comprehend what the victims and witnesses were facing as the sick and demented soul made his way through the nightclub shooting and killing unceasingly.

The horrible irony is that the people who gathered in that club on that night, like millions of other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people did in their own communities, did so because it was there that they felt safe, secure, accepted and uniquely free to be just as they are – unlike almost any other gathering area in the United States. It is at such clubs, for the moments they are open, that a genuine sense of community exists for those who have no other community, even if they live and sleep in their various neighborhoods and cities.

For everywhere else there is fear of judgment, condemnation, retribution, and physical, psychological and mental abuse by the public around them. On that night they were to be safe and away from the potential harm they have to endure on a daily basis that is inflicted upon them by faith communities, politicians, television pundits and, too often, neighbors and family. What shakes the gay community to the ground is the fear that there are no safe places any more.

When I think of community, I think of my community—Beatitudes Campus. Since coming here, I have had only one agenda: help create a community where all are received and accepted just as they are, and valued as unique and unrepeatable creations. I believe that to be the one and only goal of true community. In our society, elders are often relegated to the sidelines in condescending ways, but not here. We respect each other, value each other, and care for each other as equals. We may have different colors of our skin, opposing political viewpoints, competing faith traditions, innumerable levels of physical and mental abilities, various sexual orientations and gender identity concepts. But those do not matter in this community, other than they are beautiful characteristics of our whole community.

The reality is that the Beatitudes Community has the opportunity to show the rest of the world what it is to live, not just tolerating each other, but truly accepting and embracing one another. I believe what we are creating in our community will be a model for the larger community around us to discover and learn about living in peace and harmony with one other in a world that clearly does not understand how it is to be done.

It is a fact that one of the most frightening possibilities for senior gay people today is having to move into a community like ours. The fear of rejection, discrimination and having to go back into “the closet” just to survive is beyond too painful a possibility to have to consider. I am grateful that we proclaim our acceptance of all people proudly and deliberately to the LGBT community, as also evidenced in Our Promise. We know we are all one and the same.

Perhaps, more than ever, it is important for us to try to understand and learn more about each other here and those who might be coming to our Campus in the future. Study other religions, learn about other cultures, listen to a neighbor who is now dependent upon assistive devices to move around, befriend a person of a different sexual orientation or gender identity and look at the world through their eyes. Dare to do this and see how your life might be changed for the better, and watch how our community will grow stronger with a love and acceptance that I believe there is not a one of us here who doesn’t yearn for that deep inside. When you hear or witness discussions or actions that are denigrating or exclusionary of others, find the courage to stop them, because it is only destroying a community that I believe is meant to be a model for all others.

11981096-largeSome may know and some may not, but I am gay and proud of who I am after decades of trying to deny who I am. Some may say I am biased as I write this. I will always believe I am just working to help create a community that aspires to the dream of God for all peoples as I long to be part of a community who will accept me, and people like me and all others. For I, too, crave to be able to walk in a community where I won’t feel people looking at me and talking about me when I am with my partner. I am tired of the shouts coming from a passing car calling me a “fag” and worse. I hunger for a time when I, or my friends like me, don’t have to always have it in the back of our minds, “are we safe here?” like we have to today. I want to know there will be a safe community for me when the day comes that I want to live in a Beatitudes Campus type of community.

So I ask my community to please commit to making our community safe and loving for everyone. Let’s work together to make this the model that it so easily can be. Your grandchildren and great grandchildren, nephews and nieces will remember you as trailblazers for teaching this world how to be a better world and showing them what true community is all about. For we are all one and the same. *

Respectfully,

Rev. David W. Ragan

 

Our Promise

Beatitudes Campus is a not-for-profit ministry of Church of the Beatitudes, a United Church of Christ congregation. Our heritage of Christian hospitality calls us to welcome all people. This includes outreach to Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other faiths, as well as those with no connection to a faith community. We value the diversity of all – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation. Core values of compassion, respect, accountability and excellence drive every aspect of our community, and are what have made Beatitudes Campus a strong and respected leader in retirement living for 50 years.