You can listen to Episode S312 right here!
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Hello, and welcome to the Third Age Design podcast sharing essential information on senior environments. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet. And we’re ending the year 2023 with a continuation of the ‘World Series of Design’, with a review of an independent and assisted living community in Florida, USA, which I can only describe as a landlocked cruise ship. Keep listening to find out what the heck I’m talking about. There are some ideas here very much worth your time. And today’s Innovation Spotlight is a UK based charity with a simple but effective approach to tackling loneliness and seniors. It’s a very inspirational idea, which is perhaps why it’s been featured in People Magazine, Vogue, the Evening Standard, Sky News, and the Fox News Channel. Trust me, you’re going to like this. Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States, and he said, “complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.” Okay, let me ask you a question. Do you think that care retirement and dementia facilities are great? Certainly some are including the one we’re going to be looking at in a moment, but I am going to bet good money that you’ve seen some which really aren’t. So what the heck are we going to do about it? Well, here at Third Age Design, we share information gathered from around the globe to help architects, designers and operators. To make well- informed decisions on the possible, please go to our website at ThirdAge. Design and hit the ‘Join Us’ button. You’ll automatically receive this quarters ‘ATAD Extra’ exclusive information for our community members. And this quarter. It’s a deep dive into our November podcast topic, where we investigated a village in France in which everyone has dementia. And we looked at some of the design criteria that were used there. In the latest TAD Extra, my colleague Valerie Adler speaks to the husband of a woman who lived there. It’s both very touching and entirely free. Okay, let’s get started. According to the latest US Census Bureau, over 50 million senior citizens live in the United States, roughly 16.5% of the total population. Now Florida has the highest percentage of senior citizens at approximately 21%, so they likely know a thing or two about Senior Living. My guest today is Jackie Lemoine, Sales Director at The Fountains a Kisco community located in Melbourne, Florida. Hi, Jackie, and welcome to the Third Age Design podcast.
Jackie Lemoine
Good morning. How are you?
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
I’m all right. I’m all right. And having personally visited the location in Melbourne, I was really struck by the breadth of what you provide to residents. It was quite overwhelming. And actually at one point, I believe I burst into tears, if I remember correctly. Yeah. And what I understood from the visit was that some of the available lifestyle is provided by The Fountains and some by the residents themselves. Can you please share with the listeners what key facilities are provided by the Kisco group as opposed to the residents?
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely. So the resident programming is planned and delivered by our Art of Living Well team. This is a team that is dedicated to curating programmes and experiences based on our residents interests, life history, and their lifestyle goals. Our philosophy and compasses a nine-dimensional wellness model to ensure that all the offerings are holistic in meet mind, body, and spirit needs of a diverse group of residents. There truly is something for everyone every day.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So you’ve got three things mind body, sorry, you said mind, body and spirit.
Jackie Lemoine
So the night so within those three things, there are subsets of it. Okay, so there’s physical, mental, artistic, which all rolls up to mind, body and spirit. Right? Yeah, it’s a really unique model. We know that physical health is important taking care of your body by providing necessary essential things for health and healing and energy. So for some residents that may mean taking an exercise class, while others may enjoy breathing or meditation classes and if some want to take dance lessons well then we offer that. At Kisco we feel that important should be given to all dimensions: cultural, nutritional, intellectual well-being providing programmes for cognitive stimulation, critical thinking. And we do this with embracing diversity and building relationships with individuals, because our residents are lifelong learners. And they enjoy learning about other resident cultures and professions and life experiences.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So when people come in, do you assess do you think, oh, this person was really interested in miniature golf? So, you know, wouldn’t it be good to have that? Or does it change as the residents change?
Jackie Lemoine
It absolutely does. It’s very fluid. So as residents come in, and they express interest in different things, if enough residents express enough interest, then that’s something we’re going to look at. It’s important that that we’re keeping everyone stimulated, in in whatever aspect it is that they need fulfilled.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And so you you guys are offering, for example, the the dance classes that you mentioned, or the or the gym, a pool, etc. What sort of events or clubs are organised by the residents themselves.
Jackie Lemoine
So we have a breadth of offerings that we schedule an offer. However, the residents, so for example, someone teaches a watercolour class on Saturday, because she was a former artist, and she really enjoys bringing that to the residents. We have another resident that teaches Spanish classes. A lot of times in our happy hours, someone will participate by playing the piano because that’s something that they used to do. So it really, it really comes down to making this a home for them based on what their likes and passions are.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Does the facility itself the building? How was it designed that allows such a breadth of different interests and clubs and outcomes.
Jackie Lemoine
So we encourage the residents and the associates and the associates to share their passions. The community has a variety of spaces that can accommodate such events and programmes. So we work closely with our Wellness Department, our Art of Living Well department, and provided there is space available, a resident could they could put together their own Bible study group if they wanted, as long as that base was available and not already being used by another function, or activity.
Right? Have you ever been asked to put on something that you’ve had to say…no, I think as a as a community, we don’t want to go there. You know, for example, somebody says, you know, I’m a Wiccan like to put on are there? Are there ever lines that you have to say, no, we’re not going to go there?
Jackie Lemoine
So I cannot answer that question. Because in sales, anything that would be requested for programming that would be handled through our art of living while department. I can only assume that there’s been some crazy requests.
I’d love to have you get back to me at some point.
Jackie Lemoine
I’m actually curious myself now.
Why I mean, one thing I just have to mention from my own tour of the facility, lots of times, you’ll get the odd shelf somewhere and you say, oh, these are the art projects that were made, you know, by our residents. Your art projects you could sell. I mean, they’re really, really different level. So it’s, you know, if they’re making jewellery, really, you could be charging a lot of money for the jewellery they’re making. What explains the very, very high level of quality output, for example, just in that one area.
Jackie Lemoine
So I think a lot of it comes down to the type of residents that are that are looking to live in our community. Not everybody is an artist, but everybody certainly has the ability to participate, and surprisingly, has some beautiful outcomes. As we walk through the hallways, I’m sure you noticed a lot of the residents doors decorated into their apartments in their their entryway, a lot of that is through the different arts and activity programmes that were put on by our Art of Living Well. You know, you mentioned that those are things that oftentimes could be sold. We have done that before as fundraisers. So there was an activity one year for where they made jewellery for breast cancer awareness, and all the money that was raised, which was a little over $1,000 I believe was donated to a local Breast Cancer Awareness foundation.
Fantastic. And it is interesting you mentioned about the individual doorways. It doesn’t look like a hotel where every door looks The same, you do feel very much that you’re looking at somebody’s individual front door, and it might have a doormat, it might have a, I don’t know, some a little table with some display on it next to it, it’s very much their space as of that threshold.
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely, this is their home, and we want them to feel. We want them to feel that and encompass that.
And why do you think your particular community is so vibrant? Is it that people that are also vibrant are automatically drawn to it? Or do they? Do people become more animated when they’re within your environment? So
Jackie Lemoine
That’s a great question, and I think it’s a combination of both. It comes down to both the associates and the residents. From someone’s first visit, it’s important, we take the time to learn about them, what they enjoy, what interests them. And our goal is to always find what’s best for the individual. So we’ve often had a move at someone move into our community that has been a little bit more reserved, and their family has said, Oh, we’re not sure that they’re going to participate in all those activities. But if we learn nothing else through COVID, it’s how important socialisation is. And there are people that two, three weeks later, after they’ve been in the community, their family comes back to us and says, I cannot believe how much my loved one has flourished. They’re vibrant, they’re active, they’re social. And that that is what it’s all about. If you want to be social, you can, there are people that we came in that we weren’t sure we’re going to participate in the activities, but because of the the inviting environment and kind of structure that we’ve created, people felt comfortable coming out and meeting new people and meeting the residents and they want to participate.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right, right. And because that’s what’s all around them day after day after day. I mean, one of the things that’s all around them, which my brother and I could not get our heads around how you do this. So you have more than one dining venue. And each one has a standard base menu as well as daily specials. And as I understand it, people just go to the restaurant of their choice for a meal just sit down in order as you would in a restaurant anywhere, but they simply then leave without needing to pay.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
How do we all like to live like that?
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
I just I don’t understand how you do it. I mean, even a single restaurant has difficulty, knowing how many people are going to eat there, and how many specials are going to be served. And if you’re offering more, most facilities, let me put it this way, we’ll have one dining room, and you’ll have you know, a choice of one or two things. This is very much like a cruise ship, you just go someplace. And and order from a wide variety of things. How do you do that?
Jackie Lemoine
Great question. It’s actually based on occupancy or dining budget fluctuates based upon the occupancy. So the culinary directors have a budget per resident per day that’s constant. So the total spend changes based on the actual resident count. Of course, with us being as large as we are at The Fountains, we can leverage high quality national providers to ensure quality ingredients and top notch menus. But smaller or home based communities may have to spend more per resident based on lower buying power. You know, one of the top reasons that SR wants to move to a community like ours is for the convenience of enjoyment of chef prepared meals. Things that they don’t have to worry about knowing that they’re getting their nutritional needs met and being in a restaurant setting. So you have to as a, as an organisation, you have to see this as built into the rent environment. And it’s something that attracts residents to to you in the first place.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
I would think so. But most operators, certainly the ones that I’ve worked with don’t want to give up that amount of floor space for something where there isn’t an absolute direct revenue stream that can be you know, that can be logged. So it’s, it is amazing and it is very aspirational, because you’re less likely I would imagine to get bored.
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely. Dining is a huge social aspect of the community. And that’s, that’s witnessed every day right around four 430 in the afternoon. As everyone gathers in the lobby waiting to be seated at the restaurant. That’s a great opportunity to meet people socialise, share likes and dislikes. That’s where a lot of the camaraderie starts is in the dining room.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And Jackie, do you find that? People if I, if I relate this to back in being in my school days, which was more than a couple of years ago, you’d have, you’d have your desk and it was your desk. And you always would sit there, even if even if you didn’t have to. Do you find that that’s what happens in the dining facilities where people will will form their own groups or have kind of their space? Does that ever get to be an issue?
Jackie Lemoine
Not really, I think one of the best examples of that is I recently brought a family around to show them the community. And I set them up to have lunch in our Bistro, our smaller dining community upstairs. And as they sat down, and I got them settled, a resident came in and said, Oh, were you folks thinking about moving moving here? And they said, Yes. And she said, May I invite myself to sit down and chat with you. So she sat down, and she had lunch with them. And that is something that not only happens with unfamiliar faces in the dining room, but two familiar faces, I really do feel like the residents take the time to get to know each other. So although you do have your, you know, I know there’s one group and, and in one of our communities and one of the wings, that walk down to dinner together every day, you are going to absolutely have that. But you also have the people that are using this as an opportunity to expand their social circle. And so when they go in, and they sit down, you know, the, the dining staff will say, Would you like to sit by yourself? Or would you like someone else to come and be sat with you? Or would you like to sit with someone, so we are truly giving them all the opportunity. And that may be just that simple question may be enough to get someone to come out of their shell and make a friend that they normally would not have.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
That’s, that’s lovely. And to us use that as much for nutrition as that socialising aspect. You also have a medical suite, right on the site. Can you explain to listeners what what is involved in that, what it entails?
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely. So that is our assisted living. And we have a care staff that helps residents with the activity at their activities of daily living. This helps our residents stay as independent as possible, and encourages the residents to do things for themselves as long as possible. You know, our care team provides assistance based on their individual needs. And that could be helped with something such as dressing or bathing, or simply medication reminders. But it’s helping them thrive in a community setting, while receiving the help that they need, and in the privacy of their own apartment. So they can still feel as independent as possible. One of the things that I truly love about our community is that we do not wear all under one roof. And we don’t separate short of where the apartments are located. Because of licencing, our all of our residents, they socialise together, they interact together. It’s not just our independent together in our assisted living. Just because you need a little bit more assistance doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be allowed to to flourish in the community just as an independent resident.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right, that’s, that’s lovely. You’ve not set you there’s no segregation between levels of need. You also on the site have quite a bit of water, you’ve got some lovely lakes surrounding the property and a very large swimming pool. How have safety issues been addressed regarding water, of course.
Jackie Lemoine
We request the residents who use these areas during the day and the it’s actually their responsibility to monitor their own safety. By this time in a residents life, they usually have a clear understanding of water safety, safety. And in general, water safety is typically more concerned in a memory care setting and we do not offer memory care to families.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So it’s less of a it’s less of an issue. However, absolutely. We will have grandchildren presumably visiting and that kind of thing as well.
Jackie Lemoine
Yes. And again, that’s on the individual.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right, okay. And they’re all clear on that when they’re moving in. You’ve got when they are moving in, you’ve got several different apartment styles and they’re all really quite generous in size, but besides that they have entirely full kitchens, granite worktops full appliances. Other operators might have a fridge And even then not necessarily a large one and a microwave. So, because you have all the different dining facilities on offer, do you find that residents really use the full kitchens? And as a sales director? Do you find them to be a selling point?
Jackie Lemoine
Oh, great question. So a lot of it comes down to having a mindset of independence, and the fact that they have these, this equipment available to them, and they can use it if they want to, it’s absolutely a selling point, because a transition into senior living can be a difficult change. And the biggest concern is giving up their sense of independence, and knowing that they’re not giving up their independence, but they have the security and socialisation aspect of a community that makes a huge difference.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Do you have a wish list that you get from residents as to things they’d like like to see in the future? And what’s what would be on that list do you think?
Jackie Lemoine
So, we have several ways for residents to express their wants and desires. We make a lot of changes to our community actually based on their feedback our the community as a whole physically and both based on our programming. So we try and balance the overall need, and the impact on daily lives. So is the request something that we need or something that we want, because that there’s a big difference there. A few changes that we’ve made lately are adding a game room with a pool table and a shuffleboard the residents really seem to have enjoyed that. An upcoming change is redesigning the pool to include a built in ramp to better serve the residents with ambulation concerns. So I mean, reality is our residents would always want more entertainment and happy hours. So I think that demonstrates the lifestyle that they that they enjoy.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Well, you mentioned shuffleboard and that brings me on to my next question. I referred to The Fountains as akin to a landlocked cruise ship, because of all the various things that it already has to offer. As the Sales Director, how do you describe it to people?
Jackie Lemoine
So interestingly enough, I try not to describe it. I really try and encourage anyone that I speak with to come and experience the community for themselves. Because it is an environment that’s truly unique and built on camaraderie and spirit. I believe we’re a community that’s all encompassing, it were contained under one roof. And we’re very social and active. And I think you can probably speak to this, it’s more of a feeling that once people come in and experience the community themselves, they they really do understand what I mean, when I say it’s a feeling.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
it is it’s full of life. Yes, you come in and there’s this ambience. From a architectural standpoint, there’s a double height, sort of atrium kind of entrance, which brings, you know, Florida light into the centre. So that’s already uplifting. And then coming in the entrance, you’re looking straight ahead into one of the restaurants which looks very elegant. And then that restaurant has windows to the back, which look outside. So the the way that everything sort of leads off of everything else in quite a natural, a natural way, but almost like a present. You don’t look and see everything at once. You correct you you discover, you know, around the corner, there’s a library and the library might, you know, also provide another entrance out onto the patio in the pool area, you go a different direction, and you might discover, you know, the gym or, or an activities space or something else where it’s it feels like those spaces were planned from the beginning. Rather than as a lot of operators, what’s the maximum number of bedrooms we can get in here. And then with a little extra spaces that we can’t use, we’ll call that a x, y or Zed, where this feels really like the whole thing was envisioned as lifestyle.
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely, we our goal is to keep our residents as independent and occupied as long as possible. And if we can do that, without them ever having to leave the community. That’s fantastic for them. And that’s what we find is that residents who normally would have no interest in utilising a gym, or anything like that, before they’d have to leave their home, get in their car drive to the gym. Now they just have to walk down the hallway. So with the spaces that we’ve built out, it’s encouraging them to be involved simply by walking out their apartment door.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
But even then the gym isn’t just a room with somebody else and a rowing machine. And it’s a full gym.
Jackie Lemoine
Correct? Correct. It’s, it’s one, one of the many things that makes our community unique. This is where our residents are probably going to live out the rest of their life, we want to make it as grand as possible for them.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And the thing that I really like about the interactivity with the residents, the Spanish lessons, the watercolour lessons, whatever, is everybody needs a purpose. Absolutely. And absolutely ability to develop your purpose in a new community, when you’ve just downsized and you are having a major change in life is very inspiring. It’s not it’s not something that, as you said, you programme and now it’s 2:30, we have this, there are other things to do as well.
Jackie Lemoine
So we are we have over 100 volunteers that are residents. So we have different volunteer opportunities throughout the community. And I think that’s really important, because so many of our residents, that’s something that they did socially in their everyday lives. And so now finding that they have additional time, because they’re not making the meals, cleaning their homes, worrying about the upkeep of a home, they have some extra time, and they so desperately want to give that back. And that’s, I really find that amazing that, that in a community that we would have that many people looking to give back still.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
That’s lovely. If here’s, here’s the big question, if developers or operators from anywhere in the world wanted to emulate some of the most important aspects of The Fountains as a senior living environment, what’s your advice as to the elements which are most important?
Jackie Lemoine
So, one of the things that I impress upon everyone that comes in not only the associates, but the families that are coming to look at our community, for their loved one, and you may remember me saying this to you is that as associates, we have the pleasure of working where the residents live, they don’t live where we work. It it’s a very big mindset that I think perfectly emulates what it is that that we’ve built, their home isn’t confined to their apartment, it’s the community as a whole. At Kisco, we’ve always been focused on being an employer of choice by offering competitive wages, health benefits and perks to reward the associates. And recruiting and retaining top talent in every position ensures excellent service to our residents, and a financially successful community. So we work hard to maintain a focus of taking our associates, residents and financials all in balance.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Right. So your, I would take it that that means you have a quite a good retention level?
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely. Yes, some of our associates have been there as long as 26 years.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
But the thing is, this environment. So if somebody is looking for a job, you know, in, in x place and someone looking in y place, if if one of them is full of life, and people are smiling and full of beans, you’re going to be tempted to stay there.
Jackie Lemoine
Absolutely, it’s a very different, even for myself when I came to the community. I know how people feel when they walk in because when I first walked into the community, to interview for the sales director, I felt it. It’s not at all what people expect. We’re really changing what Senior Living looks like.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
I think you are and that is why I was so interested in getting you on the podcast to share some of the some of the thinking which does challenge some of the norms elsewhere in the world in terms of, of how things are set up and what is what is most important. And so I really thank you so much, Jackie, for joining us and sharing your expertise and wisdom on the podcast. Thank you.
Jackie Lemoine
I appreciate the opportunity. It’s my pleasure.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And you’ll find direct links to the fountains for more inspiration by going to the podcast page for this episode at ThirdAge.Design. As I mentioned earlier, this month’s Innovation Spotlight is a concept out of the United Kingdom, which is so clear, and so, well, obvious that you wonder why no one’s thought of this before? Well, somebody did. And her name is Sheleeza Hassam, Head of Hospitality at CHD living and developer of the Adopt-a-grandparent programme. Thank you so much for joining me.
Shaleeza Hasam
Thank you for having me.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Now, the podcast recently sponsored the best architecture and design award at the healthcare investor, senior housing awards, and that’s where I first came across this programme, the Adopt-a-Ggrandparent programme. How did this come about? How did you come up with the idea.
Shaleeza Hasam
so as you mentioned, my sort of day job is with a care group called CHD. Living, which is actually my family’s company, which was founded 40 years ago. So I actually grew up in the grounds of a care home, and had 15 grandparents of my own growing up. So from sort of eight weeks, I was up in the care home, having breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And it taught me so much about how important it is to create meaningful relationships with our elders, not only so that they feel valued, supported, and remain and feel that there are people who are interested in their stories, their life histories, as they age, in care, but also for the youngster because I was taught incredible values, how to be patient, how to be compassionate, how to communicate with elders effectively, and it benefited me so much. So I wanted to start a programme that really supported the idea of intergenerational relationships. And it was initially a small programme that was focused more on face to face visits within our care, building these meaningful intergenerational relationships. But unfortunately, COVID hit and we found ourselves in a pandemic. And I realised at that point that, that the problem is that loneliness and isolation amongst our elders was, you know, more important than ever, because even those individuals who do have family, of which many don’t, many people living in care don’t have any communication with anyone apart from the people who are caring for them. There was going to be a sense of significant loss with the lack of visits and the lack of communication. And also with the sector having being further behind with advancements in technology, and less services. So I put out a call on social media and we coined this term adopt-a grandparent, and we asked people if they would like to virtually adopt a grandparent during the pandemic. And we were overwhelmed. We went from having about 200 volunteers that were doing face to face visits to an astonishing 30,000 within three weeks, and today over 100,000 worldwide.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
That is absolutely incredible. And so basically, as I understand it, you pair these volunteers with older people, based on similar interests. Can you explain how this actually works in practice?
Shaleeza Hasam
Oh, sure. That’s exactly right. So we have a huge volunteer database, as you can imagine, so when volunteers sign up, we ask them questions like, Why do you want to participate? What are your hobbies, interests, likes, dislikes, where do you live? What languages do you speak? How old are you? So we can really get a picture about who this person is. We then reach out to care services to encourage them to participate in the programme. And that works slightly differently. Because, you know, people who are living in care be like, why would I want someone to adopt me, you know, I’ve got grandchildren or I’ve got, you know, family and so on. So really, when you’re talking to the older person, it’s about saying how you can support support this youngster who wants to volunteer and learn something from you a skill that you have. And that works beautifully. And some of the signup reasons that we get are incredible because from the volunteer side, it might be that I never had grandparents of my own, or I lost my grandparents and I feel a real sense of loss and I want to support somebody, they will have been touched in their own families from things like dementia, or other physical challenges, or loneliness indeed. And so for the volunteer, it’s incredibly rewarding. And for the older person, it really helps with keeping the individual stimulated it helps with cognitive development and maintenene, it also helps with your physical development. Because as you know, when we talk, we gestate, and we move and we have expressions, and it gets people moving, especially when you’re doing this over over camera.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
So also it’s providing a sense of purpose, because if they’re sharing with the presumably younger person, then it’s very much a two way street. So everybody benefits it’s not adapt, adopt a grandparent for just the sake of the grandparent. In other words, very, very all around. How many people are involved in the administrative side of of dealing with all of these people and putting this together? Is it a large organisation? Or is it? Is it helped by technology? How do you do it?
Shaleeza Hasam
So we’re tiny. So up until this year, it was just me and a volunteer who was supporting me, I spent a lot of time using technology to develop processes. So we have an adopter grandparent community app, which can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play. And that is a close community in a CI that allows for people to share and the purpose of what a doctor grandparent is about. You can post you can message you can talk about your own, you know, experiences. And then within that, you have each of the care groups that are participating. And these are private groups. So you have the care organisers, the volunteers related to that category, maybe the family and the staff and people who want to see what’s going on. And within the app, we can also now do the video calling or the audio calling, which allows us to track the number of meaningful minutes that are happening. The calls and also allows us to send feedback, gather feedback, and gather data about the impact. And we worked very closely with Barclays Digital Eagles. And so we have a mandatory training platform, so that all volunteers actually have to go through mandatory trainings and understand how to communicate with people living with dementia, for example, understand what adults safeguarding is and how to report something that is of concern to you. And for that, we partnered with a company called Sayso, which is an independent whistleblowing platform whereby our volunteers or care staff can actually go on and log and say, Actually, we’re a bit concerned because this is what we spoke about on our call today, because we know how vulnerable both adults and youngsters are. So it’s been three years of looking at our governance, our compliance, building up a board of trustees to really ensure that the programme is safe, and can grow successfully. So we’ve grown slowly, but effectively running a number of pilots. So where we’re at right now is that we have one full time employee, she’s fantastic and, and she heads up our strategy and transformation, as she oversees our operations, but we need more support, we need to employ more people, because our goal is to have a doctor grandparent community champion, who is in charge of supporting training and monitoring the programme as it develops within each care service. Because as we know, people working in care are very busy, the focus is on delivering the care. And so we need to make sure that they are getting the best out of the programme. And to do that we need more people. Right?
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And how, how is this funded? I know that there have been some fundraising things, but is that generally the way in which this is being supported financially?
Shaleeza Hasam
That’s correct. We were taught we rely entirely on sponsorship funding and grant donations. We’ve got some really incredible sponsors who have committed funds annually to help us with our operations and our growth. Because we have big plans for Adopt-a-Grandparent, we want it to be an international programme. We have 100,000 people waiting to adopt a grandparent and so many great initiatives that we have in the pipeline. But to execute these, we need people and we need funding. So we want it to be free to care groups. We know that budgets are tight and stress so where people can sponsor as part of that, you know, general CSR and charitable giving, is really how we are supported to continue to grow.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
And in terms of rolling this out internationally, here’s a platform we’re in 61 countries. What is the best way for people to begin the process., either on their own or presumably it’s best through you because you’ve already done these samplings and you know how it works. I mean, basically you’ve taken a bunch of missing things in the environment, and you’ve stitched them together into something really meaningful in all sorts of different directions. It’s so impressive. How would people get involved internationally?
Shaleeza Hasam
So if you wanted to launch the Adopt-a-Grandparent programme in your own country, I would recommend that you email Hello at adopter grandparent.org.uk and express an interest it would be either myself or my colleague, Nika who would come back to you. And we can look at how how we can adapt the programme to suit the country that you’re wanting to launch and train you get you up to speed on how the app works. But also, because we’ve already got the volunteer database, we can actually find volunteers who are in your country. So you have you would have the flexibility to say, actually, I want to launch this, I’m gonna go find some care services, or a charity that works with loneliness in my community. And I’m going to support them with volunteers that we already have, who are waiting to give back. So that’s huge there in itself. And that would be really fantastic for us. Because that’s what we need. We need people who say I want to be a champion, I want to launch this, I want to run it. And I want to make something of it, because I really believe in it. And if you want to become a volunteer, you can sign up directly on our website. But there is a big backlog as you can imagine. So we can’t promise we’ll get to everybody, immediately. And if you want to sign up your care organisation to participate, we’ve currently got about 65 that we’re onboarding at the moment. They’re all in the United Kingdom across England and Scotland. But again, on our website, you can sign up your cast service and we will be in touch immediately to arrange a plan and manage the timeline expectations with you. And that’s all on our website which is adoptagrandparent.org.uk
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
Shaleeza, thank you so much for being part of the podcast and sharing this incredible initiative with everyone.
Shaleeza Hasam
Thank you so much, Lori, I really enjoyed it.
Lori Pinkerton-Rolet
You can find more out about this initiative and how it works via the podcast page for this episode at ThirdAge.Design. Just time for a year end review of the TAD International Events Calendar. As we look ahead to 2024. In March the 10th Asian Conference on Ageing and Gerontology, or AGen 2024, will take place in one of my favourite places on earth, Tokyo, Japan. You can also join online, but the Saki is not nearly as good. April 29th to the first of May. The Senior Living executive conference will take place in Phoenix, Arizona, and also in the United States, The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from the 28th of July through the 1st of August. You’ll find further details and listings on the Industry Events page at www Third Age Dot Design. Thank you to today’s special guest Jackie Lemoine from The Fountains to our Innovation Spotlight guest Sheeza Hassam of Adopt-a- Grandparent, to our editor extraordinaire, producer Mike Scales, to Valerie Adler of The Right Website to Peter Thorne, who composed our theme music and is playing the piano with Mary Blanchard on flute and finally to you for listening. I’m Lori Pinkerton-Rolet wishing you a wonderful end to the calendar year. And I hope you’ll join us again in 2024 for more inspirational concepts in senior living from around the world.