One of our assisted living communities serves as home to over a dozen nuns from local convents. They are some of my favorite people to sit down with and it is largely because we share the same values and beliefs. I was sitting with one of the sisters last week to find out how things are going.

Some History…

To give background…Sister Chris (name changed) moved into our community seven months ago (two months after we had taken over). Shortly after her arrival, I was addressing all the residents to provide updates and opened the floor to questions and comments. Sister Chris raised her hand and began to tell me how much value the residents have to offer Prosper in making the community fun and engaging. I was able to describe our Prosper Purpose care model and how it aligned perfectly with her desire to provide value within our community. I immediately knew I had someone special that I was dealing with. 

Within a month, Sister Chris became our secretary for the resident council meetings and proceeded to take notes, type them up after the meeting and email them to the appropriate people from her laptop. She was then an integral part of overhauling our resident council process to make sure we were creating the perfect environment for residents to address their concerns. She has been a blessing, to say the least.

The Request…

Fast forward 6 months….to last week. I was visiting the community for a full day of fun and parties to celebrate assisted living week. Sister Chris and I were able to sit down and talk so I could get her input. I was not expecting what came next.

Sister Chris told me that there is so much negativity and divisiveness in the world right now and it is felt by the residents every day. She went on to say she feels it is causing groups of residents to become hostile and upset with each other, and not even understand why. Sister Chris advocated for her fellow residents and asked if Prosper could provide informational seminars about self-awareness, mindfulness, mental well-being, etc.… and I sat there with my jaw on the floor.

First, I admittedly felt bad that this was not something we had thought about before this conversation. Our core values are to make life fun, make the community a home, and deliver purpose to everyone. This perfectly aligns with all three of our core values and given the stress that the pandemic has been causing, why hadn’t we developed a program to help residents cope with the stress of it all. As a company, we were hyper focused on the staff but failed to think of the resident’s mental health, too. Of course, we care about their mental well-being but in the past, it was about having the right activities, events, clubs, and full spectrum of programing to allow them to be happy, feel home, and find purpose. But we failed to provide support and expertise to our residents around how they might be thinking and feeling.

Ask and You Shall Receive…

It was that same day, that a higher power was looking out for Sister Chris when I went to a networking event and struck conversation with an organization that has been working with residents around mental well-being. I am glad to say, in October we will have our first seminar for residents to better understand their thoughts and feelings when so many factors are currently at play that impact our lives but are completely out of our control. Thank you, Sister Chris, for pushing me to be the best operator I can for our residents.

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