SilverAdvantage February Focus - Building R.E.S.P.E.C.T. Through Community

Our SilverAdvantage letter for the month of February is C, which stands for Community. A community is a creative process; as Margaret Betz puts it in her book Making Life Choices, "Community involves learning to live in terms of an interconnected 'we' more than an isolated ‘I’. It involves making choices which reinforce the experience of relatedness and foster the sense of belonging and interdepend-ence”.

What are we creating through SilverAdvantage? First, through Community we create an atmosphere where people matter. Everyone is important; each one of us strengthens the whole. Our residents al-ready know this; their first responses to the word "community" are words such as "sharing", "interdependence", "belonging". As staff and resi-dents share their lives together, we all benefit. Eve-ryone is valued and included; everyone has a place in this Community.

On another level, we create Community when we care for our living environment. This is the part of the world we are responsible for. Our pride in our campus means that the things around us are safe, clean, functional, and beautiful so we can pour more energy into the people we serve. That atten-tion means that life is easier for all of us, and Com-munity is stronger.

Finally, it's important to remember that SilverAdvantage doesn't exist in isolation. We're a part of the larger world, and we contribute to that community through programs like Sage, Reading Buddies, and donating to charitable organizations like the Mayo Clinic’s Hope Lodge.

Each one of us benefits from the Community we create together. Staff and residents alike are part of producing a greater whole. We join forces to create a place where people are seen at their finest and environment is kept at its best, so that everyone benefits. It's the heart of SilverAdvantage: it's COMMUNITY!