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Changes at the DCM Institute: Jodie Prosser pulls back

After 4.5 years, our great friend and inspiration, Jodie Prosser, has decided to pull back from her deep engagement in the DCM Institute to focus on her close and extended family.

Jodie will remain as our ‘Adjunct Professor’, providing a regular eye on content development and occasional PD Day attendance, not to mention the VILLAGE SUMMIT.

Satisfaction and professional development

It has been quite a journey. Jodie, Jill Donaldson and I (later joined by Judy Martin) read the market research report from our 2018 DCM Resident Research project, where nearly 20,000 residents reported their village manager was either the greatest source of satisfaction for living in a village or, when skills were lacking, the greatest source of dissatisfaction (pictured below).

Jodie, with all of her adult life engaged in managing villages, said we could shape not a training program, but rather an ongoing professional development program to support village managers to deliver the best outcomes for residents.

And that is what Jodie did.

Along the way we travelled together for three weeks in America to learn about other models. We were joined by Judy Martin in Boston and Washington after Judy was elected Chairperson of the world peak body, the Global Ageing Network, in Toronto. The experience and talent across the two of them is quite remarkable. (Jodie photographed below with the designer of the original Apple Macintosh in San Francisco on a Village Summit fact finding trip).

Then last year, despite COVID-19, we travelled to New Zealand and established the Te Ara Institute, a joint venture with the Retirement Villages Association of New Zealand, providing tailored professional development programs there.

We have had great support from Sally Middleton as liaison with DCMI participants and Tania Kelly making the operations side hum.

New expertise

We are now pleased to announce the appointment of Tiffany Follbigg as National DCMI Administrator, who brings a wealth in Learning and Development experience from the home care sector.

Connie Comber also joins us as Regional Manager to provide participant support. Connie has been a Village Manager in a large regional centre, plus she is a highly qualified dispute mediator.

We are seeking to employ a second Regional Manager to work with Connie. You can see our announcement below.

Roxy D’Silva is on maternity leave for the next three months.

And Judy Martin continues in her leadership role as Director – Industry Engagement.

550 participants

Today we have over 550 DCMI participants, a number we could have only dreamt of four years ago. So thanks to you for your faith and thanks again to Jodie for her vision and professional execution, while not forgetting Judy as our early partner.

And more is to come.

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