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Tag: Village Professionals

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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch

Village customers stronger than ever, despite or because of COVID

A number of Village Professionals have reached out to us to ask ‘how is the market going’ for retirement village sales.

We asked our colleague Carmella Rowsthorne at villages.com.au what is happening and she delivered the above graph for the 13 months from September last year to September 2020.

It shows that last year in September just under 3,800 people searched for a retirement village each day on villages.com.au.

This September, the same number of people are searching.

Numbers are actually up

But here is the thing. Victoria accounts for 35% of the Australian population and they have been in severe lockdown since July. They have not been able to even think of looking at villages let alone sell their homes. It was basically illegal.

So when you add this into the mix, you have to say the average number of people looking seriously at a village option has gone up in 2020.

The only changes have been multiple crises. Fires, drought and now COVID.

The family home is no longer as safe as it was last year.

Have you been receiving a higher level of enquiry? If not, perhaps you are not listing your village on villages.com.au. With 1.2M visits a year it is the No.1 village search destination.

You can find out more from Carmella by emailing her at Carmella.Rowsthorne@thedcmgroup.com.au.

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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch

The new look “Village Networks” … For ALL Village professionals!

This week the DCM Institute team launched a new look “Village Network”. We are staging QLD, NSW, VIC (pictured above) and WA forums, plus we welcome the ACT as a new addition as well.

150 village professionals are sharing the many innovations, the huge amount of goodwill and learnings that have occurred during COVID.

These Village Network meetings serve as an opportunity for Village professionals to come together to share knowledge, experiences, stories, insights and the latest news in the retirement living profession. 

We discussed:

  • COVID challenges
  • Initiatives and solutions implemented
  • Opening up community centres
  • Annual meetings
  • Business planning for the next 12 months

Whether you are a sales person, assistant, in marketing or development I am confident you will enjoy the conversation. The Village Networks are open to any Village professional regardless of whether you are in the DCMI Village Management Professional Development program or not. 

We bring together village professionals within your own state and it is our intention to hold these meetings on a quarterly basis or as often as the group would like.

During the pandemic, they will be held online via Zoom so that you are able to attend without leaving your village.

There have been stories of strong community spirit, like:

  • Walking groups
  • Balcony serenade – musicians engaged to play in the courtyard
  • Driveway events – dress up, Anzac Day, Mothers’ Day
  • Odds & Evens happy hours
  • Operators assisting residents
  • Shopping services
  • Visiting grocers
  • Toilet paper provisions
  • Visiting doctors/chemists
  • Implementing technology to support communication
  • Uniting NSW 7,000 calls to residents checking in
  • In-house TV stations
  • Parcel delivery/post office drops
  • ‘Iso’ bingo
  • Collation of a diary with input from all residents to be a record of their COVID experience
  • Puzzle books / regional newsletter / strong support share ideas between VMS
  • Dress their streets/ driveway bingo / scavenger hunts
  • Donated toilet rolls – prizes for games
  • History of a resident’s life
  • Craft basics
  • New groups formed as skills/experience of residents shared and interests discovered
  • Driveway drinks
  • Innovative fundraisers
  • Virtual book club
  • iOS trivia

Join our next Village Network meeting here

Keep your eyes open on our Village Networks page for the next round of Village Network meetings to be held later this year.

If you would like to register for the future meetings please fill out the form on our new webpage and we will be sure to include you in the next round of meetings.

If you were fortunate enough to attend one of this month’s Village Network meetings, thank you for your participation! 

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Reporting Results

Dementia-friendly communities​

There are 4 million Australians over age 65 – that’s about 15% of the Australian population living with Dementia…and its a growing cohort expected to be 22% of the population by 2057.

70% of these people are living in their own homes within the community, including within retirement communities. 

There is no question that as Village professionals we will be in a position to support those living within our communities with Dementia.

Dementia Australia has a range of tools and resources to assist with supporting those living with Dementia, including a couple of great new social movement initiatives called Dementia Friends, Dementia Friendly Communities and Dementia Friendly Organisations. 

I encourage all Village Professionals to become Dementia Friends. It only takes about 25 minutes online. 

Or perhaps your community could become a Dementia Friendly Organisation and then perhaps you could even consider becoming a Dementia Advocate and encourage the local business community around you to become a Dementia Friendly Community.

In the meantime here are a few tips that will help people living in your community with Dementia:

  • Contrasting colours in rooms such as doors being a slightly different colour than walls, grab rails & toilet seats being different colours that the tiles and paint, word on signs being contrasting colours
  • Identification labels on drawers, cupboard doors and entrances and exits
  • Clear kitchen cupboard doors to be able to see what is behind the door
  • Non-patterned floors and highlighting colours on change of levels/stairs
  • Personalisation/recognition indicators in the front garden of the persons home
  • Promotion of Dementia Friend (25min) on-line training for residents and staff
  • Quiet space in community areas to get away from the noise
  • Invite Dementia Australia to visit your village

Download the DIY Dementia Friendly Toolkit at dementiafriendly.org.au

Register HERE or contact Dementia Australia below.

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Key things to help you everyday

Village Manager Handover checklist (Busy Busy silly season)

We are approaching the time of year as Annual meetings and Melbourne Cup moves slowly behind us we start to think about planning for Christmas decorations, celebrations and the holiday period.

Village professionals often find themselves running on empty at this time of year and take the opportunity to have a well-deserved break. Often in the lead up to the leave it is busy busy busy and a time where there are lots going on.

Whether you are having a relief manager stepping in for you or a team member manning the fort it is good practice to be starting to think about the tools, resources and information they may need to access whilst you are away (especially if you would like to avoid that call on Christmas day when the code to turn off the fire system can not be found).

Some of the items I like to go through with a relief manager include:

  • Site orientation/plan – utility shut off locations
  • Staff introductions, role, responsibilities, capabilities, rosters & norms
  • Introduction to Chair Resident Committee & Committee details
  • Village values/culture, decision making and communication policy explanation
  • Resident contact information
  • Service provider contact details & contract details
  • Emergency evacuation familiarisation & services contact details
  • Current budget guidelines, meeting minutes etc
  • Complaint management guidelines & policy
  • Current complaints in progress
  • Contractual explanation & likely anomalies
  • Resident file/documentation process
  • Explanation of delegation & accounting processes
  • Maintenance schedules