How to Get Your Neighbors Involved
at Your Facility
With the arrival of warm weather come more opportunities to meet your facility’s neighbors and to get them involved with your activities.
There are plenty of ways that you can connect with members of your community and include them into your activity program. Here are a few ideas to involve your neighbors in your activity program:
1. Mommy & Me Group Visits. Schedule a time for the neighborhood stay-at-home moms and dads to bring their little ones by to visit with your residents. Set up a play area in your Activity Room and seat residents around the perimeter of the room to observe and reminisce.
2. Church Choir Sing Alongs. Invite members of the local church to have a monthly choir rehearsal at your facility. Provide cookies, juice, and a live audience of your residents for this free performance.
3. Intergenerational Mentorships. Contact neighboring schools to partner in a buddy program in which the kids stop by once per month to read to your residents. If the kids are older, consider creating a mentoring program in which your residents mentor the kids while doing projects together, like science experiments or arts and crafts.
4. Guest Lectures. Find local neighbors with interesting jobs who are willing to spend a Saturday morning giving a talk about their occupation. If your neighbor is interested, ask him or her to become a guest member of one of your facility’s clubs that relates to his occupation, like the Woodshop Club or the Writing Club.
5. Guest Performances. Organize free performances by contacting community organizations to perform school plays, church services, and children’s recitals at your facility.
6. Meet & Greets. Welcome your neighbors by hosting a neighborhood-wide event, like a bike-a-thon in your parking lot for neighborhood kids or a community car show in your parking lot featuring the antique cars of a local antique car dealer.
7. Vendor Bazaars. Plan to have vendors from your neighborhood set up shop around the holidays in your facility to provide fun items like scarves and earrings for your residents to buy.