Silver Maples Awarded Holleran’s 2020 Choice Community Award for Resident Engagement Despite the COVID Pandemic

Holleran, the nation’s leading research firm specializing in engagement and satisfaction studies for residents and employees, has announced the recipients of the Choice Community Award Winners for 2020.

Silver Maples of Chelsea Retirement Neighborhood, is excited to share they were recently among just 49 communities honored nationally for their exemplary efforts in creating a culture of engagement and satisfaction for their residents, despite the COVID pandemic. Holleran’s Choice Community Award recognizes organizations with strong cultures of engagement.

These providers have cultivated an environment where resident voices are heard, connections are rich, well-being is enhanced and personal fulfillment can be realized. These award-winning campuses are in the top 15th percentile of more than 1,000 surveyed communities nationwide.

“This year has been exceptionally challenging within the senior living industry – which makes the recipients of Choice Community Award all that much more extraordinary,” says Michele Holleran, Founder and CEO of Holleran. “The Choice Community recipients have emerged from the pandemic in spite of the odds, finding creative ways to engage both residents and employees.”

“We decided to conduct the survey this past year despite the chance of having lower scores due to resident’s isolation during COVID. We value our resident’s feedback, especially during trying times, and wanted to be sure they supported our response to the pandemic”, says Julie Deppner, CEO of Silver Maples, “In fact our “Response to Pandemic” was one of our highest satisfaction scores with over 94% of our residents responded favorably to this question. This coupled with the fact that we have had zero positive COVID cases among our residents gives us a lot to be proud of!”

“Engaging senior living communities are fundamentally stronger in collaboration and connection to other residents, employees, the community, and life goals,” remarks Katelyn McCauley, Senior Research Analyst. “During the coronavirus pandemic, these areas all took a backseat to the general health and well-being of the residents and employees. To be a Choice Community this year, these campuses exceeded all expectations and continued to provide a unique and valuable environment focused on the successful aging of older adults, and paying attention to the well-being of their employees.”

Holleran has the largest benchmark of its kind, measuring both resident and employee engagement/satisfaction in the senior living space. Currently, the benchmark comprises more than 160,000 resident and employee surveys, all completed within the last two years. This enables organizations to compare their performance to their peers, whether they are across the road or across the country. Utilizing this extensive body of research, Holleran recognizes the most engaging senior living organizations in the nation.

Silver Maples of Chelsea Retirement Neighborhood is a vibrant community that excels at creating and supporting a positive aging experience. “Our residents scored in the 93rd percentile in the area of Voice. They feel that Silver Maples creates an environment in which the management is transparent about decision making and offer many ways for the residents to provide input and feedback to the community This score truly represents our focus of allowing residents to continue to live the life they want, find ways to meaningfully contribute, and maintain continuity with the life they had prior to living at Silver Maples,” states Julie Deppner, CEO/Executive Director. Both seasoned residents and those who joined the community recently certainly agree.

“We have an amazing staff! During COVID they kept us safe, kept our spirits up and planned safe programs to allow us to stay connected,” states Phyllis a resident since 2016. Gladys moved to Silver Maples just before the COVID Pandemic hit and shares, “It has been uplifting to have people to associate with, I’m so grateful that I’m not sitting in a house all by myself. I’m confident that every need that I have will be met; I feel you can’t ask for anything much better than that!”