Hosting on-site holiday events that are open to the public is a great way to engage the outside community with your senior living or retirement community. Keeping your residents engaged with the external community can help fill their social tank and breathe new life into your community.
Seeing the same people and doing the same thing every day is great for routine, but can sometimes make the days feel monotonous and like they’re all the same. Bringing in external community members for different events every once in a while can help break up the pattern and celebrate the holidays without straying too far away from the normal day-to-day.
But what if your community is in an area competing with many others, like Florida or Pennsylvania? How can you make your community and events stand out so people in the area actually come to your events?
One way is to make sure you’re advertising your events in the right places. If you put posters up in a park that not many external visitors walk through, your efforts will be for naught. Make sure to put your posters in areas that are likely to be frequented by the types of people you think may be interested in attending your event. Also, make sure to keep up with what events are happening at neighboring communities and when, so you don’t plan an event on the same day, inadvertently halving your prospective attendees.
Host events that are likely to be appealing to your external community as well as your residents. Adding some extra bits of enticement to your events can help push people who may be on the fence right over. Having elements of your event that visitors would want to do regardless of whether or not it’s hosted at a senior living facility can also show them that these community events are fun and engaging, making them more likely to consider attending others in the future.
Consider planning events that engage the children in the area. Intergenerational relationships between the old and the young can be so special and meaningful. For your residents whose families live far away, they may be able to find an “adoptive” grandchild at one of these events. Both parties benefit from these connections. The little ones can learn from the wisdom of the older people, while the older adults can soak up the enthusiasm and wonder of young children. Intergenerational relationships help to prevent isolation and loneliness while instilling a sense of purpose in seniors, and they can build a stronger community overall.
Once you create a good group of consistent attendees, you might consider asking them to spread the word to people they might know personally as well. If you plan events with your external community in mind and make sure they know it’s happening, you may be pleasantly surprised by the number of attendees that show up to bring some holiday cheer to your residents’ day.
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