Next week, Aging Services of Minnesota will be showcasing people who work in the senior living industry at their annual Institute. The goal of their program, called “Stars Among Us”, is “to shine a light on the people who are the backbone of our support system for seniors in Minnesota.”
The campaign is their effort to share as many stories of individual caregivers and aging services professionals. Officially launching on February 8th, they will create an online gallery to showcase the stars. They will also be sharing them on their social media channels and lawmakers.
Here is a link directly to the Stars Among Us campaign page if you’d like to submit someone: http://www.agingservicesinstitute.org/starsamongus.asp
For the past three years, Welcome Home has honored an individual that shows leadership abilities in their community or in the organization with the North Star Leadership Award. With Aging Services of Minnesota’s program, we thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase not only our North Star Leadership award winner, but to all of those team members who were nominated throughout our company.
Over the next few days, we will honor those individuals who were nominated for Welcome Home Management’s North Star Leadership Award, and who were submitted to the Stars Among Us campaign at Aging Services.
Our first nomination and Star Among Us is Jodi. Jodi is a shift leader at Excelsior Place in Baxter, Minnesota. Jodi was nominated for our North Star Leadership Award in 2010 and has been with Welcome Home and Excelsior Place since opening in 2004.
She was nominated by her fellow team members at Excelsior Place. Jodi demonstrates leadership skills through her integrity, honesty, initiative, and sincere compassion for the residents she services. When interacting with the residents, her consistently gentle patient, bedside manner is notable. She approaches her duties and responsibilities as well as those of her co-workers. Whether putting out fires or responding to a resident in need of emergency care, Jodi remains calm and cool headed. She leads by example and is sincerely dedicated to her work and has earned the respect of her superiors, peers and residents of Excelsior Place.
Inspire – What inspires you to serve older adults? Is there a mentor or fellow caregiver who motivates or helps you? What keeps you going on tough days?
“I like taking care of the residents. It’s something I enjoy doing because I want to make their last years as special as possible.
I am motivated by working together with the staff to help the residents with their daily needs. At the end of the day I appreciate the residents telling me how much they love me and how thankful they are for the care that I give them.”
Serve – What does a career serving older adults mean to you? What is the most meaningful or rewarding part of your job? The most challenging?
“1.–It encourages me to keep changing lives.
2.–The most rewarding part of my job is leaving at the end of the day knowing I have done my best in helping the residents with their needs and making them smile.
3.–When a resident comes and asks for me to fix a situation that I have no control over.”
Advocate – What do you advocate for? What do you want public policy makers to know about the work you do?
“I would advocate for more assistance for the elderly.
My job is a rewarding job and elderly people need the proper care and encouragement”
Jodi is an inspiration to many and we absolutely love having her on our team. Congratulations Jodi!
Roman Bloemke, Director of Operations
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