New senior housing development could become one of country’s few LEED-Certified Communities
SHOREVIEW, MN, June 17, 2008 — http://www.ecumen.org – Aging services provider Ecumen, one of the country’s largest non-profit senior housing companies, is developing a green senior housing for North Country Health services in Bemidji, Minn. It is seeking to be one of the country’s few LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) senior housing developments.
The $20 million senior housing development, to be owned by North Country Health Services and developed by Ecumen, is being built using environmentally friendly or “green” features and methods. For example, underground parking will lessen impervious surface space and reduce water use, lighting features will prevent light and energy waste, and many construction materials will be harvested locally.
North Country Health Services and Ecumen plan to submit the project for third-party LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the United States Green Building Council.
“Three words stood out as we began to shape this project – mission, vibrancy and sustainability,” said Jim Hanko, president and CEO of North Country Health Services. “The new housing will complement our mission of assuring a lifetime continuum of quality healthcare services, it will be a vibrant community that allows people to live in Bemidji for a lifetime, and it will help sustain natural resources that we all share.”
Latest whitepaper divulges 10 questions designed to ensure senior housing providers partner with the right management partners
SHOREVIEW, MN - May 8, 2008– http://www.ecumen.org – Aging services provider Ecumen, one of America’s largest non-profit senior housing companies, is helping senior housing owners, who are thinking of hiring a management firm, with the release of its latest whitepaper designed to help create the best possible partnerships.
Ecumen’s latest whitepaper drives to help guide senior housing providers live up to and crate a home where elder adults will want to live rather than have to live there. Much of the advice offered in this latest whitepaper will help owners ask the right questions when it comes to selecting the right management partner.
The full version of this press release can be found on the Changing Aging Blog.
Senior housing, fully integrated with a suite of onsite assisted living services, to support independent living and serve as a model for other churches and communities.
Sandpoint, ID (PRWEB) November 15, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org - Aging services provider Ecumen, one of the country’s largest non-profit senior housing companies, has collaborated with First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint and other Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) partners to break ground on Idaho’s first catered living senior housing development in Sandpoint, Idaho. Luther Park at Sandpoint will be physically connected to First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint and will open in November of 2008.
Catered living communities by Ecumen integrate senior housing focused on independent living with a suite of on site assisted living services. The catered living design focuses on promoting successful aging by enabling seniors to stay as independent as possible in a community they love even when they need assisted living services or memory care.
The senior housing development Luther Park is a multi-dimensional collaboration of Ecumen and its partners within the ELCA. First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint is the owner while Ecumen will develop and manage. The development’s primary lender is the Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA, with additional financing being provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
Tips developed via Ecumen’s real world experience provide organizations developing senior housing a strategic path towards achieving their development goals.
Shoreview, MN (PRWEB) September 21, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org — Aging services provider Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, is helping firms or individuals who are considering taking on a senior housing development project to think through key initial steps before they make an investment decision. The non-profit has released a new whitepaper featuring key development tips.
Senior Housing Development Tips: Key Things to Consider Before Entering Into The Senior Housing Market was written on Ecumen’s behalf by journalist Frank Jossi. In it, Jossi articulates the dramatic need for more senior housing in many communities while underscoring necessary steps toward creating a successful community.
The whitepaper is based on Ecumen’s experience acquired through their own senior housing development projects with partners Pope Associates Inc., a leading architectural firm, and Adolfson & Peterson Construction. Together, they have worked on a number of senior housing developments, including The Villages of North Branch in North Branch, MN, and they will break ground on September 30 on Luther Park of Sandpoint in Sandpoint, ID, which will create a unique “catered living” community managed by Ecumen that combines independent living and assisted living services and which is physically connected to First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint.
Third straight bestowment for Ecumen, named as one of the state’s top ten large companies by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
Shoreview, MN (PRWeb) September 5, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org - Aging services provider Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, has yet again received the sought after tribute of being named by its employees as one of the best places in the state to work.
The award, presented by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, was based on anonymous team member surveys. Ecumen team members all contributed to the glowing results, from areas of focus ranging from elder care, senior housing and housing development.
“More than 200 companies vied for this award, and we are again honored and thrilled to be recognized,” said Ecumen’s CEO and president Kathryn Roberts.
The survey sought ratings on several topics such as work environment, embrace of innovations and new ideas and opportunity for personal growth and development.
Specific highlights in the article included Ecumen’s employee-run Innovation Station and Ecumen’s Family Helping Family initiative, providing interest-free loans to employees facing household and family emergencies. In 2006, more than $175,000 was granted for a number of events from house fires to paying for funerals. Many employees donate to this fund through payroll deduction.
The age wave presents new community planning and development opportunities for American cities
Shoreview, MN (PRWEB) August 24, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org - Aging services provider Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, is encouraging cities to embrace strategies of creating livable communities for all ages as the United States faces an unprecedented demographic shift.
Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen’s CEO & president, described this strategy in her editorial piece “The Age Wave, Successful Aging and Liveable Communities” published August 10th in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It looks at how the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul need to prepare for a much older population.
“The Twin Cities area, like other communities nationwide, has an unprecedented opportunity to create communities that promote successful aging,” states Roberts.
Where the challenge, and opportunity, lies in the age wave, as articulated by Minnesota state demographer Tom Gillaspy, is that our population is aging in record numbers.
“These things usually creep along at the speed of a glacier,” states Gillaspy. “Not so with aging. In demographic terms, this is a tsunami.”
The Villages of North Branch transforms traditional nursing home into a community people are proud to call home.
Shoreview, MN (PRWEB) August 7, 2007 — Aging services provider Ecumen (http://www.ecumen.org), Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, is working to transform long-term care with the opening of the senior living community, The Villages of North Branch in North Branch, Minn. The new senior housing community is an example of how communities can meet growing assisted living and care needs.
The Villages of North Branch, a $22 million development, replaces a 1950s-style county-operated nursing home and departs from the traditional nursing home model. Institutional hallways are replaced by small neighborhoods and it features technology to help seniors live as independently as possible. The Villages of North Branch is senior housing that is designed to be an integral part of the larger community, with its café, chapel and meeting rooms open for use by community groups.
“Aging is all about living, even at the very end of life,” said Leah Killian-Smith, who is the Ecumen leader at The Villages of North Branch. “We’re eliminating the institutionalism and isolation that assisted living can sometimes be known for, by connecting people to each other and promoting vital, successful aging.”
Since March, Ecumen’s “Changing Aging” blog has grown as a forum where writers and users impart ideas that are changing aging for the better
Shoreview, MN (PRWEB) July 26, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org - Aging services provider Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, has been changing the way Americans, especially those in the aging baby boomer population and long-term care professions, are looking at aging.
Since its debut in March, Ecumen’s “Changing Aging” blog, billed as “A Place to Share & Discuss Ideas, News, Innovations & Opinions That Are Changing Aging” has enlightened its readers with targeted posts on such vital topics as long-term care and senior housing technology.
By existing as an enjoyable forum dedicated to changing aging for the better, Ecumen’s blog has attracted an exponentially increasing number of loyal subscribers, particularly among those who will soon be the most affected by the changing aging landscape, America’s aging baby boomer population.
“Aging is fascinating because we all do it,” states Eric Schubert, Ecumen’s Director of Communications. “But aging has so long been viewed as a problem, when it fact, it is an unprecedented opportunity.”
Nationwide senior housing projects get easier with formation of new development partnership
Shoreview, MN (PRWEB) June 18, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org - Aging services provider Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, has expanded with the launch of its senior housing development partnership TEAM Ecumen.
Collaborating with Ecumen in this endeavor are Minneapolis-based Adolfson & Peterson Construction, who will serve as general contractor on Ecumen-led projects, and St. Paul-based Pope Associates, who will be the lead architect.
“This partnership is focused on creating senior housing that enhances the larger community,” says Steve Ordahl, senior vice president of business development services for Ecumen. “This partnership dramatically simplifies the senior housing development process for our clients.”
An early senior housing project by Ecumen, already in progress, is in Sandpoint, Idaho, which was recently named one of the country’s Top 10 Retirement Spots by U.S. News & World Report. Being developed in partnership with the First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint, the Luther Park at Sandpoint senior housing development will include independent and assisted living and be physically connected to the church.
Senior living leader Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non profit senior housing company, today released their Age Wave Study detailing mass findings on Minnesota baby boomers’ views on aging as it relates to public policy, housing, technology, independence and more.
SHOREVIEW, MN (PRWeb) February 20th, 2007 — http://www.ecumen.org — Ecumen, Minnesota’s largest non-profit senior housing company, today released their Age Wave Study, the largest ever conducted of Minnesota baby boomers and their views on longevity, images of aging, technology, independence, housing and more.
Among the multitude of findings are that Minnesota baby boomers (age 42-60) want more public policy, personal finance and technological options to help them maintain independence and stay in their own home even if it means raising their taxes.
The Ecumen Age Wave study, conducted by Decision Resources Inc. for Ecumen, notes that 0 percent of baby boomers said they want to live in a nursing home - even if they or a spouse have a debilitating illness. The vast majority, 89%, wants to live at home, and nine out of ten baby boomers anticipate that technology will help them live longer and more independently, with over half of baby boomers saying they’ll pay $100 per month for digital health technology and five percent saying they’ll spend $500 per month. Nearly nine out of 10 (87%) support state funding for a research center to develop digital health technology to help people stay independent.
