This article is sponsored by Linked Senior. In this Voices interview, Senior Housing News sits down with Charles de Vilmorin, CEO and Co-Founder of Linked Senior, to learn how he and his team are changing the experience of aging. He talks about some of the movements they have created, such as the “Old People Are Cool” initiative and “#ActivitiesStrong.” He also provides an outlook on resident engagement in senior living and offers words of advice to help providers best prepare for the future.
Senior Housing News: What career experiences do you most draw from in your role today?
Charles de Vilmorin: The ongoing experience I most draw from is seeing activity directors show up to work every day. Their work is incredible, and they define the senior living industry: imagine what the pandemic would have been like without them. They are simply amazing people, and I am driven to make a difference in this industry because of their passion, dedication, and energy. That is why I became an activity director myself when I started Linked Senior. This gave me an opportunity to learn what they do day in and day out, and that perspective has shaped how we operate today.
You and your team started the Old People Are Cool Initiative five years ago. What drove you to do that, and how’s it going today?
It was a very serendipitous event. I was walking through a university campus and encountered a piece of graffiti that read “Old People Are Cool,” I instantly loved the message. I printed it as a sticker and started giving them out at trade shows where people were literally pulling my arm to get one. I knew we had something big, so we doubled down on the campaign.
The “why” behind it is that we’re not big fans of segregation based on age. We think everybody is cool including old people. There’s something to be said about the idea of reclaiming the word “old.” It has some deficiency built into it, which is not cool, and we need to own it because it’s an amazing word. Aging is beautiful, and that beauty grows until the very last second of a person’s life. So, we need to own that.
Even my four-year-old has an “Old People Are Cool,” t-shirt, and he wears it around the grocery store where people will ask him about it and make positive comments. The essence of the campaign is that we haven’t had a loud enough conversation about the beauty of aging, and we need to disrupt that.
The campaign has been awesome so far. We’ve distributed over 50,000 stickers and engaged in tons of creative, fun and unique conversations about age and our society. We continue to donate hundreds of dollars every month using revenue from the campaign’s webstore. It’s amazing to see the response, and the initiative has made its way to the international stage.
Can you tell us more about #ActivitiesStrong and its origins?
We believe the world becomes a better place each time an activity director is born.
Historically, the senior living industry has not been great at respecting and valuing activity professionals. When the pandemic started, we searched for anything we could do to give back and support the profession. We wanted to acknowledge, educate and empower these amazing professionals. We’ve been hosting #ActivitiesStrong webinars and more than 40,000 people have registered to participate over the past three years. Again, it’s all about giving back and supporting this essential element of senior living that has long been overlooked.
You founded Linked Senior fifteen years ago. What was your motivation at the time, and what do you believe the future holds for the organization?
My motivation was to change the experience of aging, especially for the most vulnerable. I was very fortunate to be close to older members of my family, and because of my thesis at Georgetown, I spent a lot of time in senior living communities around D.C. At the time, I saw residents experiencing boredom and thought to myself, “This sucks, we can do better.” Purpose is a basic human right and residents are often deprived of it.
The question then became, “How can we empower these activity professionals to elevate engagement?” Most of our industry is good at clinical, but there is a massive opportunity to elevate that social element. That was 15 years ago, and we have made amazing progress – and yet there is so much more to come!
Where do you see resident engagement for Senior Living going in the next 5-10 years?
You cannot skip resident engagement, it’s not a side dish, it is the entrée.
The social prescription model is the future: Purpose is the goal; resident engagement is the delivery method. Senior living providers need to operate with a social-first mentality, and engagement simply needs to be managed as a core business component. If you don’t believe in that, then you’re missing out. Family members want two things: Safety and engagement. Most providers are already making that promise to their residents and families through their marketing. You need to deliver on that promise. The way to achieve this is simply to implement the social prescription model.
As you work with providers, what feedback do you enjoy hearing the most?
When you first start a company, you get a whole lot of nos. So, the No.1 thing I like to hear is that people are listening and wanting to improve. That’s just amazing. I feel very humbled for where I am, and I love what I do. We touch more than 50,000 lives today and we’re growing strong. That’s just incredible and I am deeply thankful to my team, partners and anyone that has listened to me.
The industry is imperfect because it’s a people industry, and people are imperfect by default. When we work with providers, there’s always a deep desire to improve, but each provider operates differently. What we share, however, is this passion to elevate engagement, and optimize quality of life and business drivers. I love to hear my clients say, “Thank you, Linked Senior, you have me loving my job again.” For me, that is simply the best.
Finish this sentence: “The top strategy that home-based care providers should employ in 2022 to best prepare for 2023 is…”
Build their roadmap to implement the social prescription model.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Linked Senior helps staff provide opportunities for social engagement by providing technology that staff can use to understand how to plan programs based around common preferences expressed by residents. To learn more, visit linkedsenior.com/resident-engagement-for-senior-living/.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].