Trinity Senior Services is building on its momentum in 2024 with a newly relaunched management company and plans to grow.

Trinity Senior Services is a new management company formalized earlier this year to unify the management of four communities and support several programs and entities in parts of southeast Wisconsin. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based organization’s footprint includes 500 apartments of senior and student housing, an organic farm in southeast Wisconsin and a care partners program that provides transportation and maintenance services.

The organization’s communities include the Milwaukee Catholic Home, a 275-unit community founded in 1913; and the 142-unit Trinity Woods, which opened in 2021 and has a small student housing wing in addition to units for older adults. Both communities offer daycare services and serve around 100 children.

The organization previously managed its communities through an internal-facing management company called MCH Management Services, according to CEO Dave Fulcher. By creating Trinity Senior Services in June, the organization is unifying its management services under one banner.

“We’ve grown dramatically over the last three years,” Fulcher told Senior Housing News. “We’re better together under one name, Trinity Senior Services.”

Mixing generations has been part of Trinity Senior Services strategy since the organization opened Trinity Woods. The community – the result of a partnership among Mount Mary University, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and Milwaukee Catholic Home – houses older adults in addition to retired nuns and university students who are single mothers with children under the age of 12.

Fulcher said the idea came to fruition from retired School Sisters of Notre Dame at Mount Mary University. That factors into the company’s holistic approach to care, known as “A Life Engaged,” which focuses on social, physical, nutritional, spiritual and cognitive components.

“We want people to live meaningful and purposeful lives, no matter where they are in their life journey,” Fulcher said. “We want to provide those opportunities for those folks as they age in our campuses, but also provide meaningful experiences when people still live in the community and just want to be a part of our organization.”

One example of that philosophy in motion took the form of a trip in which 41 residents traveled to Ireland.

Regarding operations, this year is better than last, Fulcher said. Still, occupancy for the management company’s independent living units at its life plan community, Milwaukee Catholic Home, is “a little soft” at around 87%. Assisted living at the community is fully occupied and the skilled nursing beds are 93% occupied, though that is by design so the community can maintain flexibility, Fulcher said.

“The market and how people look at services has changed,” Fulcher said. “So we’ve been adjusting how we provide services to our independent residents to adjust to what the market is asking us to do.”

For example, the company is providing services that help residents age in place. The organization provides up to 28 hours per week of individualized services for older adults through a team of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and nurses. 

As a whole, the management company has also been able to have an easier time hiring CNAs in the current labor market. It offers a CNA certification program, which has seen 135 people go through, and the majority stayed with the company, according to Fulcher. The program has had an impact on reducing turnover.

Trinity Senior Services is looking to pick up additional management contracts in the months ahead, Fulcher said. The company is also in the talks for developing a new campus, though Fulcher said that is still a minimum of two years out.

“We’re looking at all options,” Fulcher said. “In particular, we might be looking at additional management contracts for existing operations, or doing management services for ground up. Lastly, we would be looking to build from ground up a more unique experiential community.”