Elders are Resources

When a relative moved into the Community Cares facility in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, we decided to use the internet to find out more about her new home. We watched a television spot about the organization and were impressed by their description of a center that considered the residents' thoughts, skills, abilities to be the its greatest resource. The center has an on-site child daycare center where multiple generations can get to know each other. They go out into the community often and there are several animals that live at the facility.

The director of the non-profit organization said that they followed the  Eden Alternative model. When we looked at their website, we were impressed with their 10 principles. Here are some of them:

An Elder-centered community commits to creating a human habitat where life revolves around close and continuing contact with plants, animals, and children. Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.

An Elder-centered community honors its Elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decision-making authority into the hands of the Elders or into the hands of those closest to them.

Creating an Elder-centered community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.

http://ccrconline.org/about-ccrc-2/

http://www.edenalt.org