Mom lived in the same home for almost 50 years. After my father passed away, she chose to move to IVBV. It was a difficult time and we weren’t without trepidation regarding such a complete change in living arrangements. That was four years ago. From our first introduction to staff in 2017 to today, they have been nothing but kind, caring, thoughtful and genuine. Mom has flourished in the enriched environment. Socialization with residents and staff is so important and there are many activities and points of contact to ensure engagement and connection. The layout of her apartment provides all the amenities of home and more. No stairs for laundry, the dinner meal served restaurant style, housekeeping every two weeks (they are wonderful not only in keeping apartments clean, but also play a key role in social connections and interactions), sheets and towels laundered weekly, very attentive maintenance staff (who go above and beyond) and top notch life enrichment team (planning more social, educational and fun events than she could ever attend). There are also formal forums, allowing voices to be heard, creation of norms and empowering residents to effect change in how they would like to live in their community. They’ve also taken time to meet with me personally to hear my feedback and have acted upon on it. Also, they invest time and money to maintain the personal and public living spaces. I so appreciate this. They maintain the grounds outside, painting, planting seasonal flowers, putting up holiday decorations and more. As we all know, this past year has been a challenge with the pandemic and I really appreciated all the steps taken to ensure the safety of the residents and staff. Administration did a good job communicating with residents and family regarding status updates and changes in policy. They were creative in finding ways to keep residents engaged through those isolating times. I trusted them wholeheartedly. As for areas of improvement, food is at the top of the list. I appreciate how hard it is to cook for so many, all with differing needs and tastes. For example, some want vegetables soft and some with a crunch. Not sure how this can be rectified. The menu offers many choices, although some dishes are hit or miss. They work hard to find good people to manage the kitchen in a profession that has rapid turnover (making it difficult to have consistency.) I do appreciate that they listen to residents and make changes when they can. For instance, they now offer brewed ice tea when they didn’t before. In the past, they’ve featured a resident recipe and that was a huge hit. Gives the residents a little taste of home and comfort of fond memories. Not sure how many meals are made from scratch vs. prepared foods. Looking back, the decision to move to IVBV was a very good one and would make it again and again. The safety, security, amenities, love and care allow me to sleep peacefully at night knowing my mom has the best support available while allowing her to maintain independence, dignity and respect.

My family has been very happy with Independance Village. We felt it was a friendly, active, clean environment. The culture of the staff is warm from the housekeepers to the director. My father was extremely reluctant to leave his home but soon realized he had a nice new place to call home. He loved the food and we were impressed by the variety and choices. The activities were creative- he especially loved the on site car show and “field trips”. Our only regret was that he didn’t move there sooner.