Dear Friends and Neighbors,

After living nearly eight years of my life in senior living facilities, working to turn struggling properties on the brink of foreclosure into vibrant, successful communities, I am excited to finally come back home to St. Charles County to assist New Covenant Health Care, LLC in developing The Meadowlands.

Over the past 8 years, I have watched many properties struggle and I’ve seen a common pattern that explains their vacancy. At first glance, one would assume the reason they’re having problems is obvious – the physical plant is old, the furnishings are torn, and the carpet is faded. Upon further inspection, however, I began to see more troubling signs. The person at the front desk is apathetic, at best, and the few residents that I would see in the deserted shell of a facility looked unhappy, alone, and bored. These communities were not just vacant in numbers, but vacant in passion and lacking “soul.”

Many communities our group has worked with haven’t been the newest or brightest, but we have nonetheless changed their destiny and created a positive outcome by igniting a passion from within – by enriching the lives of the people that live and work within those communities. It’s not just about having food, services and activities available. It’s about creative innovation and human enrichment – changing the culture, not just the carpet.

This understanding comes from years of experience, observation, and creative problem-solving. Everything we have learned operationally on how to manage and operate successful senior living communities, we have learned from the process of turning around those that are struggling. Our approach is holistic – we know there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for something as complex as a group of people. That’s why the key to our success has been to do more than move people in by selling them on real estate and services; we help them navigate through the complex terrain of making a decision. We have to be flexible and creative in our ability to problem solve so that the needs and desires of the seniors are being achieved – whether that means a move into our community or some other alternative. By truly listening to what someone has to say, by working through the solutions and helping that person achieve what is important to them, we will naturally have a success.

We have employed this same model of holistic problem-solving, flexibility, and tailoring solutions to help create a quality, innovative senior living community in The Meadowlands. While we are fortunate to have the most up-to-date design and furnishings, our top priority is building that sense of innovation and community that is so essential to the success of the building overall.

The Meadowlands is an opportunity to take the best and most innovative practices available and put those into action from the start. From my days at school in the Francis Howell School District, I have been given so many opportunities. I feel that building a sense of community for seniors to thrive in my community is the best way for me to give back.

Sincerely,

Stephanie R. Harris, Esq.