Carriage Court Senior Living Shows Their Colors During Pride Month

In celebration of Pride Month this June, Arrow Senior Living is looking at The Pride

Flag, a symbol that is a representation of the forward movements to support and celebrate those in the LGBTQIA+ community. This important piece of the community has a meaning that is described by the colors included.

Red represents life and passion among many cultures. Orange represents healing, fun, and celebration. Yellow is a symbol for sunlight and is said to stimulate new ideas and thoughts. Green is synonymous with nature, a healing place, also associated with prosperity and growth. Blue represents serenity and calmness. Purple is the color of spirit, thought to connect us to the spiritual realm.

At Carriage Court Senior Living Hilliard, OH, we feel most connected to purple. Our residents have such a unique spirit, and they love to welcome new people into the community. We love to laugh, tell stories, and share fun moments amongst our residents and staff. We believe in the power of a chuckle! We find that approaching each new day with an open heart makes life so much more enjoyable.

As Resident Services Director, I believe that taking the time to listen and support our residents directly affects their health and well-being. I want to make sure that we host events that include all people based on their likes and dislikes. I also take each resident’s personal history into account when I am planning events. This allows our residents to continue to enjoy the things that they love, which in turn helps to keep them happy. We never want our residents to stop enjoying life and living it to the fullest each day.

In our community, we know that each of our residents have come from different lifestyles and backgrounds. As such, we work to maintain that diverse culture across both residents and staff with targeted programming and staff education efforts. Arrow Senior Living has launched a resident-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) speaker series for employee and resident education. Residents interview speakers who represent some of the relevant topics of the day related to diversity, equity, and inclusion ranging from non-binary people and use of pronouns to Juneteenth history. Through our tradition’s council, which coordinates core resident and employee cultural celebrations and education, we work actively to celebrate diversity within our community. This has created a means for residents and employees to join in recognition of each other. The road ahead is to ensure that diversity and inclusion is not just an initiative. Moving forward requires necessary conversations to address discomfort and to open dialogue on important perspectives. This helps to ensure that we are providing not only an enjoyable place to

retire, but one where seniors can feel enriched, safe, and excited about life!