Partnership between Schlegel Villages and academic community expands
Kristian Partington

The year 2011 winds to a close at Schlegel Villages with the latest announcement of a new facility to complement the growing organization’s reach into the long-term care sector still vibrating in Windsor.

On Dec. 9, chairman Ron Schlegel was on site at the city’s St. Clair College campus with college president Dr. John Strasser to announce that construction of a new, 256-bed village will begin there in April.

It’s the latest announcement of ongoing partnerships between the academic community and the long-term care and retirement provider, following on the heels of a similar announcement in August.

“It’s an exciting time for our organization,” president Jamie Schlegel tells the Village Voice.

“We’re moving forward actively on so many fronts right now and it’s a unique time for us to really make an impact.”

Exciting opportunities are emerging, he says, because of the commitment of the entire team to the vision of a social model of living, and the new Windsor village will be an extension of that.

Research and program development will carry on the new “living classroom,” Jamie says, and he’s especially excited by the deep connections he envisions between the future residents of the village and their neighbours in the college community.

The partnership between St. Clair College and Schlegel Villages, like similar existing partnerships in Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo, are key symbols of the vision of the company to lead a new approach to elder care.

“It’s very much by design that we see a significant opportunity to advance our organization-wide initiatives by partnering with St. Clair College in Windsor,” Jamie says.

The work happening at the “north campus” — the new project in Kitchener-Waterloo in partnership with the University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging (RIA) and Conestoga College — will continue to have a strong focus on research and education, whereas the new Windsor site will concentrate more on the application of new innovations.

All of this caps off an exciting year, Jamie says; one in which significant progress has been made in the organizational transformation underway at Schlegel Villages and the growth happening to complement that work.

If you have questions or comments, please contact 800-294-0051, ext. 24, or e-mail kristian(at)axiomnews.ca.