When Sarah Harris spoke about the idea of meaningful and active engagement during a panel discussion to launch the Schlegel Villages Innovations in Engagement Day May 22, she spoke of her passion for tennis.
She grew up playing the sport competitively, including during her time at university. It’s a passion she shares with her father, and she spoke fondly of the matches she played against him over the years. When she began working as the Program for Active Living Coordinator with The Village at University Gates, she met someone else who shared her love of the sport.
Phil is a resident who has always taken an active role in all aspects of Village Life. The advancements of Parkinson’s disease and the many varied symptoms it presents doesn’t seem to slow him down. Not long after she met Phil, she learned he was also a devoted tennis player, though he hadn’t held his racquet since 2016.
“Phil never turns down exercise,” Sarah explained. “He does everything – he also has advanced Parkinson’s and a lot of people are afraid of the risk of falls, but we started playing tennis together.”
In anything in life, there is an acceptable level of risk, and Phil’s love of tennis and the pleasure playing brings him is balanced with an understanding of his true ability, beyond the symptoms of his illness.
Through a bit of creativity, they found a way to safely play in the fitness centre where Phil can use the parallel bars for added stability, and it doesn’t slow him down.
Sarah said his volley return is as fast as a bullet, but Phil passes credit to her when later asked about their weekly matches.
“It took Sarah's inspiration to have me use the parallel bars as a steady base,” he says, “and that gave me the ability to volley with full speed and not worry about falling, despite my Parkinson’s.”
“I really look forward to my weekly tennis with Phil,” Sarah said during the panel talk; she was almost emotional as she finished her story, thinking of her father and how Phil once told her he wishes he could have played against his own father.
“If my dad ever lives in a place like University Gates,” Sarah said, “I hope there is someone who will play tennis with him.”
Truly meaningful engagement is about finding what matters to someone and creating space for that aspect of life to come into being. Being a part of that for those she serves is why Sarah says she loves her job.
When more than 100 people connected to Schlegel Villages gathered for a day of discussion around the concept of innovation in the realm of meaningful and active engagement among team members and residents, who better to hear from than residents and direct care partners. Sarah’s story about Phil resonated deeply.
The panel also included Marilyn Wax, who has lived at Arbour Trails for nearly a decade, and Anneke Hann, a resident from Riverside Glen. They spoke of welcoming others to the Village and helping guide new neighbours through the various aspects of Village life.
Anneke says her goal is to make someone laugh at least once a day.
“Engagement is so much more than the programs on the calendar and it’s not about keeping residents busy,” said Schlegel Villages’ Director of Innovation, Improvement and Research Lora Bruyn-Martin in her welcoming remarks. She pointed out that authentic engagement occurs naturally and taps into key domains of well being, such as identity and connectedness.
For Serena Lynn, a PSW from the Village of Riverside Glen who also shared insights on the panel, engagement follows a period of trust-building between team member and resident.
“It starts by letting them know they are safe, loved, heard and understood,” Serena said. “It’s mostly letting them know that you are with them.”
Such engagement opportunities arise when one genuinely listens in order to learn about each person as an individual, said Kimberley Beckwith, a team member who discovered working at Wentworth Heights after a 30-year career in social services.
She couldn’t happier having chosen this work over possible retirement.
“Learning things from the residents enriches my life,” she said, “and my husband’s life . . . and my granddaughter’s life because she comes to the village and she doesn’t have elders in her life.”
Her granddaughter recently told her that “you make the most of every moment,” Kimberley told the audience, and that, from the words of a younger person, is the essence of naturally engaging with others in the most meaningful of ways.
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