Since the founding meeting of Care Companions in Oct., the club has been hard at work creating a partnership with a local memory care facility, English Rose Suites. The club has sent out surveys to the residents in hopes to begin creating playlists for them soon.
Care Companions co-president senior Tina Benyam said she kickstarted the connection by calling English Rose Suites early in the school year.
“It started when I cold-called them in September and I spoke to one of their event coordinators,” Benyam said. “We were on the phone for a while just planning everything and how it would work out and she said that we should talk to a woman named Jolynn (Ericksen), so me and (co-president) Anisa (Kahin) went over to one of their locations and we had a meeting and planned everything out and then past that it’s been a partnership.”
Jolynn Ericksen, director of team member development at English Rose, said she’s looking forward to seeing these playlists benefit the residents’ lives.
“We are a smaller company, we only have, right now, around 30 residents (and) we’ve turned in six of the surveys, so we’re just excited to get more of those turned in and have all 30 of the residents benefit from those playlists,” Ericksen said. “We play music almost 24/7 throughout the home, even for someone to relax in the evening when they’re getting ready for bed, so the playlists and whatnot will definitely be used regularly for each resident.”
According to Care Companions and National Honor Society (NHS) advisor Lindsey Meyer, the club is a unique organization where NHS students can branch out into the community while getting volunteer hours.
“Hearing these leaders talk about other opportunities with memory care is really exciting,” Meyer said. “The playlists are such a great opportunity for students who like music and who want volunteer opportunities that are on their own schedule, but I also think it’s great to have partnerships with community organizations and to try to get students into more volunteer opportunities.”
Ericksen and English Rose representative Heidi Swenson visited the club during their meeting on Dec. 16. Ericksen said this is one way for them to get to know the people who will be associating with their residents.
“We do like to connect with our groups, our volunteers, and make sure that we’re also giving them an acknowledgment,” Ericksen said. “Social media is a great platform for that because it helps on their end of things, giving them the acknowledgment there too. Then also for us, so people know what volunteers are coming into English Rose as well.”
According to Meyer, the biggest difficulty within the club so far is asking students to leave class for club meetings. However, she said typical club scheduling difficulties are one reason why Care Companions’s flexible schedule is an easier way for students to get involved.
“For all clubs, meeting times are difficult,” Meyer said. “Basically you either have to miss class or you have to miss Park Connections time. A lot of our students are in PSEO, so those would be the biggest challenges. The good news about Care Companions is that it’s all done outside of class. Students can do their volunteering hours on their own schedule and their own time, which is really convenient.”
Benyam said she hopes that the future of Care Companions includes more attended meetings, new leaders and wider connections.
“I hope we get more participants,” Benyam said. “I hope we get some leadership roles to carry it on in the future because Anisa and I won’t be here next year and I want it to grow bigger, maybe even outside the school, a community-wide thing.”
Future Care Companions club meeting times will be announced on their Instagram page, @carecompanionsnetworkslp.
