Five years. Five strategic imperatives Our commitment to ...€¦ · Five strategic imperatives. Our commitment to excellence. Leadership’s role in strategic planning While our

Five years.Five strategic imperatives.

Our commitment to excellence.

Silvera’s Business Plan 2018-2022


A message from Arlene Adamson (CEO) and Kelly Ogle (Chair of the Board of Directors)

Now that we have entered 2018, the Silvera team has much to be proud of, and more is yet to come!

Our organization continues to deliver quality, safe, affordable

housing and services to Calgary seniors. We have more than 1,500 people who call Silvera their home.

We have been committed to this work since the 1960s and, as the population ages and more seniors need affordable housing and support services, Silvera will continue to respond as a leader.

We have exciting plans for continued excellence and future growth. We know the demand for more affordable housing is growing and we need to look forward to advancing our plans and being the housing choice for low- and modest-income seniors in Calgary.

Employees’ contribution of excellence

We are very proud of our team. Silvera’s senior leadership and Board of Directors appreciates their hard work and dedication to residents.

Our employees are focused on continuously improving and bringing innovation and heart to efforts to support residents so they can live with dignity and age successfully in Silvera communities.

Because of our employees, Silvera is a leader in the affordable seniors housing and services sector. Every day, they achieve high standards in service commitment and demonstrate genuine compassion for people.

What employees do goes well beyond housing and services. In all their interactions, employees live our values and honour people who want to have pride in their Silvera homes.

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Five years. Five strategic imperatives. Our commitment to excellence.

Leadership’s role in strategic planning

While our employee teams deliver on the day-to-day work, our senior leadership and Board of Directors have developed long-term plans to ensure we are prepared for the future. We want to be sure you know Silvera has clear, focused priorities for continuing to:

• develop our services so seniors can live fully and age successfully with us;

• build new communities so we can meet increasing demand;

• invest in and support our employees so we can be an employer of choice;

• ensure we manage our finances wisely; and

• build on trusted relationships with our partners.

We have worked diligently on our strategic planning. We remain committed

to continuous improvement and to regularly measuring our progress towards annual targets. By doing so, Silvera’s Board of Directors, senior leadership and employees evaluate the ongoing health of the organization and the steps forward we are taking.

This booklet outlines our priorities – we call them our strategic imperatives – and will help you learn more about our goals, action steps and expected outcomes.

Taken together, all of these guide us as we house and serve people in their “Silver Era”.

We want to be sure you know Silvera has clear, focused priorities.

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Affordable seniors housing challenges in Alberta and Calgary

Today, roughly one in ten people in Alberta is 65 or older. Twenty-five years from now it will be one in five.

Most of the growth in Calgary’s seniors population to 2026 is forecast to occur in the bracket of people who are now 65 to 75 years old. During the ten years that follow, the number of people in the 85-and-over bracket will increase four-fold.

People will live longer and face more complex health and social needs than previous generations. As a result, our province will be dealing with myriad major social and financial challenges related to the aging population.

The low income level of many of these older adults is a concern. According to the 2011 National Household Survey, the median after-tax income for Calgary seniors was $25,487. Eight per cent of seniors were considered low income. This situation remains essentially unchanged.

Construction of new affordable seniors housing and the provision of services continues to fall short of the current demand – let alone future needs. At the end of 2017, Silvera had more than 313 people on our wait list.

Alberta needs to build more affordable housing for seniors. By 2031, Alberta will need to construct a staggering 50,000 new housing units for seniors. This implies an average annual build rate of 3,333 units.

The reality of a growing senior population with limited incomes combined with heightened service needs must also be balanced with increasing operational costs. The challenge will be to ensure adequate services are available now to serve those who are not being appropriately supported, and to plan for innovative and increased supports.

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Silvera’s responses to these challenges

Silvera can be counted on as a stable organization that is well-positioned to grow to meet Calgary’s mounting need for additional safe, affordable housing and services for seniors.

We will continue to deliver on the promise to provide affordable housing and the appropriate services to help seniors age in place. This will involve supporting seniors to manage the transition from self-contained units with basic supports to lodge communities with enhanced supports.

We cannot do it alone. We will achieve this working together with our government partners, funders, volunteers and employees.

Silvera’s teams will continue to manage this work wisely and make effective use of resources and community contributions. We will continue to work hard to be highly efficient and nimble as an organization,

and ensure the right team is in place to deliver on our plan.

A new provincial affordable housing strategy was created over the last year, and Silvera had a strong voice to advocate for the needs of our aging population. To contribute to this strategy, we will continue to advocate for more services, additional affordable housing, and greater support to ensure we can continue to attract the talent needed to achieve our mission.

Corporate profile and governance

Silvera for Seniors is a non-profit housing body established in 1962 by a Ministerial Order of the Government of Alberta to provide affordable housing and services to low- and modest-income seniors in Calgary.

Silvera’s has a Board of Directors whose volunteer members have a strategic mix of experience and skills to guide strategy and provide appropriate oversite to our organization.

The Board governs through policies and three standing committees: Governance, Capital Development, and Finance and Risk Management. These committees meet regularly to plan for the future of our organization.

Together, the Board, the CEO and the Leadership Team are accountable for Silvera’s business planning framework, which has a rolling time horizon of five years.

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Purpose

Values

Vision

To give seniors the respect they deserve and make it great to be a senior in Calgary.

Silvera will be a leading advocate and caring provider of affordable homes and services for seniors to live in place with dignity.

Service – Supporting residents’ wellbeing and quality of life

Respect – Honouring each other

Teamwork – Working proudly to become better together

Safety – Committing to the safety of residents and employees

Creating Homes – By helping residents feel welcomed and connected

Making a Difference – In a caring way

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The 2018-2022 Business Plan is founded on five strategic imperatives – “must-dos”. These are:

Support seniors to live fully and age successfully with Silvera

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Create dynamic communities

Build Silvera’s high-performance culture

Maintain financial discipline

Steward our trusted reputation

Six business goals

The strategic imperatives drive six core business goals. These are:

Silvera offers a continuum of services that supports quality of life and aging in community

Silvera creates integrated communities that support a range of services

Silvera is an employer of choice

Silvera is financially responsible and sustainable

Silvera is a recognized leader in the provision of services to seniors

Silvera has relevant, enduring and successful partnerships

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Five strategic imperatives

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Silvera has a strong history and reputation of delivering quality service to meet the need for safe and affordable housing for low- and modest-income seniors in Calgary.

Each day, we demonstrate our commitment to help seniors live fully and age successfully. We deliver quality dining with nutritious meals, build programs to support active aging and take great pride in ensuring our homes are safe and well maintained.

As we plan for the future, we will continue to evolve our services to respond to the changing needs of residents. As our population ages, there will be more people with increasingly complex health issues, including dementia, mental health challenges and chronic conditions that affect quality of life. We will continue to advance our active aging programs and resident support services in response.

Each year, we see our communities reflect the increasing diversity of our city’s population. To ensure every senior feels welcome in Silvera

communities, we will advance our service offerings to respect the growing range of cultures, languages and interests.

We will continue to support residents being fully engaged in their community, in part by assisting them with transitions to be in the right community at the right time with the right services.

Seniors need to feel a true sense of belonging and purpose. Our communities are people’s homes, where they can lead meaningful, active lives.

We will continue to advance our services to respond to changing needs.

Support seniors to live fully and age successfully with Silvera

Strategic Imperative

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Business Goal Expected Outcome

Silvera offers a continuum of service that supports quality of life and aging in community.

2018 – Building on our success

• We will advance our Strategic Service Development Plan to meet the complex needs seniors face as they age, and create diverse communities.

• We will continue to identify seniors’ needs and service requirements beyond legislated requirements.

• We will seek the funding necessary to address the gap in services, including Active Aging programs that promote independence.

• We will implement new processes and add resources to improve maintenance in our communities.

The right person in the right community with the right services.

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Silvera is committed to creating quality homes for seniors to age successfully. We work to make a meaningful contribution to help meet the needs of seniors for affordable housing and services.

As our population ages, the demand for affordable housing will continue to rise. More seniors will need options to live in communities where they can age in place.

This means Silvera must grow.

Silvera is committed to building more affordable housing in a way that envisions

integrated communities where seniors can live with more connections in the broader community. We foresee our communities as areas for Calgarians to connect, including multi-use spaces and retail services in our communities. This is in keeping the City of Calgary’s age-friendly strategy.

Silvera is also investing in our current communities. This is to ensure they remain relevant and dynamic spaces as well as support the services we offer.

We will advocate with government partners and donors to fund our plans to: build new communities, rejuvenate our existing housing and consider the repurposing of others for increasingly complex health and service needs.

Create dynamic communities


Demand for affordable housing will grow. Silvera must grow to help meet it.

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Silvera creates integrated communities that support the continuum of services.


• Our Strategic Capital Development Plan will advance our long-term vision of creating dynamic communities.

• We will continuously assess the viability of existing buildings and refurbish them to offer quality communities.

• At the same time, we will advance plans to construct new, campus-style communities that will combine self-contained units that have limited supports with communities that offer enhanced supports – dining services, weekly housekeeping and active aging programs.

• Specifically, we will push forward development of our Glamorgan project in the southwest quadrant of the city and our Gilchrist community in the northeast. We will also identify priority locations for future development.

More affordable housing is constructed and available for seniors in Calgary.

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The success of Silvera is directly linked to the quality of employees we attract and retain.

Calgary’s employment market has changed dramatically with the impact of our economic downturn, and in these challenging times, Silvera remains attractive as an employer.

Our ability to attract a skilled and caring workforce will continue to be a priority. Silvera must remain competitive in the market to attract top talent, and so we will continue to invest in you.

We will continue to empower and support our people to deliver high-quality work by ensuring they have the right resources to respond to the changing needs of residents. We will work on team building and employee wellness, and we will support career development and opportunities for growth within our organization.

Our employees are the heart of our culture that reflects compassion and a focus on delivering high quality service to residents every day.

We are proud to be viewed as a trusted leader in the seniors housing and services sector and as a great place to work by our employees.

Build Silvera’s high-performance culture


Employees are the heart of our culture – compassionate and focused on quality service.

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Silvera is an employer of choice.


• The Strategic Human Resources Plan is designed to attract, retain and engage people to embrace innovation and commitment to excellence.

• As part of this, we will maintain a total rewards package that provides employees with a competitive base pay and full benefits, including pension.

• We will build an employer-of-choice reputation in our recruitment and retention practices.

• We will invest in our employees with appropriate training to meet the many industry audits and compliance requirements.

• We will support development and recognize service, excellence and innovation to enhance employee satisfaction and foster a high-performance culture.

Silvera residents benefit from an engaged, stable, high-performing employee base.

Silvera’s 325+ employees are the heart of our culture.

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The recent economic downturn and resulting financial pressures in Alberta is a challenge to our sector, because we need government funding to ensure affordable housing and services for low- and modest-income seniors.

Demand for affordable seniors housing continues to build. Silvera is ready to build to help meet this demand.

The need for more and increasingly complex services is also adding pressure. It is vital that we continue to be mindful and prudent in our

spending. We must continue to be resourceful and wise as we continuously seek ways to be more efficient.

We must also continue to explore opportunities to develop new or alternative streams of revenue that will sustain our capability to serve our residents.

We will continue to work to keep increasing the level of philanthropic donations to support the plans we have to build new communities and enhance our services.

Maintain financial discipline


It is vital that we remain prudent in spending.

We must continue to find opportunities to diversify and increase our revenues.

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Silvera is financially responsible and sustainable.


• Silvera will continue to manage our short- and long -term financial strategy.

• As part of this, we will continue to use robust financial models to support planning and decision-making for community operations and capital investments.

• We will work to secure appropriate funding from the Government of Alberta to support resident services, the LAP grant subsidy and major capital development.

• We will work to secure appropriate funding from the City of Calgary to ensure they meet their legislated funding obligations to enable us to fully fund our operations.

• We will work to enhance IT systems that support our day-to-day operations.

• We will continue to enhance financial reporting to support all levels of our operations and ensure employees understand budgets and operate efficiently.

Appropriate reporting and advanced analysis to support decision-making.

Community leaders and corporations have made generous pledges through the collaborative RESOLVE campaign in support of Silvera’s planned new development in Glamorgan.

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Silvera is seen as a successful organization and a collaborative leader in the affordable seniors housing and service sector.

It is crucial for us to continue to work with our partners to deliver on our plans and maintain

quality relationships with our government partners, service providers and community supporters.

We will continue to advocate for the needs of seniors, raising awareness and attention to the need for more affordable housing and increased services that appropriately support older citizens to live with dignity.

We will identify opportunities for Calgarians to support our work by volunteering, donating and getting involved to champion for the needs of seniors.

We will work to increase awareness of our organization, including each of our communities, showing we are good neighbours. We will find more ways to enhance the experience our residents have with the broader community.

Steward our trusted reputation


Working with partners and building on our reputation, we will continue to advocate for seniors.

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Silvera is a recognized leader in the provision of services to seniors.


• Silvera will prepare a Business Development Strategy that incorporates the Strategic Capital Development Plan, the Service Development Plan, the Long-term Financial Strategy and the Human Resources Plan.

• We will develop a plan to engage stakeholders in the implementation of Silvera’s strategic plans.

There is pride in being a Silvera employee or resident.

Silvera raises awareness of our range of housing and service options in many ways, building on our reputation as a caring advocate for seniors.


Silvera has relevant, enduring and successful partnerships.

Silvera is a recognized leader in the senior services sector in Alberta.

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2017 key achievements

Service

• We made progress on our expanded service vision. This will make Silvera dementia-friendly and includes more active aging opportunities, quality transitions in and out of our communities, and increasing our responsiveness to mental health needs and resident feedback.

• We processed 709 new applications, conducted 576 tours, and welcomed 340 new seniors who now call Silvera home.

• We improved our placement practices, including making our application process simpler and the approach we take for tours more consistent and effective.

Capital Development

• We continued to improve our maintenance processes and team structure to help make our planning and responses to maintenance needs better in all buildings.

• We advanced plans to build Phase 2 of Gilchrist Gardens Community in northeast Calgary, subject to government approval and funding.

• We advanced plans for the new Glamorgan project beside Westview Community, also subject to government

funding. This included submitting a land use application to the City of Calgary and keeping the nearby neighbourhood engaged and supportive.

• We began work to renovate the common areas of Spruce and Westview communities to make them more pleasant for residents and more functional for employees.

Human Resources, Communications and Fund Development

• We improved the employee benefits program by choosing a new provider, Sun Life, which gives employees more choices while also reducing the premiums they pay.

• We conducted the AON Employee Opinion Survey and had an 80-per-cent participation rate. Overall engagement is 70 per cent, up nine percentage points from 2016.

• We introduced a new performance appraisal system. It is designed to document examples of how we live our values in our day-to-day work and support more fruitful discussion between employees and their supervisors.

• We held our 10th Annual Employee Conference at Fort Calgary in April with the theme of “A Culture of Innovation”. About one-third of employees attended.

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• Employees organized resident events and special occasions, and we launched our Centenary Wish Fund to celebrate the birthdays of residents who turn 100.

• We continued to build our brand with volunteers and donors. This resulted in 80 Silvera Care Days, (when groups from corporate Calgary volunteer in our communities) and it increased the amount of money donated to Silvera compared with that raised in 2016.

• We rehearsed emergency preparedness and rewrote our Crisis Communications Plan, both important ways to help protect Silvera’s reputation. We gave media relations training to potential spokespersons in order for them to be able to speak to the media with confidence and to enhance public opinion of Silvera as a leading and trusted seniors organization.

• We enhanced the role of our Resident Support Team, which connects residents with external financial,

medical, social, emotional and mental health supports.

• We launched a completely revised resident menu across all locations, with an acceptance/satisfaction rating of the dining experience of over 90 per cent.

• We held Transforming Conflict workshops for 246 employees to deepen our understanding and increase our skills to help resolve differences that occur at work.

Finance

• We increased the coordination of all Silvera departments to build more accurate annual budgets for 2018. This is to give employees the appropriate authority to spend at the right levels and to deepen everyone’s understanding of our financial restrictions.

Suite 804, 7015 Macleod Trail SW Calgary, AB T2H 2K6

403-276-5541

[email protected] silvera.ca

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Five years. Five strategic imperatives Our commitment to ...€¦ · Five strategic imperatives. Our commitment to excellence. Leadership’s role in strategic planning While our