As the devastating impact of COVID-19 is likely to endure for months to come, it has never been more important to improve the experience provided to millions of older adults in senior living and long-term care. Isolation and a lack of meaningful engagement are detrimental to quality of life for older adults. As the country reopens the economy, the senior living industry must come together to rebuild its resident engagement standards and strategy.

To respond to this need, the #ActivitiesStrong Initiative seeks to acknowledge, educate and empower activity and life enrichment professionals in senior living. After a successful virtual summit called the #ActivitiesStrong Summit held on June 23rd, 2020 with more than 2,000 registrants, the National Association of Activity Professionals (NAAP), National Certification Council for Activity Professionals (NCCAP) and Linked Senior are proud to announce that they will partner to continue the initiative through thought leadership and quarterly virtual educational gatherings on September 15th, 2020, December 1st, 2020 and June 22, 2021. These events will focus on helping activity and life enrichment professionals understand the state of resident engagement during and after COVID-19, explore best practices and methods and outline the long lasting changes that will occur in how to build person-centered experiences for older adults.

“It is important for us to pause, acknowledge and thank activity and life enrichment professionals for the sacrifice, amazing work and dedication they are exhibiting through these challenging times. They are essential to the wellbeing of older adults,” shared Linked Senior CEO and Co-Founder, Charles de Vilmorin. “We are excited by this meaningful partnership, what it will bring to the profession and believe this initiative will play an important role in defining the future of resident engagement.”

Dawn Worsley, NCCAP President, is looking forward to the collaboration saying, “NCCAP is pleased to participate in the #ActivitiesStrong initiative. The activity professional has always been the unsung hero in healthcare. This initiative will showcase the strengths of the profession as well as set a plan for the future. Please join us in this historic effort.”

Alisa Tagg, NAAP Association Director echoed this sentiment saying, “NAAP is very excited to be a part of this initiative. I am personally looking forward to working with NCCAP and Linked Senior in providing quality education for activity professionals across the continuum of care.”

Linked Senior is an evidence-based resident engagement platform for senior living. The platform optimizes the person-centered experience for residents by empowering staff with digital tools to assess, plan, implement and evaluate engagement for the entire resident population.