Activity Directors are tasked with one of the most important jobs in a senior living community: building out unique program formats to encourage resident engagement that will enhance their quality of life. Using a combination of entertainment, educational, and fitness themes, residents are offered a creative blend of therapeutic, cognitive and stimulating activities to help with different physical, mental or psychosocial needs. Let’s get into how to simplify activity planning!
Mapping out the schedule, however, can be a daunting and time-consuming task, especially with staff turnover and low budget dollars. Activity Directors are feeling the pressure to be more creative in building an activity calendar that will delight their residents while working with limited budgets.
Related: Check out these 7 Budget-Friendly Senior Activities Ideas to help get you started, and Budget-Friendly Resources ADs need to help with DIY designs, activity printables, and program calendars and subscriptions.
The Eversound members portal Now ‘Smarter’
The newly updated Eversound members portal has been redesigned for easier planning and for finding activities on the fly! The portal’s features contain more than just a list of PDF’s you could find in a Google search. It’s a comprehensive planning tool that saves activity directors and their staff time, and brain power from the planning stage to execution.
Part of the Eversound headphone systems membership, members are welcomed onto the portal’s homepage with one week’s worth of suggested activities already built out for them.
Users can then navigate deeper into a NEW interactive, ‘smarter’ calendar that maps out a month’s worth of activity planning, with new updated images and a short description of the activity, linking directly to the program for immediate use. This new feature allows for a more streamlined use and less click-through than before.
(Want a more holistic view to map out the year? Just select any month you want to take a look at our suggestions!)
Members are also able to pin certain activities and star them to the top of the page for easy reference so they can opt into it later or save for future use because they found it successful within the community.
(Make sure to let us know which activities you found effective in your community by rating them with a thumbs up or thumbs down so we can better serve you the content, templates, and formats that you like best!)
Not sure what you’re looking for? Use the activity glossary to find something for everyone based on your resident’s age ranges, diversity needs, and participation levels. Hiring someone new? No problem. We provide the portal training with step-by-step instruction so you don’t have to take time away to train the new team member.
Related: Eversound members portal walkthrough
What you get:
Community Scoop: Residents’ level of technology adoption spans a rather large spectrum. While some find engagement through technology fun and easy, others prefer to stick with what they’re used to, and sometimes that’s a tangible, hand-held piece of information. That’s why Eversound offers the Community Scoop, a daily newsletter for residents to reflect on yesteryear with a “This Day in History”, along with a daily joke, health tip, poem, and short feature story. Just print and share with your residents.
Printouts: These printable activity programs are easy to use with or without a tablet or smart device. Simply print the PDF and follow the provided instructions for your program. Don’t want to print? You can save the PDF to your smart device or tablet to reference. PDF programs require little to no prep work and include a list of all needed materials.
Virtual Travel: A built-in travel agent and tour guide all in one! Take residents on virtual trips to Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and beyond with programs specific to each country: trivia, education, recipes, and more.
(Look for virtual travel options labeled “Rekindle” for dementia-friendly programs, making it easier to engage with and less likely to get overwhelmed with sensory overload.)
Guided programs: It’s the best of everything. Many communities don’t want to just show videos because it leads to less interaction. The use of our Guided programs enable more interaction and engagement because it encourages breaks to talk and sort through what residents are viewing. Our turn-key guided programs eliminate the need for the Activity Director to build discussion questions in advance, or think of accompanying activities saving you loads of time!
Resident activity packets: Can be used by the resident alone or as part of 1:1 interaction with staff or other residents. Packet themes are relevant to the month. (Ex: July 4th related games, brainteasers, reflection questions, fun facts, etc.) This is a perfect option for community residents that like to challenge their mind on their own or available for use when COVID limits group programming.
Option: If you’re an activity director who wants a more robust packet to offer residents, feel free to combine the resident packet with the community scoop for a bigger bundle!
Extras:
- Eversound YouTube and Spotify playlists
- private Facebook group exclusive to eversound members for peer to peer support, suggestions, and more
- Templates for things like attendance, behavior logs, or other activity programming needs
Some Programming Samples Include:
A Name That Tune game and Jazz Music activity packet to help get residents excited about music; complete with a crossword, word jumble, reflection questions and more!
A downloadable Iconic Movie Quiz to test your residents’ memory on some legendary movies of their generation!
Getting Started With the Eversound members portal
The Eversound ready-to-go activity programming brings new lift to your activity planning, helping you map out 100s of elevated programs, instantly available to your team as part of your Eversound headphone membership through the members-only portal.
- Calendars are pre-filled and uploaded months in advance with printable versions for a month full of content ideas!
- 100+ on-demand videos
- Grab & go guided programs
- 100+ turn-key program print-outs
- Interactive games
- Accounts for up to 5 users
Already an existing Eversound user? Navigate to the “members” button on the top right of the Eversound homepage to get started. (Try bookmarking this page on your browser for easy access. Contact your customer support representative or email support@eversoundhq.comwith any questions.)
Ready to learn more about Eversound? Get in touch today to see how Eversound can equip activity directors with an expansive catalog of content and activities in the members portal!
