Friendship Village Introduces Resident Portal
Friendship Village Schaumburg is committed to its current residents while also making sure to prepare for residents of the future.
"The more residents we have coming in, the more technologically savvy they are. We're evolving as they're evolving," said Roberta Anglin, lifestyles production coordinator for Friendship Village.
The community recently launched Friendship Portal, its private online communication system for residents.
Friendship Portal is a new means of communication for residents, associates and family members.
"It's not to replace the current way people receive information, it's an additional way to receive information. An enhanced way. Now it's easy to receive information at your fingertips, off campus as well as on campus," Anglin said.
Furthermore, as information changes, it can be updated more quickly. Information available on the portal includes the resident directory and handbook, calendar items, dining menus, hours of various programs and amenities, Friendship television videos and more. Fitness videos, previously available only at scheduled times on the community's private television, are now available on the portal for residents to follow at their convenience.
In addition to receiving Friendship Village community information, the Friendship Portal enables residents to engage with each other.
"They can message one another, search by name and interest, write on each others' walls, share photos and more," said Anglin.
A tech-committee comprised of residents, tested the product developed by the company Caremerge before it was adopted.
"They loved it. I got feedback and suggestions for changes and ways to rearrange the information. After that, we took it to a second wave of testers. They tested it and loved it too, so we decided to roll it out to the community," said Anglin.
With the rollout of the project, comes training sessions, showing the residents how to effectively use the new tool. The portal, Anglin said, can be used on any device including smartphone, tablet or computer.
Phase II of Friendship Portal will include placing kiosks throughout the campus. The final phase, Anglin said, will be integrating other software including work orders, dinner reservations, logging volunteer hours and more.
"I think this is wonderful. It's an exciting way for me to bring some new technology to the residents. It's a lot of fun and it's cool to start a whole new project that I can see building in the future," said Anglin. "This is pretty cutting edge."
Friendship Village is a leading Chicago-area retirement community offering a complete continuum of care including independent living garden homes and apartment homes, as well as assisted living, memory support, skilled care, and short- and long-term rehabilitation services. For more than 38 years, Friendship Village has been providing Chicago area seniors with exceptional retirement living options. For additional information visit www.FriendshipVillage.org