The Fox Run Senior Living Shows Their Colors During Pride Month

In celebration of Pride Month this June, Arrow Senior Living is looking at The Pride Flag, a symbol that is a representation of the forward movements to support and celebrate those in the LGBTQIA+ community. This important piece of the community has a meaning that is described by the colors included.

Red represents life and passion among many cultures. Orange represents healing, fun, and celebration. Yellow is a symbol for sunlight and is said to stimulate new ideas and thoughts. Green is synonymous with nature, a healing place, also associated with prosperity and growth. Blue represents serenity and calmness. Purple is the color of spirit, thought to connect us to the spiritual realm.

At Fox Run Senior Living Fairborn, OH, we feel most connected to the color red. Our community doesn’t have a wide range of diverse cultures, but our residents will accept anyone who walks through our doors, no matter the cultural difference. They always show compassion toward others and love to get to know everyone. At times the residents may be challenged with language barriers, but they don’t give up and keep trying to get to know them. They always put others before themselves. I feel like they all have the same passion, getting to know all their neighbors.

As a Resident Services Director, I support making our community a safe place to live by offering different types of activities. We like to take advantage of our local library and museums. I also ask them what type of activities they would like to see on our calendar. Some of our residents like to do individual activities, like playing cards or putting together a puzzle. That gives us a chance to talk about things they might not want to talk about in front of others. We encourage our residents to expand their minds and open themselves up to new things.

In our community, we know that each of our residents have come from different lifestyles and backgrounds. As such, we work to maintain that diverse culture across both residents and staff with targeted programming and staff education efforts. Arrow Senior Living has launched a resident-led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) speaker series for employee and resident education. Residents interview speakers who represent some of the relevant topics of the day related to diversity, equity, and inclusion ranging from non-binary people and use of pronouns to Juneteenth history. Through our tradition’s council, which coordinates core resident and employee cultural celebrations and education, we work actively to celebrate diversity within our community. This has created a means for residents and employees to join in recognition of each other. The road ahead is to ensure that diversity and inclusion is not just an initiative. Moving forward requires necessary conversations to address discomfort and to open dialogue on important perspectives. This helps to ensure that we are providing not only an enjoyable place to retire, but one where seniors can feel enriched, safe, and excited about life!