Fox Hill Village’s Strategic Planning Committee has developed a set of initiatives that will maintain Fox Hill’s status as a best-in-class senior living community for decades to come. Our goal is to take steps that will address the needs and desires of current residents while also creating a roadmap for updates that will appeal to potential future residents.
In this Spotlight, we’re taking a closer look at one of those initiatives: Strengthening community connection and engagement. In furthering this initiative, we are actively seeking to create additional opportunities for all members of the Fox Hill community to connect. We are also increasing connection with the broader Westwood, Massachusetts community through expanded access to campus life, more intergenerational opportunities, and meaningful volunteer engagement beyond our campus.
Members of the Fox Hill Village community are exceptionally generous and genuinely want to make a difference by contributing to the broader community. This is seen in the many food and supply drives, charitable fundraising initiatives, advocacy, and sponsorship of Westwood community events Fox Hill residents engage in every year. For example, they’ve stepped up to support the Westwood Senior Center as sponsors of the Council on Aging’s Halloween Lunch, The Westwood Community Chest’s Gala of Giving, the Westwood Day festivities, and the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, to name just a few annual events.
Residents and staff members also have volunteered their time and donated resources to keep the shelves stocked at the Westwood Food Pantry. The Handcraft Group at Birch Grove have been busy knitting hats, blankets, scarves, and prayer shawls that are distributed to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit, and The Knitting Connection.
In addition to these outreach efforts, we’ve invited local students into the Fox Hill Village community to build connections and share perspectives with residents. Students from Northeastern University join Birch Grove residents four times a year as part of the Perfect Pair program, a student-run volunteer program that connects college students with older adults for friendship and social interaction. And every week, one local high school student and one college student visit Fox Hill to engage with residents.
We want to thank residents, staff, and community partners for making Fox Hill Village an important part of the greater Westwood community. And we look forward to strengthening our connection to the many friends and neighbors who call Westwood their home.
The Strategic Planning Committee has identified even more ways residents can engage with a wide variety of causes in the greater community of Westwood and beyond, and we look forward to sharing news of these efforts as they happen. Be sure to “like” and follow us on Facebook to stay up to date on how Fox Hill Village is expanding this initiative.