Continuing Education and Community Engagement – Page 2

A New Healthcare Paradigm Reshapes Senior Living

As industries develop recovery plans in the wake of COVID-19, they are informed by the lessons learned in the past year and half.

The balance has especially shifted for owners and operators in the assisted living industry. They have been used to walking the line between healthcare and hospitality, but COVID-19 is refocusing them on health- and safety-first strategies and innovations.

COVID-19 has changed consumers forever in that they can no longer trust the future. This creates anxiety as consumers seek to be assured.

Especially the families of populations vulnerable to infectious diseases, with significant care needs.

As one operator puts it, “COVID-19 shifted the value proposition completely.”

The foundation of care must be protecting the well-being of assisted living residents, and providers are adapting the lessons learned from the pandemic to feature:

More outdoor access
Ways to isolate residents more comfortably
More touchless technology
More intensive air purification systems
Dedicated telehealth spaces
On-site clinics

These changes will herald a new era in assisted living.

SOURCE:
Senior Housing News. “Top Senior Housing Trends for 2021.” Tim Mullaney, January 2, 2021

Far-seeing assisted living providers are also ensuring they provide opportunities for their caregiving staff, administrators and consultants to gain the necessary and developmental training they need and want. Personnel are more engaged if allowed to grow in their roles, which contributes to the compassion and care residents receive. Wisconsin Caregiver Academy supports the industry with quality instruction, including Train-the-Trainer, Caregiver, Client Group and Specific Task courses.

Celebrate the Rich Culture of Native Americans

November is Native American Heritage Month! The observation was established to celebrate the culture, history and contributions of First Nations people.

As you honor the day, recognize that First Nations lived on this land long before Europeans and others arrived with a long relationship and strong connection to this land. At UW-Green Bay, we are aware that the ground on which we built was land of First Nations people, and we are thankful to enjoy it. You can read UW-Green Bay’s Land Acknowledgement here. Other companies and organizations are making similar acknowledgements.

You may also want to research First Nations history and culture, starting with the cultures that call our region home. Hearing their stories may bring you new perspectives and create a deeper understanding of the people and land around you. If you spend time with First Nations people directly, you are likely to learn a lot about their culture and history. UW-Green Bay offers a fantastic resource through the Center for First Nations Studies Oral Scholars in Residence program. You can find more information here!

Finally, we hope you’ll be an ally. All peoples and cultures deserve respect, so be sure to support one another whenever possible acknowledge the sovereign rights held by the First Nations and their people and appreciate that we all have ties to this area and that we all share its land and resources. We are community and positive change happens when we work together!

WANT TO DO MORE?

Develop a deeper understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion and ensure your business or organization protects and elevates now and future generations. UW-Green Bay is now enrolling in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Certificate Program, designed for HR professionals, business and government executives and leaders, managers and team leaders, parents and nonprofit and community leaders. Starting in January for eight weeks. Learn more and register.

Writing/Research Credit: Benjamin Kopetsky, UW-Green Bay Marketing Intern

Wisconsin Prioritizes Tourism

Governor Tony Evers announced in August that an additional $10 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds will be used to support the Wisconsin tourism industry.

At the press conference, Evers said, “Wisconsin’s tourism industry was one of the hardest hit throughout the coronavirus pandemic.” He continued, “Small business owners and folks in the tourism, lodging and entertainment industries had to stay flexible, innovative and adapt to the challenges brought by the pandemic.”

Despite the pandemic, Wisconsin’s tourism industry supported more than 157,000 jobs across the state and had a $17.3 billion impact on the state economy in 2020. So far in 2021, the industry is seeing recovery above 2020 numbers as travelers make up for missed vacations while reconnecting with friends and family.

Gov. Evers’ announcement is a continuation of the governor’s efforts to support the tourism industry’s recovery and rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. The funds announced are in addition to the governor’s more than $140 million in ARPA funding for Wisconsin’s tourism and entertainment industries,

Sign Up for Communications

Individuals and businesses can sign up to receive more information about the application process. Grants of up to $3.5 million will be given to regional entities to support things like travel infrastructure and convention centers.

Thrive in Tourism

UW-Green Bay is hosting a tourism event for area destinations, attractions, accommodations and other aligned businesses to explore creative ways they can attract visitors with experiences that are beyond the average tourist experience.

The event is a collaboration with Discover Green Bay and features faculty and destination experts. There is a morning session “Creating Visitor Experiences” and an afternoon session “Basic Social Media for Hospitality Venues.” You may attend the morning or afternoon session, or both for the best value.

Space is limited! Masks will be required for all participants, and social distancing practices will be in place.

SOURCES:
Office of the Governor, State of Wisconsin.
Urban Milwaukee, “Evers Gives $10 Million to Tourism Projects,” August 3, Angeline Terry.

September is Self-Improvement Month

Self Improvement Month reminds us that we all need to improve. It’s an opportunity for us to assess how satisfied we are with ourselves and to take the necessary steps to become who we aspire to be.

The editorial team at Indeed came up with “20 Project Ideas for Self-Improvement,” and we offer some suggestions about how you might get started.

Play the stock market – Check out Motley Fool’s “Guide to Investing for Beginner’s.”
Volunteer in your community – There are plenty of opportunities at the Volunteer Center of Brown County.
Identify long-term goals and make a plan.
Build an app.
Join community theater or speech club – Our Marinette campus offers vibrant adult and children’s theatre.
Start a journal – Amazon curates their best-selling journals here.
Design a website – You won’t believe what you’re capable of with web creation portals like Wix and Squarespace.
Meditate – UW-Madison’s Center for Healthy Minds offers a free app that tracks your mental healthy journey.
Take a continuing education course – Our “Career” page is a good place to start.
Listen to podcasts – Lifewire profiles 16 of their favorites here.
Read books – Try James Clear’s Atomic Habits, a New York Times best-seller, which has sold over a $1 million copies worldwide. He also offers free articles if you sign-up for his newsletter.
Exercise regularly – Prevention Magazine offers “25 Easy Ways to Fit in 10 Minutes of Exercise.”
Use your mornings.
Learn to cook – The inimitable Gorden Ramsay has created a tutorial “How to Master 5 Basic Cooking Skills.”
Write every day.
Take a walk.
Make a garden.
Start a collection – Good Housekeeping has put together “The Ultimate Guide to Gardening for Beginners” for vegetables and flowers.
Build your brand.
Make a bucket list – Create, track and achieve your life goals at buckletlist.org.

Closing the Leadership Gap

The Institute for Women’s Leadership exists to address the leadership gap and to take progressive steps to narrow the breach.

Leadership by the Numbers
Center for American Progress

Women have outnumbered men on college campuses since 1988. They have earned at least one-third of law degrees since 1980 and accounted for one-third of medical school students by 1990. Yet, they have not moved up to positions of prominence and power in America at anywhere near the rate that should have followed.
In a broad range of fields, their presence in top leadership positions—as equity law partners, medical school deans, and corporate executive officers—remains stuck at 5 percent to 20 percent.
Overall, there is an enormous gap between the fortunes of a small number of prominent women at the very top of their fields and the vast majority of women nationwide.
A gulf is widening between American women and their counterparts in peer nations as well: Although the United States ranked first in women’s educational attainment on the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Index of 144 countries, it ranked 19th in women’s economic participation and opportunity and 96th in women’s political empowerment.

The Center for American Progress also makes recommendations for advancing gender equality at home and abroad by leveraging women, peace and security (WPS).

A big step was President Biden’s executive order on the establishment of a White House Gender Policy Council, of which a primary goal is:

Increasing economic security and opportunity by addressing the structural barriers to women’s
participation in the labor force and by decreasing wage and wealth gaps.

Like the Council and the Center for American Progress, UW-Green Bay’s Institute for Women’s Leadership has been established to “develop and promote affirmative solutions to ensure that all women can participate fully in our economy and live healthy and productive lives.”

One such affirmative solution is the creation of an Advanced Certificate Program, designed to help women counteract the documented stall that can occur between middle management and executive leadership. The certificate program not only identifies concrete steps a woman can take to outbalance the factors of stalling, it enables women to create a social network across industries vital to their advancement. The program is a blend of online and in-person work, now enrolling for Fall 2021. Register by September 21. Learn more at the Institute for Women’s Leadership.

RESOURCES:
The Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research
We win economic equity for all women and eliminate barriers to their full participation in society. As a leading national think tank, we build evidence to shape policies that grow women’s power and influence, close inequality gaps, and improve the economic well-being of families.

Embracing a Circular Economy

Companies are merging supply chain management with sustainability initiatives to reduce waste and carbon emissions by embracing a circular economy. That is, transforming the make-use-dispose cycle into a new cycle of make-use-recover-reuse-reclaim.

Key to this transformation is keeping products, equipment and infrastructure in use for longer periods of time. Companies are also tackling different parts of the cycle, depending on the nature of their operations, as they create a sustainable loop.

Gaining momentum is the Anheuser-Busch InBev 100+ Accelerator, a global incubator program, working to accelerate the world’s shift toward sustainable solutions and to do business “the right way, not the easy way.”

Earlier this year, the Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company and Unilever joined the Accelerator to further fund and pilot sustainable innovation in supply chains.

Tony Milikin, chief procurement, sustainability and circular ventures officer of AB InBev, had this to say about the three companies joining the Accelerator:

“Together, we are striving to supercharge adoption of sustainable solutions by funding and accelerating fantastic innovations that will change the world by making all of our businesses more sustainable. Sustainable business is smart business, and we are working to solve huge problems that no one company can handle alone.”

In addition to funding, the Accelerator provides hands-on support to startups, seeking innovative solutions to supply chain challenges. A few of their success stories include:

Implementing green cleaning solutions to reduce water and energy use in brewing operations
Collecting more than 1,000 tons of glass waste
Piloting returnable packaging
Upcycling grains from the brewing process to produce nutritious foods
Harnessing solar thermal energy

Other name brand companies have shared strategies that contribute to a circular economy. IKEA has launched a program to buy back used furniture to refurbish and resell. Nike is starting to refurbish sneakers returned by customers to resell at a cheaper price.

Closer to home, Belmark, Inc. in De Pere is one of the top names in the U.S. for manufacturing premium-quality labels, flexible packaging and folding cartons. The company serves a wide variety of industries, including dairy, snack food, durable goods and pet food. Founded in 1977, Belmark has grown four times the industry average with nearly 1,000 employees working in six facilities across three different locations. The company is leading the industry with mindful solutions that advance the field of environmentally responsible packaging, including responsibly-sourced and post-consumer recycled content packaging and ready-to-recycle packaging.

Bruce Bell, founder of Belmark, is quoted as saying, “We make things happen at Belmark.”

For supply chain sustainability, let’s hope more companies also make things happen.

You can play a role in supply chain sustainability with a certificate program designed to provide a multidiscipline exposure to logistics, transportation, packaging, operations planning, inventory management and enterprise resource planning, among other functions. Learn how to develop supply chain solutions as you increase your knowledge of how to use supply chain networks to secure, produce and deliver products to a global marketplace. Now enrolling for ongoing dates.

RESOURCES:
Forbes. “The Circular Supply Chain: A Push for Sustainability.” Steve Banker. June 29, 2021.
Yahoo Finance. “AB InBev 100+ Accelerator Partners with the Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever for Sustainable Startup Innovation

The Link Between Storytelling & Mentoring

The Star Wars Saga famously uses Joseph Campbell’s monomyth framework of storytelling. Sometimes called “the hero’s journey,” the protagonist begins with a “Call to Adventure,” and proceeds through seventeen stages, including “Supernatural Aid.” That is, once the hero – through a few stops and starts – is committed to their quest, they are aided with a magical helper or supernatural mentor.

Think Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. Obi-Wan trains Luke in the ways of the Force, ways that benefit Luke on his quest. Yoda appears as another mentor for Luke later in the saga.

In science fiction and fantasy movies, mentors can be wizard-like as is the case in the Star Wars Saga and the Harry Potter Series between Professor Dumbledore and Harry.

They can also be teachers or coaches as in the examples of Professor John Keating and his students in The Dead Poet’s Society and Coach Ken Carter and his basketball team in Coach Carter or Gordon Bombay and his hockey team in The Mighty Ducks.

Not to be excluded are family favorites The Karate Kid between Mr. Miyagi and Daniel and Mary Poppins between Mary Poppins and the Banks children.

We also see this mentor relationship play out in animated movies in examples such as the genie and Aladdin in Aladdin, Mushu and Mulan in Mulan, and Mufasa and Simba in The Lion King.

The fact is, mentoring is elemental to storytelling. We are primed to look for guidance and lend advice, depending on where we are in our story. Once you gain awareness of this dynamic in storytelling, you will see mentors everywhere.

See how universal mentors are by reading this list of the top 25 mentoring movies of all times from The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring.

Mentoring Certificate Program
Where are you in your journey? UW-Green Bay offers a structured mentor training program to enable business leaders and HR professionals to maximize the benefits of mentoring for both mentor and mentee with tips for implementing, enhancing success in any field or level. Now enrolling for a virtual session in September. Certificate can be completed in three weeks. Each session is four hours long – 2 hours of self-study content and 2 hours of online live discussion and activities.

Assisted Living Summer Camp

As things returned to more normal, Evergreen Place Assisted Living in Champaign, Illinois, brought back their summer camp for residents, an annual event, designed for residents and staff to grow closer and be “kids at heart” together.

This year’s theme is “Break Out of the Outbreak,” and every day started with a mock “press release,” previewing the day’s activities, which included watching funny YouTube videos, games, games, arts and crafts, singsong, a staff canoe race, meals over the fire along with a closing campfire and awards.

“Anything you can do with a 5-year-old, you can do with a 95-year-old. With some modifications, of course,” said Evergreen’s life enrichment coordinator and camp director, Emma Jane Glick.

According Psychology Today, there is mounting evidence for the positive effects of laughter. It reduces pain, allowing us to relax with discomfort. It reduces blood sugar levels, offering relief to diabetics and nondiabetics. Most importantly, laughter brings people together, creating a sense of connection and a positive emotional climate.

Glick talked about her goals for the camp. “If we laugh every day this week, if we have fun every day, then that’s just… a great reward and that’s really a great goal of our camp.”

Laughter really is the best medicine.

Committed to Healthy Aging

We are approaching a milestone in the aging population. By 2034 for the first time in U.S. history adults 65+ are projected to outnumber children under 18. This milestone will affect healthcare in a dramatic way, creating a demand for a new approach to healthy aging and specialized knowledge of the complex needs of older adults.

Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has created a noncredit Certificate Program in Geriatric Healthcare in order to meet this demand. The certificate comprises four core courses and two electives, including “Mental Health” and “Generations and Diversity in an Aging Society.”

The certificate is relevant to nurses, social workers or case managers. Learn how you can play a larger role in patient-centered care for older adults.

*
SOURCE
WCIA/WCIX. “Residents ‘Break Out of the Outbreak’ at Evergreen Place Assisted Living.” July 14, 2021
Psychology Today. “Laughter: The Best Medicine. Hara Estroff Marano, Last Reviewed June 9, 2016

The Leadership Manifesto Challenge

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown is a #1 New York Times bestseller. In the book, Brown applies and builds on the principles from her other books — Rising Strong, Braving the Wilderness — in a new context of leadership and culture-building that is “daring.”

Brown says, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.”

Now Dare to Lead is a podcast and a dedicated hub with links to an assessment, a workbook, organization book reads and downloadable resources.

One of the available downloads is a “Daring Leadership Manifesto.” According to Merriam-Webster, a manifesto is:

: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer

This idea of putting on paper a statement of what you stand for as a company and a team is a great way to become more “daring” and leading with your whole heart.

We challenge you to adopt the Daring Leadership Manifesto or craft your own.

Daring leadership is teachable and begins with self-awareness. Our Supervisory Leadership Certificate Program includes a diverse course curriculum that will enable you to evolve as a leader and make a difference. The program includes a core course “Develop Yourself and Others” but also covers other critical topics like “Coaching for Performance,” “Change Management,” “Supervision and Human Resource Functions,” “Interpersonal Communication,” “Helping Your Team Achieve Organizational Management,” along with a Capstone Course that integrates all the learning and knowledge. Now enrolling for the fall session, starting in August.

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters was organized 100 years ago, based on mentoring. In other words, the idea that “littles” would be powerfully influenced in positive ways by “bigs.”

New CEO Artis Stevens appears on The Today Show recently to share his bold vision for the “largest one-to-one mentoring organization in the country.”

View the story on The Today Show

Mentoring Certificate Program
If you would like to learn how to become a more valuable mentor in the workplace, UW-Green Bay offers a structured mentor training program to enable business professionals to maximize the benefits of mentoring for both mentor and mentee with tips for effective communication, strong ethical standards and an action session to leave with a framework to structure their mentoring relationship. Now enrolling for the virtual sessions in September. Certificate can be completed in three weeks. Each session is four hours long – 2 hours of self-study content and 2 hours of online live discussion and activities.