“I applied not knowing what I was getting into,” she says. “In my mind, I thought ‘nursing home’ and had a picture in my mind of what that was like. So I came here for my interview and I looked around, and it was the exact opposite of what I expected.”

Yuen remembers her first day as a server in the dining room. “The very first table I took was three residents. One of them, named Pat Holland, took my hand and said, ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to be just fine.’ That was the start of my journey here.”

Yuen continued to work part time as a server through high school and as she earned her undergraduate degree in Public Health from San Francisco State University. Although she had originally planned to become an RN and work with children, her plans began to change as her grandfather’s health declined. “Because of the type of care I got to witness here [at St. Paul’s], I knew what was dignified and what was demoralizing. I was that annoying granddaughter, always constantly saying, ‘Are you supposed to do this? Are you sure that you’re supposed to pass this off to the residents?’, but it was just because of my love for him. And because of what I saw here, I knew what was right and what was wrong.”

VP of Operations Chris Ichien, who also began his career in senior living in the dining room, was the Executive Director of St. Paul’s Towers after Yuen graduated and as she continued to work as a server and host. “Chris approached me one day and said ‘Hey, there’s a program coordinator job coming up soon. Do you think you’d be interested? I think you’d be good at it.’ And I said, why not?”

Serving as program coordinator gave Yuen the chance to connect with residents in a different way. “When you’re serving every day, you build relationships, you become good friends with the residents and you know their patterns, you know their preferences,” she says. “With the programs job, I got to dig a little deeper. I got to know their history, their life, their hobbies, their interests, and what would drove them. I really enjoyed doing that.”

After six years as program coordinator, Yuen was promoted to Life Enrichment Director, allowing her to work with residents at all levels of care. “Prior to that, I was only focusing on Independent Living, which is great, but I really want to expand my horizons. We made it a point to make sure everybody has the same opportunities and everybody is included.”

She participated in the EMERGE leadership development program offered by LeadingAge California, and she began a Masters in Gerontology program at San Francisco State University. After an 8-hour day at St. Paul’s Towers, she would head to San Francisco for classes. “It was a long day, but I really had fun,” says Yuen. “I saw a bigger picture and had more goals I wanted to fulfill.” She also worked as an Administrator in Training while working towards her Masters degree.

In February 2020, as she was preparing for graduation in May, the health care administrator position at St. Paul’s Towers opened up. Yuen took on the role, working primarily in the Skilled Nursing area and with the clinical team.

“I was very excited to be given that opportunity,” she says. “Again, that opened up a brand new set of opportunities, where I could serve the residents of the different capacity. Whereas before I got to help them with their interests, enriching their lives with programming and keeping them engaged, now I get to do a little bit more clinical work, which was what I wanted to do when I wanted to be an RN. I felt like I got to fulfill that as well.”

In January 2021, when Executive Director Mary Linde announced she would be leaving, she encouraged Yuen to apply. “I knew that was something I wanted to do. I just didn’t know if I wanted to do it right now. I thought about it over the weekend, and I said why not apply? I feel like I’ve been training with Mary for a reason. She has given me a lot of opportunities to learn, to make mistakes, and to grow. I felt like that was all leading up to this point.” After interviewing for the position, Connie began in her new role as Executive Director in March.

During her time at St. Paul’s Towers, Yuen says the biggest thing she’s learned is “there is no cookie cutter way of doing things. What worked last month does not work now. You always learn to adapt. You get to know the people you’re serving and you just embrace it.

“Right now, we have a very different group of people moving in. Some of them are quite a bit younger and they have different needs and wants, whereas when I first started everybody was very formal. You just have to keep in tune with what’s going on in the outside world, as well as in here.” Being an Executive Director is “a lot of responsibility, but it means that people are trusting me to do what’s best for them,”

Yuen still remembers the advice she got on her first day, when a resident held her hand and told her it was going to be OK. “I remember seeing her just a couple days before she passed. I went to go visit her in her room. She held my hand and she said it’s going to be okay. Sometimes I just have to remind myself it’s hard right now but it’s going to be okay because you’re doing what’s best for everybody.”

“For me it’s more than more than just the job,” says Yuen. “It’s maintaining these relationships and making sure that these final years are full of dignity. That’s a huge thing for me.”

If you would like to learn more about St. Paul’s Towers, please call 510.891.8542 or use the contact us form here.

The post Connie Yuen takes path from server to ED at St. Paul’s Towers appeared first on Front Porch.

Friday, November 1, 2019

10:00 am

We’re pleased that life is starting to return to normal in our communities. We continue to be grateful to the firefighters who are still working to contain the Kincade fire, which as of this writing is only 68% contained. And we offer comfort and condolences to all who have sustained losses or been traumatized during this past week.

All residents have returned to Jennings Court and were welcomed home with a communal meal of chili. Residents are continuing to return to Spring Lake Village and Friends House. Covia employees who evacuated are also returning to their homes. Welcome home, everyone!

Unless there are further developments, this will be the final update on this blog post.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

11:30am

Containment of the Kincade fire is now at 60%. In Santa Rosa, all evacuation orders and warnings have been lifted.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

4:40pm

Power has been restored to Spring Lake Village.

2:45pm

The Evacuation Order for Jennings Court has been downgraded to an Evacuation Warning. Residents are allowed to repopulate with advisement that a warning is still in place.

1:30pm

Power has been restored at Friends House.

10:00am

Winds overnight were not as strong as predicted, which allowed firefighters to hold the line. Containment of the fire is now up to 30%, according to Cal Fire. Winds are projected to be calmer through today though a Red Flag warning is still active.

Friends House and Spring Lake Village continue to shelter in place, remaining on alert, though a mandatory evacuation is unlikely today. Power remains out at both locations.

Power has been restored to Jennings Court though the mandatory evacuation is still in place.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

9:30 am

Friends House and Spring Lake Village continue to shelter in place. Although a mandatory evacuation is unlikely today, we remain on alert. Our main concern at this time is the air quality, and we continue to encourage our Independent Living residents to consider voluntary evacuation.

Representatives from PG&E contacted Spring Lake Village to report that they will not have power restored today because the community is too close to the fire zone to be able to inspect the lines before they would be required to turn off the power again. The community is receiving deliveries of food and fuel.

At Friends House, Executive Director Clara Allen reports that the County Ombudsman visited the campus on Monday to check on residents and provide support.

According to the report from Cal Fire updated at 7:30 this morning, “Favorable weather conditions will enhance firefighting efforts in the morning while narrow roads and steep terrain are still making access to the fire areas difficult. Weather predictions show Northeast wind gusts picking up this evening. Firefighters will continue to mitigate structure threats and find opportunities to construct more control lines.” We are hopeful that firefighters will be able to make further progress in containing the fire throughout the day.

Monday, October 28, 2019

7:30 am

There have been no new developments overnight. Spring Lake Village and Friends House remain in a state of watchful readiness. With almost no winds forecast for today, we are hopeful that firefighters will be able to make some progress in containing the Kincade fire today. We do not expect to see mandatory evacuations put in place today, but will be ready in case we receive the order.

Employees: please report to work at your usual time if you are able. If you have evacuated out of the area or are unable to report to work, please inform your supervisor and HR manager. Thank you!

Sunday, October 27, 2019

6:00 pm

There is little new information to report.

The Executive Directors of Friends House and Spring Lake Village report that there has been no change. Covia has spent much of the day working to support the staff on-site, ensuring that Friends House and Spring Lake Village are fully prepared to evacuate, should a mandatory evacuation order be put in place. Winds in the region are blowing southwest and the fires does not appear to be getting any closer to the communities.

Friends House and Spring Lake Village have suggested voluntary evacuation to those residents who have a safe place to go. This allows residents time to relocate to a place of their choice with more time to prepare. It also allows the reduced number of staff to focus on helping residents at a higher level of care both in providing for their daily needs and in the case of a mandatory evacuation.

Jennings Court has been evacuated, although a few residents have refused to vacate the premises. The Santa Rosa Police Department has been informed of the residents who have chosen to remain on site.

Social Call Santa Rosa has ensured that its most vulnerable participants have been able to evacuate.

Employees should keep their supervisors and HR department informed about their availability.

Please stay safe!

8:00 am
As of now, Jennings Court is under an evacuation order. Sadie Bracy, Jennings Court’s Housing Administrator, is facilitating the evacuation and Karim Sultan, VP of Affordable Housing is providing support. All but a few Jennings residents have relocations sites they have individually chosen. Those who do not have another evacuation site are being provided with a place to stay in Oakland.

As of this writing, Friends House and Spring Lake Village are outside the mandatory evacuation order zone, but we are encouraging voluntary evacuations. Residents are asked to please inform their communities if they are evacuating, along with their new location and contact information. If you are a resident who has evacuated or are otherwise off-site and not informed your community of your location, please contact your community as soon as possible.

Social Call Sonoma County has reached out to participants to check on their safety.

Employees should report to Spring Lake Village or Friends House for their normal shift as they are able. If you are unable to report to work, please inform your HR department and supervisor as soon as possible. We are working to communicate with all staff today. Please follow any evacuation orders you receive.

We will provide further updates as the situation develops.

The post Emergency Update: Kincade Fire appeared first on Front Porch.

“EMERGE is a year-long program to help candidates reach their potential in their organization to successfully lead innovative programming within their organizations,” explains Jerry Brown, Senior Director of Covia Affordable Communities, who helped establish the statewide program and has served as a coach for the past four years.

Brown explains that EMERGE fellows “can be any level of employee. It doesn’t have to be a CEO. It can be a maintenance person or a nurse, which I think is the wonderful thing about it. The supervisor sees the value that you have as a leader – that you can be a leader, not necessarily in the current job you have, but for the organization in some way.”

Lo-li first heard about the program while working at another organization in 2011. “I got that opportunity back then when I was first on the job as a Resident Service Coordinator. But I put it on hold and things kept holding me back [from participating]. So I’m glad that as soon as I was employed by Covia, I got a call saying, ‘Hey, Cammille, we want you to participate.’”

Youssef explains, “I applied for the EMERGE program so that I can professionally grow as a leader, build long lasting professional relationships with other leaders from other organizations and network with other fellow EMERGE members.” For Youssef, “Although I’ve worked in the Long term Care industry the last 25 years, I believe that there is so much more to learn. It is an ever evolving industry. The EMERGE program can help me improve on the skills I already possess and develop other skills I need to become a better leader in the industry.”

Participants in the program meet in person four times a year, participating in site visits at LeadingAge California member communities. They read and discuss four books on leadership development, and participate in monthly team calls between sessions. Each participant also creates an Action Learning Plan, or ALP, to apply what they have learned and bring it back to their workplace.

“It’s a training to help you lead, but it’s not only that,” says Torres. “I feel that this year has helped me to understand people in all their diversity, how to deal with them, how to communicate, how to address employees properly.”

Torres’ ALP involved building a more inclusive culture in her community. “The first thing I did was instead of saying ‘Staff Meeting,’ I changed it to ‘Team Meeting.’ And you know, believe it or not, that Team word made a big difference for some employees. I had people from the Environmental Services department tell me that this was the first time that somebody saw them as part of a team.”

Lo-li is developing a social work mentorship program “by shadowing current employees in different positions, getting their interest in the aging services field.”

The ALPs are not just theoretical projects, but actually get carried out and have an impact on the participants’ organizations. A previous EMERGE fellow implemented Covia’s comprehensive, organization-wide online Accounts Payable system as her ALP.

In addition to what participants bring back to their organizations, “I got really good friends and I appreciate the training because of that,” says Torres. “You learn a lot of things about yourself, about your job, about the people around you.”

As a coach, Brown says, “I like hearing everybody’s personal stories. I like seeing the best practices when we go visit sites. There’s some really wonderful programs out there, innovative things. Covia has some of the most innovative programs within the whole membership of LeadingAge California. We should be very proud of that.”

“I’m really glad that Covia continues to support the program and that Cammille and Rosa both were able to get through the program this year and graduate, and I hope that they encourage others to do so too,” says Brown. “We have to remember that it’s not a cheap program. You are getting the support of your supervisor because you’re not at work. Other people have to fill in for you while you’re away. And so Covia’s really making an investment in your leadership, allowing this education. You’re being honored, I would say.”

“I wish that every employee, every colleague would get to attend, just to get the experience of it,” says Lo-li. “It’s an adventure ride.”

The post Covia builds colleagues and leaders through EMERGE program appeared first on Front Porch.

After returning to Vallejo, Phey joined a temp agency that assigned her to construction companies. “I did subcontracting, I did liens, I did accounts payable stuff. I picked it up really quick. And I picked up the 10 key really fast too. That’s when I decided, ‘I have this kid. I need to do something. And I can’t do anything without a degree.’” While working, she got her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and a minor in accounting in 2009. But she still hoped to work for a health-related organization.

Married and with a second child, Phey got laid off from her job with the construction company in 2010. “I got into another temp job I didn’t like so much. It was still construction but more, like, pipes. It paid the bills. I was still looking for something and then [in 2012] I got an opportunity for another temp to hire job here. They told me it’s a senior living community management type company and I’m like, ‘Yes! This is what I want.’ So I finally got in here, got my foot in the door.”

Her work with Covia took her to visit Webster House Health Center. “I would go there and I would see the facility and it intrigued me.” Observing the Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), nurses, and others made Phey revisit her dream to enter the medical field – a dream that was also part of her family history. Her father had studied to be a doctor in the Philippines, but the death of his father had interrupted his studies. Instead, after immigrating to the US with Phey and her two siblings, he had had to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet for his family.

At Covia, “my manager  pushed us to look into the Educational Assistance program at every finance meeting we had,” Phey says. However, she didn’t think she qualified since the program is for training directly related to a person’s job or career path at Covia. “I thought, it can’t be applied to me, because I want to be a PA [Physician’s Assistant] and I don’t think there’s a lot of PAs employed directly here. So I talked to Prab [Brinton, VP of HR] and Prab said, ‘It’s still a medical line. You can totally do that.’”

Phey began her studies in 2016. “Every new fiscal year, I applied to complete one grueling class. In 2016, I completed my Chemistry class. In 2017, I completed my Anatomy & Physiology class, and in 2018, I have completed my Biochemistry class using the Educational Assistance program here at Covia. I coordinated the most expensive courses first and paid out of pocket with my other courses. I also took advantage in borrowing from my Covia 403b to pay for other classes.” Her final class this semester is Human Biology at Diablo Valley College. “We get to dissect a pig. I’m so excited!”

In January, Phey plans to get her certificate to be a CNA. While continuing in her full-time position as Payroll Specialist at Support Services, she will also work on getting at least 2,000 direct care hours as a CNA at Covia Communities before applying for Physician’s Assistant programs.

“One thing led to another for me and it was kind of – I don’t know, it was just magical. If you asked me when I was hired here, I had no clue. But one question I had that I actually asked opened up doors for other opportunities that can advance my career. And that I did not expect,” Phey says.

Her biggest advice for Covia employees who wonder if this benefit applies to them is simply to ask. “There’s so much opportunity that we as Covia Communities give our employees. If you’re interested, get the information. There are so many benefits out there – not just medical benefits. Our HR group has a lot of information that can guide you through these things. So if you’re interested in any – even if you don’t know if there are benefits out there, ask. It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

The post Back to school: Training and Educational Assistance at Covia appeared first on Front Porch.