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VILLA COLOMBO Services for Seniors (1976)
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STRATEGIC PLAN, MISSION, VISION AND VALUES<< Go Back
INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
The Villa Colombo Board of Governors, as part of its commitment to due diligence, undertook to prepare a strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan is to position the organization over the next three to five years to respond to external environmental trends likely to impact the organization. The plan will serve as direction to senior staff as they develop annual operating objectives that are in alignment with the Strategic Plan.
VILLA COLOMBO SERVICES FOR SENIORS
Villa Colombo opened in 1976. Following expansions to its buildings in 1986 and 2001, it is now home to 391 residents. Villa Colombo is designated an ethno-specific provider of services to seniors of Italian Canadian origin. Its Mission, Vision and Values underscore Villa Colombo's commitment to serve Italian Canadians in an Italian cultural, spiritual and social milieu. Residents at Villa Colombo tend to be over ninety years of age with some degree of cognitive impairment, although diseases of the circulatory and/or musculoskeletal system are also common.
In addition to its residential program, the Villa offers community based care for well, physically frail, and cognitively impaired clients living in the community. It is in support of these two target groups of clients that the Strategic Plan is designed to assist.
Mission
Villa Colombo provides long-term care and community services to seniors in a culturally sensitive environment that honours the Italian heritage.
Vision
Villa Colombo will provide the highest quality culturally sensitive services to seniors.
Values
Honesty/Integrity: Behaving in a manner that is truthful, sincere, honourable without deception or dishonesty.
Excellence: Behaving in a manner that encourages quality of work, discipline, credibility, and continuous progressive movement.
Accountability: Behaving in a manner that is responsible, engaged, and willing to account for one's own actions.
Teamwork: Behaving in a manner that is highly supportive, encouraging, and enabling of residents and staff.
Innovation: Behaving in a manner that is creative, solutions oriented, open to change, and focused on improvement.
Trust: Behaving in a manner that is respectful, honest, dependable, and reliable.
THE STRATEGIC PLAN 2005-2008
While the strategic themes are the cornerstone of the Strategic Plan for 2005-2008, it is the organization's Mission, Vision and Values that serve as the context in which annual operating objectives are developed. It is these three foundational statements that make Villa Colombo the unique and distinct organization that it is today. The Mission, Vision and Values underpin every decision, every activity and every service delivery offering provided by Villa Colombo. The organization's commitment to serving senior Italian-Canadians in need of long-term care and community based services is its reason for being, and is so reflected in the Mission, Vision and Values.
VILLA COLOMBO'S STRATEGIC THEMES
The external environmental factors play a role in shaping the type of services to be offered at Villa Colombo. Indeed, the Strategic Planning Committee identified its three strategic themes that the organization needs to pursue in the next three to five years based on these external factors likely to impact Villa Colombo. The three strategic themes that comprise the Strategic Plan are:
- The Continuous Improvement of Long-term Care Services.
- Growth in Community Services Program.
- Revitalization of Villa Colombo Playfair.
- Resident and Client Safety
The Strategic Planning Committee chose these three strategic themes in response to its assessment of the external environment. However, the issue of the organization's readiness to implement the themes played a major role in the selection process. The Committee reasoned that in the absence of the organization's capacity to implement the themes, the Strategic Plan would be at risk for sitting on the shelf. Therefore, the Committee chose its strategic themes with the full knowledge that the organization has the skills and tools available to implement them.
1. The Continuous Improvement of Long-term Care Services
The Strategic Planning Committee chose "Continuous Improvement of Long-term Care Services" for two reasons. One reason relates to ensuring ongoing client satisfaction with Villa Colombo's program offerings. In an era of heightened consumer expectations and awareness of what exemplary care and good service means, Villa Colombo is committed to continually improving its client care processes to ensure that both the client and his/her family are satisfied with their experience at Villa Colombo. The second reason relates to ensuring that services are cost effective and that resources devoted to serving clients are maximized at all times.
Villa Colombo has already made a commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Choosing this strategic theme reinforces its message to the organization that the Board views CQI as an "enabler" in the achievement of client satisfaction across all its programs. As well, CQI ensures that the delivery processes underpinning client care services are of the highest quality and are cost effective. A culture of quality has taken hold of Villa Colombo. In reinforcing its commitment to CQI, the Board encourages the senior team to continue its efforts to embed the "continuous quality improvement" mindset across the depth and breadth of the organization. A quality experience for families and clients will be realized by continuing to identify opportunities for process improvements through mapping and process redesign aimed at building client centered programs and services.
2. Growth in Community Services Program
The Strategic Planning Committee chose "Growth in the Community Services Program" because of the ongoing shift in demographics pertaining to elderly people. The principal age group served by the Villa's community based programs is 65 to 90 years of age. As census information reveals, this age group will continue to grow as a proportion of total population. As many in this group can be successfully managed in the community, Villa Colombo wants to ensure that its array of community based services is relevant to the needs of its clients. This strategic theme will focus on an assessment of Villa Colombo's community based services together with targeted growth in those services experiencing additional demand. The scope in the growth of these services will include Italian Canadians living in Vaughan.
The community services program sector at Villa Colombo is the dimension of its service offerings that is most likely to grow in the short term. A profile of clients served by the residential component of Villa Colombo reveals that most residents are over ninety years of age with some degree of cognitive impairment. Further, that these seniors have been able to live longer in the community with the help of in-home services. This trend represents a double-edged sword. On the one hand, seniors are living longer in the community with home supports so they do not require residential care until they are much older and frailer. On the other hand, when clients do require residential care, their needs are heavier and more complex than they were even five years ago. This dynamic means that long-term care facilities will require a different mix and intensity of services to support an older, frailer senior in need of residential care. It also means that the range of in-home services provided by Villa Colombo on behalf of its Italian Canadian clients can continue to include services like personal care, nursing care, therapies, shopping, day programs, and meals on wheels all provided within the Italian cultural and spiritual context reflected in the organization's Mission, Vision and Values. As well, expanding in-home services options available to people 65 to 90 years of age in the community means that the long-term care system as a whole does not require the same number of beds that it did in the past. In future iterations of its Strategic Plan, Villa Colombo may consider revising its bed capacity to reflect this demographic trend.
3. Revitalization of Villa Colombo Playfair
There are two dimensions to the "Revitalization of Villa Colombo Playfair." One relates to the revitalization of the existing physical plant. The other dimension relates to revitalizing the Italian traditions that give Villa Colombo its vibrancy.
Under the rubric of this strategic theme, a master plan outlining the desire to improve and maintain an excellent environment for clients and employees is being undertaken. This task is quite timely given the changing demographics of clients accessing long-term residential care and given the new building standards for construction of new long-term care facilities. As client utilization of existing Villa Colombo services will attest, seniors want to live in their own communities with in-home support for as long as possible. Part of the revitalization will entail identifying additional funding sources, as well as planning for the proper sequencing of capital improvements in an occupied building.
"Revitalization" is not limited to the physical plant of Villa Colombo. In addition, the Strategic Plan sets a direction that calls for the revitalization of Italian traditions and of volunteerism - a cornerstone of Villa Colombo's success serving the Italian Canadian community. This strategic theme entails the development of a best practice model that focuses on a customer centric, culturally sensitive approach to service delivery. Emphasis is on planning programs and events that will enhance and promote Italian traditions and Villa Colombo's reputation focusing on family, faith, food and fun. The revitalization of Volunteerism has been positioned by the Strategic Planning Committee as an "enabler" in support of the Italian traditions. It is the volunteer component of Villa Colombo's programs that will serve to reinforce the Italian traditions among staff and clients. This strategic theme calls for a plan to increase the enrollment in the volunteer program at Villa Colombo.
Under this rubric of revitalization, Villa Colombo will also continue to strengthen spiritual programs, define "Italian" in the current environment, provide education on the complexities of the aging process and the continuum of care as it pertains to the Villa Colombo community, and advocacy on behalf of Villa Colombo clients, respecting their rights and their life choices.
4. Resident and Client Safety
The strategic theme “Resident and Client Safety” was chosen and added to the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan for two reasons. The first reason relates to the recommendation by the Accreditation Canada’s Patient Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC). The recommendation was made by Accreditation Canada recognizing that the “first critical step to committing to client safety is documenting this commitment. The expectation is that, by identifying client safety as a strategic theme within the organization and providing documentation through annual reports, accountability is strengthened. The inclusion of this theme will ensure that the Safety Culture at Villa Colombo is set by the leadership, which will in turn enhance the overall organizational culture. The second reason is that Villa Colombo has already made great progress towards introducing a culture of organizational safety. As such, the adoption of this strategic theme will serve to reinforce the message across the organization and beyond.
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