Adviser Winter 2019-20 LeadingAge New York Adviser LeadingAge NewYork Winter 2019-20 | Page 14

Feature
New Paths and New Eyes: The Community
at Sunset Wood Rings in 2020 with
Wellness Program and Leadership Change
By Jeff Diamond
F
Dominick Manfredo
or not-for-profit aging services
providers, 2020 and the coming
decade are almost certain to be a time of
significant change and innovation. This
reality is perhaps most evident in the case
of The Community at Sunset Wood, where
plans are well underway to develop new
programming and services in the new year
– under the watch of a new set of eyes.
With the departure of Rev. Carol Jubenville
after 24 years of leadership, Dominick
Manfredo is set to assume the role of
executive director of the New Hartford
senior living community on Jan. 1 st . For
Manfredo, who joined Sunset Wood in
2016 as director of operations, working
in partnership with Rev. Jubenville has
helped foster a deep appreciation for the
community’s mission and a desire to keep
building on it in the future.
“Training under Carol, I have been able to
learn about who we are, what we do and,
most importantly, why we do it,” Manfredo
shares. “While we are a small organization
with only 66 units, our mission is to take
care of each one of our tenants each and
every day and make them become a little
more like family.”
Providing tenants with a high quality of life
and taking a creative approach to help them
maintain that quality of life are chief among
“We’re going to take a look at each individual person and
try to help them with whatever they might be interested in
– or with what they thought they would never be interested
in, introducing them to something new...”
Manfredo’s goals as executive director. To
accomplish those goals, the community
plans to introduce a comprehensive
Wellness Program next year that will aim to
help tenants achieve a sense of wholeness.
“We’re going to take a look at each
individual person and try to help them
with whatever they might be interested
in – or with what they thought they would
never be interested in, introducing them
to something new,” explains Manfredo,
who co-managed a New Hartford wellness
company and authored a book on the
subject prior to arriving at Sunset Wood.
Beyond the traditional physical elements
of wellness like movement and exercise,
the program will place a large focus on
spirituality, asking tenants questions such
as: Who are you as a person? How can you
self-reflect on things? How can you become
more comfortable with who you are in this
stage of your life? The introduction of new
technology to connect tenants to the digital
space of wellness will also be critical. Plans
are in the works to install building-wide
Wi-Fi, Manfredo notes, enabling tenants
to utilize services like Amazon’s Alexa that
can provide medication and appointment
reminders and assist with other tasks.
Lastly, virtual reality and livestreams will
also be important pieces of the program,
bringing tenants to their church services or
even faraway locations from the comfort of
their own environment.
For Manfredo, utilizing technology and
other services to keep tenants at home,
happy and social for as long as possible –
what he anticipates will be the top focus of
(See New Paths and New Eyes on page 14)
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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Winter 2019-20