Trustees for The Baptist Home adopted a strategic plan to guide the ministry for the next several years at their regular meeting June 8.
Six directives included in the plan touch on all aspects of The Home's outreach – resident care, additional facilities, ministry to churches, financial stability, staff development and support services.
The new plan calls for The Home to expand its educational services. Although no target date has been set, the plan includes establishing a Center for Positive Aging at the Ironton campus.
The center, to be housed on the second floor of the Riggs-Scott Building, would provide seminars for caregivers and others interested in ministering to senior adults. The Baptist Home administrators also are considering offering a certification program in senior adult ministry, senior adult ministry specialist Frank Fain noted.
The center also would be used to provide in-service training for The Home's staff, a place for ministers to conduct sabbatical research, as meeting space for groups that work with senior adults and as space for community events.
The Home also hopes to be able to attract educational institutions to offer classes in the area, as well.
"If somehow through this center we could duplicate the passion and the care, it would greatly impact the ministry to the elderly," Fain said in an interview.
Under the strategic plan, The Baptist Home will expand independent living and assisted living facilities, with a goal to move its senior adult population to 50 percent independent living, 25 percent assisted living and 25 percent full residential care.
The plan calls for a marketing study to examine other types of retirement living communities and to determine the need for additional campuses in other parts of the state.
The Home staff will consider broadening resident services to include wellness centers, additional recreational opportunities, and off-campus services, including home health care and a parish nursing program.
Marketing and fundraising also will be emphasized. Plans call for a capital campaign to fund complete renovation of the Ironton campus and for other building projects. Staff will concentrate on finding new revenue sources, developing income-producing ministries and developing new benevolence guidelines.
Fain explained that the plan builds on goals set in 1999 and establishes a direction for the future. "It's a dynamism, a looking forward," he said. "The plan shows we are moving forward."
"It will take time. We will start tomorrow, but it will take time to get people's attention," noted president and CEO Larry Johnson.
During the meeting, trustees highlighted progress The Home had made on its 1999 strategic plan. Continuum of care was established on The Home's campuses at Ironton, Chillicothe and Ozark, with assisted and independent living facilities available at all sites. A senior ministries foundation was established.
The Home made changes in its public relations and development programs. Over the past five years, The Home also expanded its ministry to churches and associations.
