Letter To Our Community
To Our Community,
From its very foundation, Signature HealthCARE made a commitment to be an organization with a deep calling to change from day-to-day. To us, “change is progress” and our foundational battle cry of “radical change” is focused on improving our long-term industry. We often reflect on our failures, our setbacks, and our victories, continually trying to create our own version of “change.” We know that to accomplish true change everyone must feel uncomfortable enough to see what is missing from our optimal state of being, as a people, which is often obvious to the insiders of any important cause. As a result, the quest to seek change becomes a big part of you.
As a community-based healthcare organization, we want everyone to know that during these complicated times our mission, our pillars, Learning, Spirituality, and Innovation, and our ‘Sacred Six’ values, Be Compassionate, Embrace Teamwork, Show Respect, Have Integrity, Be Patient, and Encourage Positivity, still serve as our cornerstones. They all define our intent, our actions, and our responsibility to each other and the communities we serve. We expect our leaders, stakeholders, and business partners to live our Sacred Six values in the workplace and beyond, every day.
Our professional passion for industry change in long-term care stems from the inequalities of the healthcare system we observed and experienced firsthand when we established our company. This system was grounded in poorhouse beginnings, inadequate funding that created social isolation, careless acceptance of meeting only the minimal needs of elders and their expectations, and oppressive government intervention that escalated existing tensions between all involved. As a diverse and community-based organization grounded in service, we feel a part of everything happening both inside and outside our care communities. Today is no different. We feel it, we listen for it, and we support change; change is progress!
As we fight through our largest organizational challenge ever with COVID-19, we find ourselves in the red-hot center of a battle to protect human life in this country, while at the same time, for public health reasons, cannot allow our families to visit or touch their loved ones in person. It’s a conflicting reality. Our diverse force of 10,712 frontline healthcare heroes have also lost friends who have served alongside them, have lost special residents who have become family, and have dealt with so much uncertainty from heightened societal fear about COVID-19, they were often avoided and even shunned in the very communities they serve. In response, we have set up internal food banks, crisis support systems, call centers, and meal delivery services for those who have been quarantined.
The COVID-19 virus has been crushing not only for Signature, but also for our African-American communities in the disproportionate loss of human life and community disruption. For us, the pandemic continues despite other areas of life and business that are now reopening and moving on. We want everyone to know and understand that protecting our Signature family from COVID-19 has been nothing short of a 24/7 singular focus. But that focus has not stopped us from whole-heartedly supporting the change going on outside our communities.
When you have a ‘caregiver army’ of healthcare heroes who give their hearts to their vocation, we rarely see anything but our Sacred Six values shining through the work of our teams. But we always have and always will continue to focus on and accelerate change within our organization, as it is part of our cornerstone as a company. We will never allow anything to take hold of our Signature family, that does not support racial equality or the continued advancement of our African American stakeholders.
I have asked each our Signature stakeholders to honor our Sacred Six values outside of our four walls, 24/7, so our communities can see us supporting them and each other in our diverse Signature family and can feel our belief that equality for all can be realized and attained. We believe it should be ingrained in our personal integrity to serve and love others who are upset and frustrated, and to plant the seeds necessary for universal love to grow.
Change is coming in a big way, we all feel it, and the best part of it will be ignited by our deep compassion grounded in listening to those who want to share their injustices with us, so we can learn together. I believe our long-standing resiliency as an organization can awaken the hope that we can help create a stronger, more unified community and help bring change to a system that has often failed the African-American community.
We are proud to serve and care for so many great communities during these unparalleled times, and sincerely apologize that our volunteers, resident families, and community leaders cannot come inside our caring walls due to government mandates. We miss you. But, know that we are with all of you in taking the necessary steps to help make change and to improve racial equality and the policing of our communities where we are blessed to serve. Change is progress.
We Listen. To Learn. To Change. Every Day.
#SignatureStrong
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