In January ’07 Live Oak Institute launched a nine month training program called the The Joyful Journey From Institution to Community. Funded by the Y&H Soda Foundation, The Joyful Journey provides 64 hours of training for 45 people from five homes.

The purpose of the program is to establish an affordable and effective infrastructure for a culture built upon person-centered community.

All culture change begins with the self, and The Joyful Journey began with each training participant taking the Champions Pledge and agreeing to recruit others within the five homes to the way of the champion. There are three core components to the Joyful Journey.

• A regular and frequent resident-centered community meeting where residents develop a voice and a choice and learn, grow and get to know one another.
  
  
• A weekly Champions Meeting for staff and residents who take the pledge where they learn, plan and celebrate together.
  
  
• A commonly agreed upon Code of Practice that embodies the home’s values and supports all stakeholders in the homes as they make the values an integral part of everyday practice.

Participating homes include the Morton Bakar Center in Hayward, Chaparral House in Berkeley, Mercy Retirement and Care Center and Piedmont Gardens in Oakland, and The Waters Edge, a skilled nursing home in Alameda.

Champion's Pledge

I commit to being a champion of our culture and will consistently work to build bridges between people and create harmony and consensus within our community.

I will serve the elders as they express their voices and make the big and small decisions that define their lives.

I will seek to work and live by our community’s values.

I will strive to enable the human spirit to thrive in every encounter.

As a champion, I will take my own learning, growth and development seriously in all of the dimensions of my life.

I will stand for the good of the organization, supporting its prosperity as we make our values real and work to transform the culture of aging