How to Build Community in Your Assisted Living Home
Aug 12, 2025
Want to run an assisted living home where residents feel at home — and families love visiting?
You'll need to not only provide great care, but also focus on creating a strong sense of community where everyone feels seen, supported, and valued.
In this post, I’ll break down:
-
Why building a strong community is a game-changer in residential assisted living
-
4 simple ways to create a connection inside your home
-
Easy strategies to keep the community going long-term
Let’s get into it π
Check out this video, too:
Why Community Matters π‘
Most people worry that their loved one will feel lonely in assisted living. But with the right setup, the opposite can be true.
When you create a real connection inside your home:
-
Residents go from feeling isolated to being included
-
Families feel confident that their loved one is truly cared for
-
Your home builds a great reputation in your community
Social connection also improves mental health, structure, and joy — especially for seniors with dementia or mobility issues.
This is one of the most powerful ways to separate your home from the competition.
4 Easy Ways to Build Community π¬
You don’t need a fancy facility or a big staff to create a real connection. Just focus on these simple things:
1. Let Residents Decorate Their Rooms π¨
Encourage them to bring personal items:
-
Family photos
-
Artwork or posters
-
Trophies or awards
-
Favorite books or blankets
It gives them control and comfort — and turns a care home into their home.
One of our residents used to train show dogs. Her whole room was filled with awards and dog portraits. She was so proud of it.
2. Display Resident Photos πΈ
Put professional-style portraits outside each resident’s room. It helps with:
-
Memory recall (especially for dementia)
-
Familiarity between residents and staff
-
Adding personality and pride to the space
Families love seeing this when they visit. It’s a simple way to say: you belong here.
3. Create a Fun Activity Calendar π
Most states multiple activites per day, get creative with your activities:
-
Bingo and board games
-
Painting, yoga, or karaoke
-
Trivia nights, movie nights, or themed parties
Assign a staff member to coordinate activities. A solid calendar is also great because it creates something they can look forward to each day.
4. Eat Meals Together Around the Table π½οΈ
This is one of the best ways to create a connection.
When residents eat family-style:
-
They build friendships
-
They look forward to meals
-
They feel like they’re part of something
In small homes, this is easy to do — and it makes a big impact.
How to Keep the Community Going π
Creating a good culture is one thing. Keeping it alive takes consistency.
Here’s how to do it:
β Check In with Residents
Ask them:
-
How are you doing?
-
Is there anything you need?
-
What’s working well — or not?
When people feel heard and see you act on feedback, trust goes way up.
π Celebrate Milestones
Make it fun:
-
Birthdays = decorate and celebrate
-
Holidays = host a meal, invite families
-
Rehab recoveries = throw a mini welcome-back party
These little moments build deep emotional connection.
π‘ Stay Flexible
Every home is different. Every resident is different.
The best homes adjust and improve based on what their people need.
Want Help Building a Home Families Love?
π― Grab the FREE Business Plan Checklist to start building your assisted living home the right way.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Got questions? Leave a comment or DM me — I’d love to help.
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:51
Hey friend, it's Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living Investing. I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. Excited to have you here with me on the channel. Today we're talking about how to build a community inside of your assisted living facilities that residents and their families just absolutely love. So, if you're interested in learning how to do that, make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video. Hey friend, it's Brandon
00:00:27 - 00:01:17
Gustoson. Welcome back to Assisted Living Investing. Before we get started, I want to remind you to go and grab your free underwriting calculator. Go to assistedlivinginvesting.net and the big blue box in the top right corner, you can grab your free underwriting calculator. That's going to help you launch your assisted living business and understand if this is going to be something that makes sense for you financially moving forward. Now, with that said, let's get into the topic of today's video. We're talking
00:00:51 - 00:01:54
specifically about how can you create a community that residents and their families absolutely love that's going to allow you to be successful in your building your assisted living business, your assisted living brand, and helping bring those residents and their families into your community and feel valued and excited to be inside of your community. All right. Now, before we get into how to build it, I want to explain to you why you need to build a strong community for your assisted living business. One
00:01:23 - 00:02:16
of the big reasons why you need to build that community is because it allows those residents to feel valued, to feel excited, to feel loved inside of the community. This is why you need to do that. It really allows you to build that relationship with them and allow them to feel like they belong as they are staying inside of the facility. It's going to help reduce the loneliness that that residents feel as one of the big hang-ups that people have about going into assisted living is they feel like
00:01:49 - 00:02:46
their mom, their dad, they themselves are going to feel lonely when in reality it's not the case because there's so many more people there. They're no longer living alone and waiting for the nurse to come. there's 10 residents inside the house and you can talk to them plus the staff and and it really it allows you to get beyond that loneliness, but that's still a barrier as people are trying to come in to the facility. It allows you to improve mental health struggles. Depression and
00:02:17 - 00:03:17
anxiety can really be negated or reduced by being in a home like assisted living because it allows you to build those relationships with people and work with them and feel loved again. So it can help out a ton with mental health issues including things like dementia because there is regularity and structure to the day and it can help people out that deal with things like dementia which can be very very helpful. It also allows family to feel more confident in the care that's being provided to their loved
00:02:48 - 00:03:39
one. So that's something about like home health is great, but home health is only going to be at the house for a few hours a day, a few hours a week, and then they leave and then you're going to have the rest of the day or the rest of the week, this big gap where there's no extra care there. And that can be a big burden, even just a mental burden on families that want to make sure that their loved ones are receiving the care that they need and deserve. And so that's something that you can help out with as
00:03:13 - 00:04:08
an assisted living facility. And it also encourages social interaction and participation. Going back to loneliness, people feel like they might feel lonely, but in reality, there's so much social engagement and activities and things that are going on inside of the facility that allows people to feel, you know, oh, cool. Yeah, we have this lunch thing or we're doing a dance party here or we're playing bingo or we're doing art class or whatever it is, yoga, whatever activities you have. It really allows
00:03:41 - 00:04:38
residents to feel engaged and excited about being inside of the facility. So, that's another really big thing as a reason for why you should be building out this community. All of those things together come to, you know, giving people a level of comfort that you know what you're doing inside of your assisted living facility and you can provide that care and and that love that they need as they are starting to adjust to the world of assisted living. Now, let's talk a little bit more specifically about how you can build
00:04:09 - 00:05:03
that strong community with your residents. So, there's a lot of things that you can do as you're trying to build that community out. Number one is going to be personalizing their room decor. You can allow them to bring in posters or artwork or or things that they have from, you know, their past life. In one of our facilities, we had a resident who was a dog show trainer. And so, uh she would go to dog shows and and things like that. She loved dogs. She she was incredible lady. She's she's
00:04:36 - 00:05:31
passed on, but so much fun to talk about. And her room was dog pictures everywhere. Awards she had won at her dog show and things like that. When you allow a resident to have the personalization that they want inside of their room, it brightens their attitude, lets them feel like, you know, I've got some control here. I'm really excited to be here. They understand me. They they love me and they want my unique personality here. And and it's a really beneficial thing. So doing little things
00:05:04 - 00:05:53
like that can really go a long way allowing them to have that personalized decor. Having pictures of the residents as well is something that's super fun. In one of our homes, we have outside of the rooms the pictures of the residence which helps them remember which room is theirs cuz sometimes honestly they will forget that. So when they see their picture, they know, hey, this is my room. It allows people to put a face to the name and and think who it is. Um visitors, the staff, new staff allows
00:05:29 - 00:06:16
you to remember who it is. And if you can do this professionally, it's something that's really fun and cool and and something that families really enjoy seeing as well. So their picture, their portrait somewhere inside the facility is is something that's really fun. It could be like a wall that just shows, hey, here's all the residents of our facility, could be outside their rooms, could be inside their rooms, you can put it wherever you want, but it's something that's really beneficial. We found is
00:05:52 - 00:06:39
something that residents really enjoy seeing those pictures and and they have a lot of fun with it. Next one is going to be activities and events. So activities and events inside of your facility are really important. It's generally a state requirement that you do regular activities like at least one a day, sometimes multiple a day. And so you have to do that. You have to kind of track them. But when you're doing those things and it can't just be like bingo or puzzles every single time. It's got
00:06:16 - 00:07:09
to be fun little things helps out with motor skills. Engaging opportunities where you can come together and build these relationships. It's a requirement, but also it's a ton of fun and something that's really exciting. Some facilities hire like an activities coordinator. Some people will just delegate it to some one of their employees. Some administrators will take that on. But building out a a really robust activity calendar can really give people the opportunity to feel comfortable in what
00:06:43 - 00:07:32
they're doing and and the interactions they have with the people that are there. And then a fourth one is having meal time together. So if you think and read about family time and the importance of having meals together, it's the same thing with assisted living. When you have meals together and you have those conversations, you build those relationships, it really can help people feel like they're not isolated, that they have this sense of community, that they feel loved and they're
00:07:07 - 00:07:56
building these relationships with people. It it removes that concern about being lonely because it goes away because you are having these meals together and and building those relationships. Now, in large facilities, you're going to have like big large cafeteria room and there's going to be these little clicks and things like that of the people that sit by which, you know, certain people or whatever. But in a small residential style home, you're just going to have, you know, the dining
00:07:31 - 00:08:27
room, maybe an extension of the kitchen where people come together and they eat and it really fosters this community. Um there was it's part of the reason why I love residential assisted living because of the the close relationships that the staff and the residents are able to create and it comes through doing activities and meal time together and and all of these things we've been talking about really allows you to build these strong strong relationships that build that community and make people
00:07:59 - 00:08:50
excited to live inside the home with you. Now as you are building out that community something else that I want you to be aware of is you've got to maintain it. You got to keep this the community thriving. You got to do those base things, those four things we talked about, room decor, pictures, meal time, activities, and events. You want to do all of those things. Very important for you to do that, but you want to keep going and and going beyond that. And a few ideas that I have for you, some tips
00:08:24 - 00:09:13
on how to create and maintain that community that is thriving and people are still excited to go there, is checking in on your residents needs on a regular basis. You want to make sure that you're meeting those needs. they have everything that they need, that they feel comfortable inside of the home, and they know how to really progress and and reach their health goals. You want to be making sure that they all of their needs are always met. It's absolutely key. It's crucial. It's
00:08:49 - 00:09:34
a big part of assisted living. You got to make sure that those needs are met. But that can go a long way to building that thriving community to let them know, hey, they care about me. like they're they're asking me on a consistent basis how I'm doing and if I'm not doing good, they're they're actually making changes for me because they know I need it. That that goes a long way towards doing that. You also want to celebrate big events and that could be birthdays or like, hey, they
00:09:12 - 00:10:06
went to rehab and they came back and so you're celebrating them coming back. Throw parties. Um I mean these aren't, you know, high school, college parties where people are going crazy. It's like, hey, you know, we got a cake or we made their favorite meal. um those types of ways of celebrating when somebody comes in, it can really make a difference and and make people feel like a family. Holidays, you know, we like to do barbecues in the summer for the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, a bunch of those
00:09:39 - 00:10:27
types of holidays and bring family and let them kind of interact with the residents and and get a feel for them and what the house is like and and people really enjoy it. And it's been a really beneficial thing in in our homes to do those types of activities and and events and celebrate those things with our residents. Another one is to be just adaptable to resident feedback. Resident tells you, "Hey, I don't like how this happens. I wish we would do these types of activities. I wish we wouldn't do
00:10:03 - 00:10:53
that." You want to take that feedback and you have to be respectful of all of the other residents. So, you do have to manage, you know, 10, however many residents you have in your facility, 10, 20, uh, and you're juggling all of those things. But if it is a reasonable request and it's not going to step on anybody else's toes, you want to incorporate some of those suggestions from the residents because it allows them to feel valued and excited to continue living inside of the facility
00:10:28 - 00:11:13
with you. So to recap this video, we've been talking a lot about how to build that thriving community. We talked about number one, you know, why you need to build that thriving community, and then we talked about how you can do that with some some really solid tips and helping move that along. found this video to be helpful, make sure you like the video, subscribe, and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we put out content like this. Go live on Tuesdays, we put out content on Thursdays, and
00:10:51 - 00:11:34
would love to help you out along your journey of launching your own assisted living business. If you go to ali masterastermind.com and fill out the questionnaire, it will allow me to see where you're at on your journey and give you some specific guidance on how I can help you make the progress that you want to make so you can launch your assisted living business and create the time and financial freedom that you're looking for. Does residential assisted living sound interesting to you, but you don't
00:11:12 - 00:11:53
know how to get started? At Assisted Living Investing, I'm here to help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. And remember, it doesn't take a lot, just a little bit. Just keep going step by step by step. And I promise you that if you do that and you are consistent and persistent, you will be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great day. [Music]
Download Your FREE Calculator
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.