Silver Connections Makes News!
From The Business Journal
Friday January 19, 2007
Sorting Through Senior Housing
Genevieve Gurns was 90 years old when she finally moved out of her home three months ago.
Now settled in a one-bedroom apartment in Algonquin's Eastgate Manor, the former Park Ridge
resident no longer has to worry about climbing stairs or getting a ride to a doctor's appointment.
Gurns has long had her eye on the retirement community, which is minutes away
from two daughters and a granddaughter, who visits her often.
"When they were building it, I said, 'Sometime I'd like to live there,' " Gurns said.
After her decision to move out of her home this year, Gurns looked at the facility again.
"I said, 'Yeah, this is the place I'd like to be,' " she said. "It's more like home than other places
where I was visiting friends."
Gurns had an easier time choosing a retirement residence than many seniors for whom the
experience can be highly emotional and, when sorting through the options, mind boggling.
That's the idea behind Silver Connections LLC, a new business opened by Cary businesswoman
Jennifer Prell and Bobbi Hauser, owner of Wauconda-based Life Styled Homes.
The business partners are providing seniors with housing referrals for retirement, assisted living,
memory care, or nursing-home communities.
Prell said there were more than 800 senior housing facilities in Illinois alone.
Illinois trailed only California in its volume of new senior housing construction in 2004,
according to a report released by the Washington-based American Seniors Housing Association.
Prell and Hauser don't charge seniors or their families for their services but receive a commission
from the roughly 50 communities with which they have contracts, including Sunrise Senior Living,
which operates Sunrise of Crystal Lake, and the Fountains at Crystal Lake, and Eastgate Manor.
Prell said the company's commitment was to seniors, and it would place residents in the
facility with the "best fit," contract or not.
Through interviews with clients and their families, Prell and Hauser determine the facility with the
most appropriate location and amenities to suit their needs and interests, considering such
specific details as whether they play bridge, like going to the mall, or eating at gourmet restaurants.
They also will take clients on tours of facilities and make sure they ask the right questions,
Prell said, noting that the process can take "anywhere from an hour up to a month."
"We can pretty much place any senior in any community," she said.
Prell said the Silver Connections process is "very fluid" because of the resources from her
business, Paxem Inc., through which she helps clients organize, style, and
pack their homes for a move.
The business partners "absolutely" saw a need for the service locally, Prell said.
Gurns said she put off moving out of her home until a sister living nearby passed away.
Now she said she enjoys the size of her bedroom and sitting room and the facility's lack of stairs.
But she's not slowing down. "I'm up and around," she said. "I don't need any care."
Silver Connections LLC
Phone: (847) 462-8266.
By LIZ WOLGEMUTH