Interviews with Community Leaders About Diversity Six leaders from senior communities were interviewed about how their community has addressed the issue of diversity. Most indicated that they recognized there was a need to create a more diverse, welcoming and inclusive community. For two communities, diversity and inclusiveness were part of their founding principles, so residents entering those communities were required to accept that philosophy. Insights from several community leaders are recapped throughout this report. A practice that was noted by several communities was that, for the community’s independent living residents to become more diverse, the community had to first become more diverse internally (as opposed to marketing externally to diverse groups). This was accomplished by creating more diversity on the leadership team, creating a more diverse board, and if necessary, creating a more diverse staff. Concurrently, some communities also reached out to their local population by becoming involved with groups with diverse populations—often churches, cultural groups or educational groups. Communities also advertised to diverse populations. 7 Community Leadership Insights Ingleside Communities, Washington, DC —Excerpts from an interview with Monique Eliezer, Chief Officer of Sales, Marketing and Strategy An independent, not-for-profit organization, Ingleside provides management and strategic leadership for three premier Washington, DC metro area Life Plan Communities. Community populations in its market are generally well-educated and culturally and socially diverse. Ingleside’s corporate culture is self-described as progressive and promotes and encourages all forms of diversity in its communities—racial, religious, sexual and economic. Ingleside uses traditional print advertising to target and outreach to diverse communities. After placing advertisements in local LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transsexual) publications, the LGBT community in the metropolitan DC area now “advertises for Ingleside,” and the publications later did a story on Ingleside’s welcoming attitude toward the LGBT community. Ingleside has tried to reach out to racially diverse populations by contacting church groups—a tactic that has resulted in mixed success. Invitations to smaller groups of 10 or 15 people from a church group to visit the community have proven more successful. As for economic diversity, it has found that, in minority populations, there is often not a comfort level for entering a living environment that is substantially different (less racially diverse) compared to their current living environment.