In days of old, towns were built around important community gathering places. They were social hubs. And while many may not realize it, the Niverville Heritage Centre fulfils that precise function.

For the past 20 years, it has stood proudly on nearly ten acres of land between Heritage Trail and Second Avenue South. The facility’s amenities include a renowned event centre, timber-framed atrium, pharmacy, dental centre, hair salon, daycare, licensed restaurant, and medical clinic with 13 resident clinicians.

Alongside all those essential services, every level of seniors housing can also be found here. These range from 55-plus life leases to assisted living, supportive living, and finally personal care. It’s all accessible without ever having to step outside.

Also on the same campus, residents and visitors can enjoy the memorial gardens, the pavilion, and garden plots for individual planting.

After all these years of successful operation, the Heritage Centre is still one of the only facilities of its kind in the country.

The campus was built on the dreams of visionaries who knew there had to be a way to keep residents at home for the duration of their lives, from birth to death. No longer should aging members of a community be forced to move away, and no longer should families have to travel long distances to visit them. Older couples no longer need be separated at the point when they require different levels of support. A short walk or scooter ride within the building can bring them together.

Executive Director

Ron Parent accepted the role of Heritage Centre’s executive director approximately one year ago. He came with many credentials, having worked in personal care positions, including management, for the past 25 years. His wife is a nurse who also works in the personal care system.

For Parent, what was unusual about the Heritage Centre was its social enterprise aspect. He describes it as a body with many parts, each one functioning in such a way as to serve the whole.

In other words, every bit of revenue generated through the event centre and tavern stays on campus. Every dollar gleaned from leases to the daycare, dental office, hair salon, or pharmacy helps to provide affordable living and amenities for the seniors who live there.

“We are a standalone, arms-length enterprise that is run independently of the town,” says Parent. “The town doesn’t give us any money.”

The Heritage Life Personal Care Home is the only living space on campus which receives basic funding by Southern Health–Sante Sud. Assisted and supportive living isn’t government-subsidized, often placing these kinds of facilities out of financial reach for the seniors who need them.

Cue the social enterprise model, which bridges the gap between those on fixed incomes and comfortable living spaces with built-in services like laundry and meals.

“Probably every couple of months we get somebody reaching out,” Parent says. “They say, ‘Hey, I heard about Niverville through a colleague or a conference and your name came up. Please share your journey and how things [operate].’ And we’re more than happy to share.”

Beyond seniors living, the campus’s many other amenities bring people together in different ways. The onsite daycare meets the needs of the very youngest members of the community. In turn, these little ones bring vigor and joy to the seniors.

The daycare also gives the Heritage Centre a leg up.

“I know that in healthcare and other jurisdictions, they’re talking about how to retain and recruit staff,” says Parent. “A lot of them are talking about [providing] onsite daycare to do that.”

When you’re a rural facility, recruitment is always a concern. Thanks to the social enterprise model, the staff at the Heritage Centre receive competitive wages and benefits packages. Long-term employees are celebrated.

ike so many businesses, though, the facility took a big hit during the pandemic. In the years following, Parent says that it’s been imperative to realign the Heritage Centre’s structure to manage sustainable and balanced budgets.

“Being new here, I’m able to ask a lot of questions and bring a different perspective,” Parent says. “That has helped us make some positive changes in regards to service delivery and [technology] that helps manage the workload more effectively. I also bring a different leadership philosophy. I make very few decisions and just try to empower my team to be the best they can be.”

To manage the capital costs of maintenance and upgrades, the Heritage Centre relies heavily on the generosity of donors who attend their annual fundraising gala or create legacy funds which are channelled through the Niverville Foundation.

Since Parent came onto the scene, administration has also been streamlined. And he says that administration is only half of his job. The other 50 percent of his day is spent among the staff and residents of Niverville Credit Union Manor and the personal care home, getting to know them on a firsthand basis.

Parent also provides personalized tours of the facility and makes himself available to families when they’re in the process of making some of their hardest life decisions.

Senior Resident

Leslie Nelson is a 91-year-old resident of the Niverville Credit Union Manor. She moved to town from Winnipeg three and a half years ago, shortly after her daughter’s family made their way to Niverville and fell in love with it.

Nelson lost her husband some 12 years prior but remembers all too well the challenge of daily visits after he was moved to a personal care home without her.

In 2021, Nelson’s daughter took her on a tour of the Heritage Centre.

“The thing that influenced me about this facility is it likens to something that I had read about in Europe,” Nelson says. “The concept of keeping [couples] together.”

Niverville’s senior living complex wasn’t the first one she’d explored.

“I had visited quite a few,” she says. “Certainly, there are a lot of good assisted living homes, but they needed a lot of fixing up. And this one [in Niverville] seems to have been addressing those problems.”

Nelson has made herself right at home in Niverville, staying busy with reading, knitting, and watching hockey. She enjoys regular visits from her kids and holds high praise for the Heritage Centre staff who come and go.

“The staff are wonderful. The girls are almost like my own daughters. I had a little [fall] a couple of weeks ago and everybody came in to check up on me. They’re all treating me like an old lady now!”

As a hockey fan, Nelson is also very intrigued by the local Nighthawks players who pay personal visits on occasion.

“When they brought the Nighthawks over here to play bingo with us last year, I met this one when we were sitting around the table talking hockey.”

Like herself, she says, he was an Ottawa Senators fan. The pair quickly bonded.

“Now when I read [The Citizen], I highlight his name and I’m going to make him a scrapbook.”

For Parent, it’s residents like Nelson who add bounce to his step and a purpose to his calling.

“If that was my parent, how would I want them cared for?” Parent asks himself. “Care at the right time and the right place. Knowing they’re not lonely, or bored, or feeling helpless. And to ensure that whatever their journey is, it’s a valuable one.”