Great buildings do not spring up from shifting sands. Instead, they come from a solid, intentional foundation that is built with deliberation and a broad sense of purpose.
For Piper Shores, 2015 was a year dedicated to building the strongest possible foundation to serve our community well into the future. This foundation began with identifying a strategic direction for the community established by our Board of Directors and engaging with our dedicated staff to help implement it. As we look back over the previous year, we are pleased to report significant momentum toward our strategic goals. We are enhancing our quality of care, improving the lives of our residents, and increasing our engagement with the wider community. We also made steady progress on our growth goal.
After much innovative planning and thoughtful consideration, we are excited to announce that our expanded assisted living and memory care residences are approved and ready for construction. Not only that, the building expansion includes the addition of a beautiful new arts building. We are very excited to be moving into the construction phase of both of these projects!
While construction design plans were being finalized in 2015, we also enhanced our resident gardening program, expanded our fitness center programming, and supplemented our social, cultural, and educational offerings for residents with a host of new events, guest lectures, and interest groups. In addition, we made a significant effort to supplement transportation options, including our Drive and Dine series, trips to Mt. Washington, visits to area museums, the symphony, concerts, and plays. The result is that our residents are more engaged than ever. In fact, resident programming increased 46% during the year.
As we continue to build on our strong foundation and look to the future, we are pleased to say our financial picture is also strong. We have an ever-growing wait list that currently offers about 1 to 5 year waits, depending on the style of home. Our community is thriving as never before, and people want to join our community like never before.
Download the full annual report to read about the many ways Piper Shores is living the mission to enrich and improve the lives of our residents. You will also find our financial results for 2015.