Hidden Gems: Meet Renita Henson of A Day Place

Today we’d like to introduce you to Renita Henson.

Hi Renita, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
A Day Place was conceived and created in 2017. Longmont had a longstanding adult day care program in place that announced it was closing its doors. All of the members and families were stunned and one of the daughters said, “Someone has to do something!”. I thought to myself, “I can do that. Why not?” I had been a nurse for over 35 years at this time. My full-time job was the Senior Wellness Nurse for the community hospital and part of my duties were the oversight of the Adult Day Care program. I knew that the service this program offered was so valuable that it could not just go away. The community still needed a place for adults to have day time care. I went home and talked to my husband about it. He agreed as long as I could find the funding needed to start up. I went out to several banks for loans and found one that was willing to take a risk on us.
From that moment on, I learned how to develop and start a business, another member’s daughter offered to canvas churches for room to rent and found one at the seventh church she talked to. I created a name, studied the rules, created a structure and got all the legal bases in place. The program was blessed to receive chairs and program materials from the previous program. All of this took place in six (6) weeks’ time.
A Day Place door opened on May 1, 2017 with no lapse in service for anyone that was in attendance at the other program. Employees were welcomed to come to A Day Place if they wished.
The original members attended until COVID. During that time, we had to close our doors for 18 months. When we were able to reopen, only two of the original members were able to return to us. We have slowly rebuilt the number of people that attend up to the numbers we had before COVID.
A Day Place is very blessed to be a small business that serves the people in surrounding communities with adult day care. Our members have so much fun and share joy in the daily activities. The families are able to have respite time and either work or do chores or just relax for a few hours.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Have you ever heard the saying, if it is meant to be it will happen. It should not be hard? That has been my experience with getting A Day Place started and keeping it running.
True struggles were watching the members and other elders in the community be locked away from loved ones during COVID. That was heart wrenching!
Day to day struggle is the art of doing business. Having enough paying customers to pay the bills and enough staff to take care of the customers. But each time either of these have tried to rise to the top, prayers were answered and the numbers came to the place they need to be.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
A Day Place is a social adult day care program. We serve people that are in need of support to do activities through out the day. Our predominant members have some memory loss issues. They are unable to navigate utilizing community or senior centers for classes and projects. Rather than have your loved one sitting in a chair and watching tv all day, they can attend this program and have interaction with other people as well as participate in activities that stimulate their mind and keep their physical body moving. Research has shown that socialization as well as mental and physical activities allow people to spend longer in their own homes.
A Day Place is known for being a fun and joyful place to spend the day. We are known for being kind, considerate and demonstrate caring for others. We allow families to have personal time to work or do chores or just have down time to read a book. At the end of the day our members tell their families how much fun they had.
We are different from other adult day programs in the area in that we are not part of a facility that provides higher levels of care such as assisted living and memory care. We are community based and supported.
What I am most proud of is that A Day Place is able to provide excellent service to people with varying levels of memory deficits and respite for their families. I am proud that the staff are faithful to the program and the members and that every one of them says how much they love working with the population we serve. I am proud that we offer such a needed service to the community around us. I am proud to work with fellow community programs such as Meals on Wheels and Boulder County Area Agency on Aging. I am proud of myself, my husband and several close friends that helped pull off starting this valuable business in six weeks and that we are still in business nine (9) years later.

Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I believe luck relies on attitude and belief. I would say that I have had good luck in both my life and in creating and running a business. When I have had the mental energy to draw even better luck, in the past, I have even won a prize or two.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://adayplaceforus.com