A partnership between Rockwood Retirement Communities and Whitworth University is proving to be beneficial for residents and students at the neighboring Spokane organizations.

Last year, Rockwood completed the rebranding and redevelopment of its North Side campus, dubbed Rockwood at Whitworth, at 10322 N. Middleton Drive.

The partnership has been in the works for over five years now, but the opportunities for Rockwood residents and Whitworth students are relatively new.

“Knowing that we wanted to completely redevelop our campus up north and that we were literally across the street from Whitworth, we thought it made sense,” says Eowyn Sallis, vice president of sales and marketing at Rockwood.

The relationship includes a variety of perks for Rockwood residents.

The 250 residents at Rockwood at Whitworth, about 20-25% of whom are Whitworth alumni or retired faculty, can enroll in complimentary classes at the school.

“What Whitworth does is they try to put together 20 or 30 classes that our residents can choose from,” Sallis says. “Before the community opened a little over a year ago, we did a survey of incoming residents and asked them what types of classes they would be more interested in.”

Trisha Coder, associate director of media relations at Whitworth, says five Rockwood residents enrolled in classes during the first two semesters since that opportunity became available. She expects that number will grow as the partnership continues to develop.

The classes offered to residents are traditional classes that are taken by Whitworth students, but they must meet certain parameters, Coder says. They have to be classes that have open seats available, don't require prerequisites, and are lecture-based.

Classes taken by Rockwood residents last spring include Ancient and Modern Worldviews, Worldviews and the Role of Reason, and Cultural History of China, Sallis says.

The partnership also includes free access for the residents to the school’s aquatic center.

“They have a great aquatic center. There are certain times that we’re able to take residents over there to utilize the aquatic center for water aerobics or swimming,” Sallis says. “It’s a really nice benefit for our residents.”

Other benefits for Rockwood residents include free access to Whitworth sporting events, discounted rates for musical performances, free access to the school’s Lied Center for the Visual Arts, and a guest library card for the school’s library.

“If we have enough residents that want to go, we’ll provide the transportation over there and program it into our activity calendar,” says Sallis.

Residents also have access to the school’s dining hall and coffee shops, although they have to pay for those services.

Residents who are still business owners are able to utilize the school’s Handshake job platform, Coder says.

“Some of them are business owners, and so they can actually use our Handshake system to recruit our students for their business purposes,” says Coder. “If they have job opportunities available within their companies, they can use Handshake to employ our students.”

                                                                                                                                               Rockwood Retirement Communities
Roughly 20% to 25% of the 250 Rockwood at Whitworth residents are either alumni or retired faculty from Whitworth University.

For Whitworth students, the partnership between the two organizations provides them with convenient job and volunteering opportunities.

Sallis says some recent graduates work at the Rockwood at Whitworth campus, and students currently enrolled at Whitworth work part time jobs within the retirement campus’s dining services department.

“It’s been highly beneficial,” Sallis says. “It’s a really easy place for them to gain great job experience, and it’s walkable to the campus.”

Students have also utilized the Rockwood event center.

“One that comes to mind was an improv group that came and did improv for the residents,” Sallis says.

Connections also have been made between occupational and physical therapy programs at Rockwood and Whitworth, creating experiential learning opportunities for students to work with residents, Sallis says.

Students from those programs created a big community garden for the residents to have a sensory space they can spend time in, Coder adds.

The relationship between Rockwood and Whitworth follows a nationwide trend, Sallis says.

“We were seeing in the industry conferences that we attend nationally that other communities were affiliating with universities to provide opportunities for lifelong learning and intergenerational programming,” says Sallis.

Both Sallis and Coder say this partnership is the first of its kind in Spokane. 

“It’s evolving, because it’s still fairly new, but I think we’re off to a great start,” Sallis says. “It will continue to evolve as more time passes, and residents have a lot of ideas on things they would like to see happen.”

Looking ahead, the two organizations are working on putting together a speaker series for residents, Sallis says.

“Right now, we’re working to put together a speaker series where professors will come to our campus and teach seminar-type classes,” Sallis says. “Our next phase in the relationship is providing some educational opportunities on our campus that are really easy for our residents to access.”

Future relationships between Rockwood and other Whitworth programs also are being considered, Coder says.

“They’re working on a partnership with community health, and possibly public health, to talk about intergenerational studies on activities and longevity of life,” says Coder. “It’s really a wonderful opportunity for both them and our students to learn from each other.”

In addition to the Rockwood at Whitworth campus, the organization also operates the Rockwood South Hill campus, at 2903 E. 25th.

“We have all-time high occupancy at both of our campuses right now,” Sallis says. “Our Whitworth campus essentially filled up within the first year of being open. I think that’s a great testament to the power of this relationship with the university.”