Build Your Bench: Green House Train-the-Trainer This Spring.
March 2–6, 2026 • Poydras Home • New Orleans
Early registration savings end December 31
One of the most powerful ways to strengthen the Green House model is to grow educators from within your own organization and before December 31, 2025, Green House operators can save up to $1,500 by booking early.
This spring, AgingIN is offering the Green House Educator: Train-the-Trainer Program, a five-day, in-person course designed exclusively for Green House partners.
The program prepares participants to confidently deliver Green House Core Education, deepen their operational understanding of THE GREEN HOUSE® PROJECT model, and ensure training consistency across homes and neighborhoods.
Click to save and learn more here.
March 2–6, 2026 • Poydras Home • New Orleans.
Early registration savings end December 31.
- Builds internal training capacity
- Grounds education in real home values and daily practice
- Strengthens alignment across teams and settings
Year-End Pricing (Limited Time)
Green House operators can take advantage of special year-end pricing when registering by December 31:
- One participant: $2,750 (regularly $3,250)
- Two participants: $5,000 (save $1,500)
👉 Download the flyer to learn more.
👉 Register now to secure discounted pricing before December 31.
Strong homes start with confident educators and this program helps you build both.
Save the Date: AgingINnovation Conference August 10 – 13, 2026.
Peak Purpose: Redefining How We Live and Age.
AgingIN is back in 2026—and it’s shaping up to be our most inspiring conference yet.
This year’s keynote speaker, Manley Feinberg, brings a powerful message drawn from both extreme mountaineering and executive leadership. A former Build-A-Bear Workshop executive, Manley helped earn the company a spot on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® list four years in a row. His unforgettable keynote explores courage, resilience, and connection, reminding us that leading people and climbing mountains require the same fundamentals.
Save the date to join changemakers, caregivers, and innovators from around the world who are building a future where aging means living with dignity, purpose, and joy.
Experience Three Days Of:
- Powerful, purpose-driven keynotes
- Interactive sessions on person-directed living and innovation
- Hands-on pre-conference intensives
- Meaningful networking with global change agents
- PLUS: A Pre-Conference Day on Person-Directed Wellness
In 2026, AgingIN goes head-on into wellness. This special pre-conference day focuses on delivering wellness across your entire organization—from care professionals to residents. When up to 80% of comorbidities can be influenced by lifestyle, it’s time to put that knowledge into action. Learn more here.
Coming in Early 2026: A New Communications Toolkit for Green House Homes.
In early 2026, all Green House homes will have access to a brand-new communications toolkit. The toolkit is designed to make it easier for Green House homes to tell their story as well as the story of person-directed living. It brings together professionally developed resources that support marketing, recruitment, and community awareness, while reinforcing the value and credibility of the Green House model.
What to Expect:
- The toolkit will include high-impact assets.
- Ready-to-use advertising templates
- Clear, compelling website language and badges
- A customizable press release to share your story locally
- Tools that reinforce your connection to LinkedUP by AgingIN and the broader Green House network
- Inspirational tools for your care professionals and more, including methods for sharing their stories
More details will be shared in the months ahead. We’re excited to offer this new resource and support Green House homes as they continue to lead with people-first care in 2026 and beyond.
Green House in 2025: A Year to Be Proud Of.
Celebrating Green House Successes.
As we look back on a strong year and ahead to what’s next, there’s a lot to celebrate across the Green House community. Here are just a few highlights worth cheering:
- A year of Back to Basics, a Green House education series, was hosted all year long and covered a wide variety of topics. As a Green House operator, you have access to these anytime you need them. Just connect with us to ask. Topics included: A Leader’s Role as Model Champion; Building on “Real Home; The Meaning of “Meaningful Life; Coordinator Roles Demystified; Teamwork and Team Building; The Role of Onboarding in GH Success.
- Congratulations to our newest Green House Educators! Seventeen educators completed their training at Poydras Home in New Orleans in January. This group represented five organizations in development and five with open, operating Green House homes. In September, another class of ten educators graduated after attending the education in Loveland, CO at the Green House homes at Mirasol. This group represented 5 different states. They are now prepared to deliver Green House Core Education within their organizations.
- Expanding the Green House Family: Canada’s First Green House Homes at The Sanctuary in Ontario. We’re thrilled to welcome our neighbors to the north! In May we celebrated with a housewarming visit to their community.
- A North Carolina First: Thrivemore opened the first Green House home in North Carolina this fall. A true milestone, and by all accounts, a fabulous success.
- The AgingIN conference in St. Louis was a smashing success, bringing together innovators, care teams, and leaders committed to people-first care. Here’s to the people, partnerships, and progress that made this year such a strong one, and to even more momentum ahead.
Coming in Spring: MERIT Surveys by AgingIN.
This February, AgingIN will launch the MERIT Survey—short for Model Enrichment Resource & Integrity Tool—a way to measure how Green House homes are living the model in practice.
When MERIT launches, every Green House home will be invited to have all team members participate, from care professionals to management.
Communities that take part will gain access to:
- Year-over-year results for their own home
- Insights into how they compare with other Green House homes nationwide
More details—including how to participate—are coming in January. Stay tuned!
With Gratitude: Honoring Those Who Retired in 2025.
This year, we pause to honor three remarkable leaders who retired after careers devoted to making aging services more humane, more thoughtful, and more deeply person-directed: Debbie Wiegand, Jeff Shireman, and Steve McAlilly.
Through education, coaching, and steady leadership, each of them helped advance person-directed living in meaningful and lasting ways. Their work reached far beyond individual programs or communities, positively impacting thousands of care professionals and the people they support. Because of their commitment, countless elders experienced care that honored dignity, choice, and humanity.
The influence of this kind of work is not always loud or immediately visible, but it is profound. It shows up in stronger teams, better environments, and everyday moments of respect and connection.
We are deeply grateful for Debbie, Jeff, and Steve, for their dedication, their generosity in teaching others, and the legacy they leave behind. Their impact will continue to be felt in the people, practices, and communities shaped by their work.
With appreciation and best wishes in their next chapters.
Remembering Alex Spanko.
As we come to the close of the year, we’re reminded that we don’t always know the full impact of our lives while we’re living them.
Alex Spanko was one of those people whose influence reached far beyond what could be easily seen. Through his work and his words, Alex helped shape a more just, humane vision for aging services—always grounded in dignity, truth, and deep respect for people. His contributions strengthened conversations, sharpened thinking, and quietly moved the work forward.
At AgingIN, Alex’s presence mattered. He believed in the power of words to change systems and in the responsibility we share to center humanity in everything we do.
Susan Ryan reflected on Alex’s legacy this way:
“Alex had a rare gift for seeing both the system and the soul. He reminded us—through his work and his way of being—that progress begins with paying attention, telling the truth, and never losing sight of our shared humanity.”
Alex may never have known the full reach of his impact—but it lives on in this community and in the work ahead. As we step into a new year, we honor him by carrying forward the values he so clearly embodied.
Check Out Our Education and Events.
AgingIN is always adding more educational opportunities including webinars and symposiums. Visit our events page often to see what’s coming up next.