IRT
2018 - April 2021
The Challenge
IRT (formerly Illawarra Retirement Trust) is an aged care provider that has been building and managing seniors living facilities for more than 50 years. Their aim is to create thriving seniors’ communities for the future well-being of Australia’s aging population. As part of their commitment to innovation and continual business improvement, in 2019-20 IRT engaged Strategic Development Group to establish a co-design process that would engage local communities and prospective buyers. The co-design process aimed to create positive dialogue in the community and to gather insights to ensure IRT is designing for the future and establishing facilities that are innovative and fit for purpose.
The solution
Strategic Development Group, in close partnership with IRT, developed a tailored co-design process to bring together prospective customers and the local community to shape the future of seniors living. The co-design process was conducted at two levels:
Nationally through a quantitative online survey – to gather insights into big picture themes on buyer preferences from community members, industry employees and current seniors living residents
Locally (site-specific) - to test and validate the big picture findings through qualitative and quantitative activities including local community consultations, interviews, pop-ups, and workshops.
This process enabled the high-level quantitative findings to be validated for each site in the development pipeline, and site-specific design aspects to be tested. Subsequently (2021) we were engaged to run online workshops to test the plans for the Towradgi site, and to help run a drop-in session prior to DA submission
The outcome
The co-design process has enabled IRT to validate and re-align their understanding of future buyer preferences and local needs. It has also helped drive a customer-centric culture within IRT. The consolidated findings for the first site have been used to inform the specifics of the design brief and Development Application prior to its submission for Council approval.
Participants involved in the consultative process were highly engaged, expressing it was “a great opportunity to provide input”. They were pleased to see IRT interested in their thoughts. There is increased awareness of IRT and their plans for the site which is expected to lead to increased demand for the new village. Participants appreciated “having specialists involved”, and they felt IRT was “very responsive to their ideas”.
More information on the Towradji development can be found here.
