Fairwinds - Woodward Park, Fresno CA

My father lived at Fairwinds for over 5 years. He loved living in this community very much. He told me on many occasions that moving to Fairwinds was the best decision we ever made together. If you are looking for a loving community with excellent staff, chose Fairwinds for your loved ones.

We had a great experience with our tour this morning. Crystal was very friendly and answered all our questions. Thank you

The management of Fairwinds Woodward Park in Fresno, CA were the most unkind and unprofessional I’ve ever dealt with, in any arena. The previous Fairwinds general manager (GM) who was responsible for the safety, and well-being of senior citizens, including my 95 year old father, was horrible. She was non-responsive, uncaring, and rude beyond belief. When she was finally forced to respond to me, her communication was harsh and condescending. She was devoid of humility, compassion, respect and professionalism. She had zero customer service skills, and based on what I saw, heard, and personally experienced, she led the Fairwinds residents and staff by fear and intimidation.
My 95 year old father lived at Fairwinds for 4 years, and I was the person he has entrusted to handle his affairs. Soon after moving my dad in to this facility that calls itself a “5 star Assisted Living” community, I began identifying problems, and having questions. Almost immediately, a very old gold ring that belonged to my dad’s father, disappeared from my dad’s nightstand. Very upsetting, but I had no proof of what happened. I contacted the assistant manager because I wanted to offer a reward for its “no questions asked” return. That person never followed up with me, the reward details were never communicated to the staff, and the ring was never returned. Soon after that, I started noticing issues with the food, food servers, housecleaning and laundry services, so I started by calling the front desk staff to discuss these. They were mostly disinterested and unprofessional and would transfer my calls to different voice mail boxes. I left several messages, that were never responded to. Later I was told by a Fairwinds manager, that the staff “doesn’t access their voice mail”. At that point, I started reaching out to Fairwinds GM. I tried communicating with her by email, most of which were never responded to. When I pressed her for a response, I would often receive a rude, dismissive response, full of condescension and irritation. She basically treated me as though I had no right to bother her. I was almost never given a direct answer to any of my questions, by the GM or anyone.
I began requesting a face to face meeting with the GM, which she refused. What I did get from the GM was a scathing email, demanding that I stop bothering her with my “barrage” of emails. After months of this, I decided to contact Fairwinds corporate office, Leisure Care based in Seattle WA. A Leisure Care corporate executive actually called me back. He listened and spoke to me with what seemed like empathy and respect. He even admitted that I should not be treated disrespectfully and denied a meeting request with the GM. I finally got my meeting, with the GM and assistant manager. It was incredible. They told me to “move my dad out! ”. And they said that right in front of my dad who attended the meeting!
Unfortunately, many Fairwinds residents and staff are unhappy with the negative atmosphere and lack of services at Fairwinds, but they are fearful of retaliation if they voice their dissatisfaction. I was constantly concerned for my father’s safety and well being, particularly with the medication mistakes. Mistakes made by new, untrained and unqualified staff, as well as totally antiquated and disorganized policies and procedures for handling medication.
I did everything I could to rectify things and keep my dad safe, happy, and protected. He has since passed away. I filed a complaint with the state, for which violations were found in the Fairwinds handling of my dad’s medication.
Bottom line. This place is probably a decent place to live for a healthy person in their 60’s or early 70’s, needing no “assisted living” services. Once you need assistance, the only safe option to is pay thousands of dollars more per month, to hire a legitimate outside care giver to come in and provide those services. Your aging loved ones deserve better. Good luck.

Fairwinds recently offered to serve as the lunch caterer for a large Education Summit & Senior Resource Fair hosted by the NorthPointe Community Church Elder Care Ministry on 5/06/23 on the church campus. To say that they stole the show would be an understatement! The food was more than abundant, the flavors were savory, and the service was joyful and efficient for the 250 people who were gathered to attend the conference and manage the resource booths. The team fashioned a summer kick-off menu of on-the-spot BBQ'd tri-tip, the best macaroni salad ever, the best-tasting baked beans ever, a fresh dinner roll, a spinach salad blend with dried cranberries in a light dressing, and a large piece of summer watermelon for each of our conference guests. They were prepared with a production line before they even arrived at the conference prep kitchen, readied all the meals, and had them served to our guests in less than 10 minutes! We can't say enough about how grateful we are for their dedication, joy, and "all-in" serving hearts! We want to move in with them! THANK YOU FAIRWINDS - WOODWARD PARK!

Beautiful landscape and property. Staff is really nice. The food is good when it’s hot and the servers are attentive.

I moved my 83 year-old mother into Fairwinds a month ago, but I have been working with the staff for about one year. Crystal Ramos is a saint and I don't know what I would've done without her. Throughout the year I was trying to encourage my mom to move there, Crystal spent DOZENS of hours visiting my mom in her home, picking her up and bringing her to Fairwinds so my mom could participate in the activities, taking sometimes 10 to 15 calls from my mother daily (she would forget that she had already called), helping me fill out paperwork for various apartments (my mom kept changing her mind at the last minute), etc, etc, etc. Crystal has the patience of a Saint and I know she treats my mother beautifully when I'm not around because my mother adores her (not an easy thing to accomplish with my mom). My mom has TBI-induced cognitive issues that make her prone to bouts of paranoia and greatly impair her short term memory; Crystal and the rest of the staff at Fairwinds make her feel safe, loved and valued. My mother is VERY difficult to please (she was stingy with compliments even before her accident), but all I hear her say is how kind everyone is to her and how loved she feels -she doesn't say 'most of the staff is kind'. She says 'everyone is so kind to me" - WOW. Before moving my mom in, I was working with a local caregiving organization and my mother went through 11 different caregivers; she didn't trust them and would complain that they were 'mean' to her. So I never imagined I could find a place where my mom loves all the staff. I am just floored and forever grateful. For example, Cheryl - who teaches exercise/balance classes and cooking classes - has a wealth of knowledge about the brain and cognitive issues; she is not only sweet and patient with my mom, she understands what her brain needs to heal and told us about a free brain-training website that will stimulate my mom's cognitive processes (it's fabulous and it's free to Fairwinds residents). When my mom snaps at Cheryl, she understands why and knows exactly how to diffuse my mom's grouchiness and make her feel loved.

The premises are clean, happy, bright, and festive. When you walk into the lobby, fun music is often playing and residents are sitting around playing cards or chatting. That was important to me because I visited a couple other places that were lovely, but the lobby areas were empty and sadness prevailed.

The team at Fairwinds has such a heart for seniors and their families. I have worked in the industry for many years and truly see the five star level of care, compassion and fun they have at their community! I would highly recommend Fairwinds for your family member or if your looking for a place to enjoy people and have fun!

Fair winds is such a beautiful community. Everyone is so friendly Sabrina and her team are awesome. They truly go above and beyond to make this tough decision into a smooth easy Transition. The prime fit exercise is amazing and seems to be a big hit such a wonderful way to keep everyone active. Highly recommend!

My mom moved into Fairwinds in January, 2023. Everything has been wonderful. She is really enjoying her studio apartment. She is 97 years old. She loves the activities offered like Line Dancing, Stretching Classes, and Spanish Class. They are on top of her health issues and notify her doctor and myself when she needs attention.

Horrible horrible horrible food and service in the dining room! I’m moving her out! The reviews on the food were during Covid and they haven’t improved at all. My mom actually got a baked potato and a saucer of kernel corn for dinner. The food is terrible! And an hour wait for food at dinner time and ICE COLD ALWAYS FOR THREE MONTHS NOW!

Overall Fairwinds provides a welcoming and friendly environment and is a beautiful place to live.

I’m very glad my mom has an apartment here. The facilities are clean and the grounds are very well kept. The residents are nice and outgoing which almost always means the main lobby area is a hub of activity. The staff is very friendly and outgoing too- always smiling, always trying to help in whatever way they can, and I’m glad to know many of them on a first name basis. There is definitely a family atmosphere here. Last but certainly not least, the grounds are lush with old growth trees accented by well manicured lawns. It’s absolutely beautiful!

I have worked at this place for 3 years, and the staff is amazing! Very helpful, very kind and are easy to talk to. The residents are also sweet and are great people overall! I would recommend this place to anyone looking for their parents, it definitely is the best one in Fresno. Three cooked meals a day are included in this package, including assisted living, activities, movie theater, library, courtyard area, gym, and also a pool. Great management, health and wellness, sales team, and maintenance, and a very fun/nice place to have a job at. You can be assured your parents will be in great hands if you put them in Fairwinds Woodward Park!

We provided our moving labor services to a resident who moved out of this facility. Great family enjoyed working with them. This place is incredible the staff was nice and friendly and the person at the front desk 1/29/22 morning was very helpful. Answered all my questions when I checked in showed me the elevator and the exit to the back parking lot. Great guy very professional.there was another employee there we came across as she was throwing trash in the back dumpsters she saw how hard we were working and offered us water no one has ever done this before but unfortunately we didn’t except she is the kindest lady ever hard worker as well I believe her name is Juana.fairwind you have some great employees. I would give you guys 10stars because of juana but I can only do 5. All and out great place hope to be back soon.

The facility is very nice, as well as the residents. The one thing I believe needs improvement is in the dining room. The food is average, very often cold, and the service is very slow. And the selection of menu items is getting to be less and less. And now we are being charged for food items that were once free of charge.

We moved into Fairwinds 8 months ago and have been extremely pleased with our experience. We were pleasantly surpised by the comfort of our apartment in that the temperature has never gone below the low seventies and that without using the heating system. Also, soundproofing is excellent as we have not experienced any disturbance from adjoining apartments. In spite of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, Fairwinds staff have done their very best to provide excellent service.

My parent lives here. On the overall, it's a really nice well maintained facility. The employees are kind. However, one huge area of complaint for the residents is always the food! The residents pay for it, but Fairwinds does NOT provide high quality, fresh food that is well prepared.
Here is an example of a side salad which is only lettuce with an onion sliver, and a Cobb Salad entree. The Cobb Salad dinner entree has NO dressing, no egg, no bacon, and no blue cheese (only a mozzarella like cheese product). The beef is tough and the chicken is flavorless. There is also a photo of "lasagna" which has overcooked pasta and thin tomato sauce and a flavorless ricotta filling, and water logged broccoli. This picture was taken 4 months after my initial review, so they clearly have not worked on improving their food execution.
Since the residents are on lockdown, food is one of the very few things they have to look forward to and Fairwind's cheapens out and leaves the residents disappointed that they cannot get a good, tasty meal with all of their hard earned money. It is a shame they do not value the residents more, and put themselves in their shoes.
Right now all of their amenities are closed down, like their gym and movie room, and activities so they are paying for amenities they cannot enjoy. A similar regular apartment would be about $2000 less per month, so the residents are paying roughly $2000 for their food with this low level, poor execution.

In reply to the response from Fairwinds: This is really wonderful that you will be working with your team to improve their meals, however, they have NOT experienced an improvement.
The "Cobb" salad did not have the dressing in the bag. Residents have shared that complaining about the food in the past has not resulted in any changes which is why this review is posted. The meals lack creative ingredients for a more enjoyable experience. For example in the entree salads there is little variance of ingredients except for the main protein. They regularly have just lettuce, onion slivers and cherry tomatoes (examples in photos are the "Cobb" salad and the Steak salad). There are many different types of cheese and other veggies that could be used to make an entree salad more interesting/delicious. The residents are eating these options daily, so more effort to changing ingredients would be greatly appreciated, since they have very few activities to look forward to in their day. Examples would be: mushrooms, red bell pepper, butternut squash, cranberries, sun flower seeds, kale, dates, apples, broccoli, avocado, sweet potato, spinach, pine nuts, blue cheese, feta, etc. They would love to have beef that is not tough and chicken that has flavor since these proteins are served often. Thank you for responding positively. I look forward to updating this post with changes that are reflected in their meals, but it does not look like Fairwinds has made any culinary changes.

Inconsistent food. Good days and bad days. Many days cold food to their rooms during COVID 19.