About
About Givens Great Laurels
Givens Great Laurels is one of four communities that comprise Givens Communities. This nonprofit, United Methodist-affiliated organization improves lives through communities, services, and outreach to older adults
throughout western North Carolina.
The Givens story begins in the 1970s with the generosity of Marion Givens and her husband, Dr. Maurice Givens, charitable people who donated to hospitals, universities, and museums. During the final years of Mrs. Givens’ life, with the help of a few trusted advisors, she arranged to leave 160 acres of her Asheville estate with the stipulation that the trust would develop a retirement community on the land. After her death, the Marion J. Givens Trust worked with leaders in the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church to make Givens Communities a reality. This relationship has remained constant throughout four decades of exponential growth.
Givens Great Laurels serves as a unique and essential component of the larger, long-standing Givens Communities mission to ensure affordable housing options for older adults. North Carolina’s Haywood County aspired to offer affordable housing for seniors for many years. This grand opening of Givens Great Laurels in 2007 realized this dream and was one of the first projects to combine low-income housing tax credits and HUD 202 funding. The project was originally a partnership of Givens Estates, SEMAR, and the Southeastern Jurisdictional Council of the United Methodist Church. Givens Great Laurels is proud to help this underserved demographic maintain independence and live a fulfilling life.
Learn more by reading the Givens Communities e-brochure.
Our Values
Givens Communities vision and mission guide our daily operations and large-scale decisions as we set a path for the future. Our vision is “Endless Possibilities, Vibrant Aging”, while our mission is “Creating Community, Empowering Lives”. This vision includes the broader population of Western North Carolina and the residents within our Givens Communities organization.
Along with our vision and mission, our four core values are People Passionate, Make a Difference, Power of Community, and Do What’s Right.
Givens Affordable Communities
Givens Affordable Communities strives to create communities where older adults are healthier and thrive by overcoming social isolation, rediscovering interests, contributing, learning, and playing—improving health to enable seniors to live fully and age with dignity. Givens believes that finding ways to help seniors age well in community settings will reduce hospital admissions and readmissions, lower healthcare costs, and minimize their time in expensive skilled nursing facilities.
Givens LifeMinistries
Givens has reached out to improve the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities facing health and wellness challenges since the 1980s. Givens LifeMinistries serves our affordable communities by providing access to community nurse and resident services coordinators. As the outreach division of Givens Communities, we work actively in other affordable communities throughout Western North Carolina to address health disparities of underserved, diverse, and vulnerable populations by providing access to resources that empower improved wellness and quality of life. Givens LifeMinistries’ partnerships and outreach have helped provide free health screenings, chronic disease self-management programs, prescription assistance, and wellness education programs.
Our core values are commitment, caring, courage and collaboration.
People Passionate
Make a Difference
Power of Community
Do What’s Right
Meet the Team
Serving residents with compassionate care is a priority of our team. We are dedicated to serving older adults with support to help them maintain their independence.
Retire in Waynesville
Residents of Givens Great Laurels enjoy being a part of the charming mountain community of Waynesville. Unique gift shops and restaurants populate restored historic buildings along brick sidewalks. Surrounding Haywood County is home to 13 mountain peaks above 6,000 ft elevation, including the famous Cold Mountain. The area is a vacation paradise with plentiful opportunities for outdoor recreation and breathtaking natural beauty with scenic waterfalls and popular hiking trails, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Great Smoky Mountains within a short driving distance.
