CaringKind
Program: Arts in Health
Area of Work: Arts
Grant Purpose: connect2culture
Overview
CaringKind creates, delivers, and promotes comprehensive and compassionate care and support services for individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and seeks to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease by advancing research. CaringKind’s programs and services include education workshops that help family and friends understand and navigate the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease and caregiving, Dementia Consultations, Early-Stage Services, Care Partner Education, connections to resources, collaborations with research centers, and strategies to increase public awareness and inform public policy through advocacy.
Grant
Purpose: To support the continued capacity building of connect2culture®.
CaringKind’s connect2culture® program creates and promotes engaging opportunities for people living with dementia and those who care for them, bringing the healing and enriching power of cultural engagement to persons with dementia. Connect2culture® programs stimulate conversation, memories, and connections through shared cultural experiences. These programs include garden walks, dance workshops, music performances, and museum gallery talks. Connect2culture® collaborates with a wide range of cultural organizations, and its Community Calendar serves as a clearinghouse to promote programs from organizations throughout the city, including Lincoln Center, the Intrepid Museum, botanical gardens in Brooklyn and Queens, The Unforgettable Chorus, The New York Pops, the Museum at Eldridge Street, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Impact
With support from the Illumination Fund, CaringKind expanded connect2culture® to offer Spanish and Mandarin programs. COVID-19 was especially isolating for vulnerable populations, including people living with the disease and their care partners. Recognizing this urgent need, CaringKind quickly pivoted connect2culture® to a virtual setting, not only maintaining—but growing—its programmatic reach with the strategic addition of connect2culture® Spanish and Mandarin offerings to better serve its growing Latinx and Chinese communities.
In 2022, connect2culture® began facilitating an online music program, originally planned for in person sessions, for the Chinese community. Over the past year, the pivot to virtual programming has enabled almost 500 families to engage in singing, memory and story sharing, and laughter. Each session, the music therapist who facilitates these workshops invites families to contribute to the next session’s music selection and narrative often singing songs that reminded them of growing up in China or Taiwan, in their dialects and languages.
Starting in the Fall of 2023, connect2culture expanded programs in northern Manhattan and the Bronx, where there are historically few opportunities for families impacted by dementia to enjoy experiences with others who share their circumstances. Partnering with iD Studio Theater in their Bilingual Healing Arts Initiative, connect2culture piloted Con Música y Movimiento en Mente (With Music and Movement in Mind). Their teaching artists – musicians, choreographers, and dancers – facilitate twice monthly workshops for Spanish and bilingual dementia-impacted families.
Additional Resources
