Help us bring well-being, joy and companionship to older adults living with dementia and Alzheimer's!
We are seeking funding to sustain Opening Minds through Art (OMA), a specialized art program for people suffering with dementia and Alzheimer's living in assisted living facilities, and our training program that will certify staff and volunteers to facilitate this program at locations throughout Virginia and the nation.
Art for The Journey is certified to offer OMA, a national best practice program designed by Miami University of Ohio’s Scripps Gerontology Institute to enhance the quality of life of institutionalized elders suffering with dementia and the resultant loss of self-expression. We are the only organization accredited to offer certification training in OMA on the East Coast of the United States.
Through person-centered intergenerational engagement designed to provide social and creative expression, elders are provided opportunity to non-verbally communicate through original artistic design, while at the same time young volunteers are provided opportunity to learn the art of generous giving of self and compassion for the frail aged.
Project Design
Art for The Journey provides a ten week OMA demonstration program twice a year at St. Mary’s Woods, an assisted living program in Richmond, VA with some twenty patients diagnosed with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s. The program, designed specifically to promote social engagement, autonomy, and dignity through the experience of creative self-expression involves staff from the facility, student volunteers from the Virginia Commonwealth University’s ASPIRE Program, local artists and special facilitators certified by Scripps Gerontology Center at the Miami University in Ohio. These facilitators were educated in the basics of dementia and in effective engagement and enabling strategies to work one-on-one with the patients.
OMA is a carefully designed, staged process that involves greetings, a written question about the elder’s emotional state, an opening song, and a structured art project (different each session) using a broad array of professional art materials and media to create a unique piece of abstract art. The session ends with a song and written questions that assesses the elder’s experience and emotional state. This process is based on empirical research that advocates for the provision of creative-expressive arts activities supported by individualized attention. Studies document the positive results such programs have had for people with dementia.
The OMA program provides the art activities AND the individualized attention. In this group setting, elders are encouraged to be self-expressive, not in words but through the creation of colorful frameable abstract art. At the end of the ten week experience there is a formal gallery exhibition, open to friends, family and the public that celebrates the individual artists’ accomplishments, while simultaneously enlightening the public as to the creative capacities of individuals with dementia.
The OMA approach is grounded in “person-centered” ethics and we believe that this one-on-one experience provides an opportunity for a special bond to take place - a bond that transcends words, and engages the spirit of both the volunteer and the elder.
Research driven Evaluation Tools provided by Scripps Gerontology Institute, including Artist Feedback (completed by participants weekly), Program Review (completed by leaders 2- 6 time/year), Overall Program Evaluation (completed by volunteers twice/year), Art Exhitition Evaluation (completed by visitors ar art shows), and Family Evaluation (completed by relatives of participants) are being used to measure the positive impact of the program. This data is being added to the body of national data being collected by the Scripps Gerontology Institute for its ongoing research. Both the national data and the data collected at St. Mary’s Woods is available, as are some amazing testamonials from volunteers and the staff of St. Mary’s Woods.
Art for The Journey has now been accredited to train and certify people in implementing OMA at other sites. Trainees come mainly from Virginia, but people from as far as Texas and Connecticut have participated. Training involves completion of a 15 hour online course through Miami University and participation in a 1 1/2 day practicum in Richmond, VA.
We are seeking $25,000 in funding to sustain the demonstration project at St. Mary's Woods and expand our training program to three or more practicums per year.
