STAYING CONNECTED DURING AND BEYOND COVID
When elder care partners locked down, we launched our “Staying Connected Initiative” in April. There have been thousands of cards, letters and gifts delivered throughout metro Denver and surrounding areas by Bessie’s Hope. Zoom and outside visits helped reach out to the elders.
The P.E.O. Denver Chapter EH was previously featured for their “Inspiration Garden” of colorful posters planted outside for the elders to see. Below is the article in their international magazine and photos from their outside visit. This organization of women helping women was founded on principles including charity, faith, hope, justice, truth, community and love. For more information about P.E.O. visit: www.peointerntional.org
We want to make it easier and more accessible for more elders to communicate through technology. So, through a platform called “House Party” and the Facebook video chat through messaging, we can begin to set up the visits between individual elders and individual volunteers, families and extended techno groups. With the donation from American Furniture Warehouse, we can begin purchasing tablets for the individual elders who are not able to pay for this type of communication device and who have no family to purchase it for them. Will you consider making a donation toward this? Go to our website and click on “Donate”. A tablet costs between $80 and $100, and we will keep a record of who purchases a device for which elder. You can also send a check to Bessie’s Hope, PO Box 12675, Denver 80212.
Because of COVID, we have had to provide Zoom training. This has introduced Bessie’s Hope to method of expansion that we hadn’t begun before. An online training and online intergenerational communication platforms will soon be launched through Bessie’s Hope. Like signing up for continued education classes, individual youth and adult volunteers will have a participation code. This will be accessible for families and groups, too. The Bessie’s Hope “Social/Emotional Intelligence Ninja” project will be especially of interest to parents who want to provide opportunities for youth to be more aware of the most valuable character traits, empathy, respect and compassion. There aren’t many opportunities for youth to have to “put yourself into their shoes”. Through the years, involvement in the Bessie’s Hope nursing home visits, youth have been changed at depth, and their core characters have been illumined. This was due to our education and training, and in large part, to the interactions and relationships with the elders.
Parents, if you are interested in receiving more information regarding the “Ninja” project, please email linda@bessieshope.org. Teachers and other youth group leaders, if you’d like to provide a deeply meaningful volunteer opportunity during COVID, we can provide zoom trainings, and the youth can become involved in sending cards and letters. The elders are from the era of mail, and they treasure the pieces of mail they receive. They read them over and over again, save them, display them, etc. Please go online and fill out an application for the Youth and Elders Program.
Since we must be optimistic and plan for life after COVID, we are reaching out to schedule outside youth visits for late spring. Already on board is Mandy Bakulski with her youth from the McCulloch Scottish Dance Academy! We are ready to give the elders these youth group visits to look forward to! Will you join us?
Please email claire@bessieshope.org
Stay safe! The elders need us—-all of us.