Reaching out to seniors
Expanded program hopes to make many creative connections with seniors during COVID-19.
In April and May, TimeSlips Creative Storytelling will reach out to potentially isolated Milwaukee County elders with a project that solicits their responses to open-ended questions.
Collaborating with the Milwaukee County Division on Aging, TimeSlips will train volunteers who connect with seniors through Meals on Wheels and United Community Center programs. The volunteers will invite elders to participate in the “Beautiful Questions” project by responding via phone or mail to open-ended questions like this one:
Seniors also will be invited to participate by phone or Zoom in a free weekly creative workshop led by an artist. Also, program artists will draw on the responses to create a public art project in June.
“Beautiful Questions” expands on a pilot project carried out last autumn by TimeSlips, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit founded by Anne Basting, a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant winner in 2016 for using creativity to counteract social isolation and cognitive impairment among the elderly. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
During the “Tele-Stories” pilot project, 10 local artists made weekly calls to 79 seniors at risk of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on their weekly conversations, the artist created a song, a piece of artwork or other creative gift for the senior.
To measure the impact of the program, both seniors and artists were surveyed pre- and post-project, using the UCLA Loneliness Scale, a widely used measure of social connection.
Of the elder participants, 41% reported feeling less lonely after being part of the project, and only 14% felt more lonely, in contrast to members of an elder control group who did not participate, where 40% felt more lonely over the same period of time.
In a recent interview, Basting said training volunteers who already connect regularly with seniors will help the project reach more people. How many might they reach? Basting said agencies collaborating with the Division on Aging support some 6,000 seniors. Her fantasy would be to connect with all of them.
Meals on Wheels and UCC volunteers who deliver meals and make regular well-check calls to seniors will be trained to include an invitation to answer a weekly “Beautiful Question” into those calls, she said.
For the first time, questions will be offered in Spanish as well as in English. Artists Michael Snowden, Rob
‘BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS’ Here are the April questions:
Shorewood’s Gail Morley, seen here with her dog Riley, took part in a program that connected artists with potentially isolated seniors for conversations in autumn 2020. Now TimeSlips is expanding its effort to reach more elders. RICK WOOD, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
1.
What do you treasure in your home? Why?
What are the sounds and colors of your home?
What area in your home is special to you? What do you like to do there?
If you could look outside your window and see anything you wish, what would you want to see? Why?
Here are the May questions: 1.
What makes Milwaukee special?
What are the sounds of your neighborhood?
3.
4.
2.
If you could add something to your neighborhood, what would you add? Why?
What would you like to tell Milwaukee?
Seniors can respond by calling 1-800-220-1822 ext. 1 and leaving a message.
Knapp and Jacklyn Kostichka will lead the weekly creative workshops for Meals on Wheels and UCC participants. Snowden and Knapp both took part in the pilot project last autumn. Kostichka will conduct a group in Spanish.
TimeSlips is also inviting any interested senior in Milwaukee County to respond to the questions. People can respond by calling 1-800-220-1822 ext. 1 and leaving a message.
The “Beautiful Questions” project is funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Institute on Aging at St. John’s On The Lake and the Sheldon and Marianne Lubar Family Foundation.