Arts Learning

Because we had a somewhat "captive" audience at each facility, we had great success reaching the community we desired to serve. Most of our participants were home-bound and many were also wheelchair-bound or walker-bound. Our success reaching most of those residents who were physically capable of attending was in large part due to an enthusiastic staff in each facility and an equally enthusiastic word-of-mouth promotion among those residents able to remember us from day to day. In both facilities, we achieved our targeted numbers, which had been established with the prior input of staff based on their knowledge of the residents. Staff was extremely good about coordinating schedules, reminding participants, and attending themselves in a support function. At Little Sisters, sessions were preceded by an ice cream social that certainly didn't hurt attendance. Also, during the ice cream socials, a 96-year-old resident played piano to add music to the event and to get participants more in the mood to sing. Schedules were more fluid at Sholom Homes, where better finances made more events outside ours possible, and as a result we had occasional issues with conflicts of events or schedule changes that were not as well coordinated by the facility's staff as they should have been, but this was only occasionally and it did not cause too much disruption. On the question of diversity, since participation was nearly 100%, we achieved as much diversity as possible. In the summer concerts, we brought performers meeting our diversity goals, with the youth who interacted with the residents coming from 15 countries on 5 continents, and with local performers from diverse ethnic and racial origins. 60-80 participants at Little Sisters of the Poor and Sholom Homes regularly attended singing, percussion, and movement sessions. 100 percent of those participants reported that the sessions improved the arts quality of their lives.