Growing Old With The Elderly Project Seeking Funding and Participants. Join Barbara Bridges for our next chapter

Growing Old With the Elderly will empower and give purpose and community to up to twenty-four participants, aged 65 and older. They will embrace and celebrate their lived experiences both in the past and as they look toward the future.

Four locations will launch programs: An assisted living facility, a transformational housing facility, a veterans’ home and a neurodivergent/community-at-large group pulled from ACW membership.

Four to six participants, aged 65 and over, at each site will be invited into the two-session workshops. The first session will center on writing a 1000-word comedic essay, while the second focuses on illustration. Individual text and image tutoring will be provided by paid Art to Change the World members. The essays are meant to honor and celebrate the comedy of the human condition by drawing on the participants’ experiences. These will be general works that will include strategies for coping and may serve as inspiration to others.

We plan to publish the collected works and stage an Exhibition and book signing event.  Each author will receive a $100 participation fee and two copies of the book. Books will be available to buy at cost, with no profits sought.

An ongoing writing group led by Barbara and other ACW members will continue to build community after the Exhibition event. Art To Change The World will also seek funding for moderators and guests to inspire and encourage ongoing participant access and success. There will be many opportunities for current ACW members to serve as both paid and volunteer consultants for the various components of the program.

Interested in getting involved (or funding!)  this project? drb@bridgescreate.com

Project Image created by Bryce Mason