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"Connections 💗 from the Heart" project
- Ari Manor
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In this project, volunteers come to the homes of people with dementia and activate them. Each home is visited about 15 times, for weekly, one-on-one, hour-long meetings. The volunteers work under a coordinator from the municipality, who has undergone training and receives ongoing support and activation kits from the EMDA Association.
Project goal Connections ❤ from the heart It aims to improve the quality of life at home for people living with dementia and their caregivers. The activity combines activities for the person with dementia in their home using the EMDA Association's Connections and Skills Kit, and also includes training for the primary caregivers by the volunteers.
At the beginning of the project, volunteers undergo comprehensive and customized training on dementia, activating people with cognitive decline, customized communication, and challenging behaviors that appear as a result of the disease.
The project coordinator then assigns a volunteer to each family, who will visit their home once a week for a period of approximately three months. The volunteers also receive ongoing group guidance from the professional facilitator.
The benefits and advantages of the Connections Project ❤ from the heart
The project's contribution to participants with dementia and their families is extremely significant: in addition to the enriching and enjoyable activities of the volunteers and participants, the primary caregivers (usually close family members) learn how to keep the person with dementia active at home and the benefits of doing so, and receive information about treatment and support options in the community and beyond, in addition to improving their own treatment skills and receiving personal support from the volunteer.
Like the participants, the volunteers themselves also talk about their feelings. Empowerment, importance, enjoyment, help, and great contribution that encourage them to continue volunteering in the project and contributing of their own accord.
In the last three, a project Connections ❤ from the heart In most cases, fully funded for Holocaust survivors recognized by the Claims Conference, with which we cooperate. In most places where the Claims Conference funds activities with Holocaust survivors, it requires that the group be only for them.
Localities interested in the project? Contact us!
Welfare managers and other relevant managers from municipalities and regional councils? You are welcome to contact us for more details and to check the programming to launch the ❤ Connections from the Heart project in their locality. You can contact the project manager: Noa Matias – n oa@alz-emda.org.il.
Families with dementia interested in volunteer visits?
Visit On this page To check if there is such an activity that is relevant to you in your locality.
If not, you are welcome to inform the municipality about the activity, and ask to invite it to your locality as well.
Want to volunteer for this activity in your community?
Visit this page to check if there is such an activity in your locality, and if there is, contact the municipality's welfare department and ask to join as a volunteer.