“ Building bridges across age and cognitive barriers through Art.”

We provide a very unique program at Trinity Village Care Centre called “Opening Minds through Art”- OMA which I’m very passionate about.

Opening Minds through Art (OMA) is an intergenerational art program for people with dementia. The program was created by Elizabeth Lokon 2007 at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University. Grounded in person-centred philosophies and strengths-based approaches, OMA focuses on the skills and abilities that people with dementia still possess. It is aimed at promoting their social engagement, autonomy and dignity through the experience of creative self-expression.

I had brought OMA to Trinity Village fall of 2015 and have since partnered with a local high school Eastwood Colligate where we match high school students one/one with residents of Trinity Village who have some form of dementia.

March 2016 we were a part of the “Aging Dialogues” at the Museum downtown Kitchener which featured 42 works of amazing art.

Trinity Village Care Centre is a non-profit organization run by Lutheran Homes in which we look for funding to help programs like OMA. We are the only Long Term Care facility that has OMA in house in all of Ontario.

This fall we will continue our partnership with Eastwood and looking forward to teach our youth about dementia through art.