Programs and results
What we aim to solve
n June 2020, it was reported that 56% of older adults (ages 50-80) experience significant social isolation. This profound loneliness has more than doubled since the same survey was administered in 2018 (pre-pandemic). It is also estimated about 40% of adults with a debilitating disability or chronic disease and 47% of adults with a serious mental health condition experience significant loneliness and social isolation. According to the Foundation for Art & Healing, this loneliness can increase mortality rates between 26-32%. This makes loneliness and isolation as lethal as chronic smoking. According to the CDC, loneliness increases the risk of dementia by 50%, heart disease by 29% and stroke by 32%. Loneliness is also associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Arts Outreach Programs
TAO’s outreach programs are typically 55-70 minutes in length and facilitated by an experienced artist with volunteer and staff support as necessary. Artists specialize in a variety of disciplines, including interactive music programs and performing arts presentations, participatory spoken word/poetry and songwriting workshops, and hands-on visual arts projects. These disciplines are sought because of research showing their effectiveness for wellness outcomes in older and isolated adults. Artists are recruited from the Hampton Roads community, trained by TAO staff, and compensated for their time and talents. All art and other program supplies are also provided by TAO.
TAO partners with senior living communities, nursing and rehabilitation centers, hospitals, shelters, hospice providers, day support centers, libraries, recreation centers, and other organizations that serve a population prone to isolating circumstances.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
National Organization for Arts in Health 2022
External reviews

Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of participants engaged in programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Seniors, Economically disadvantaged people, Homeless people
Related Program
Arts Outreach Programs
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of program sites
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Seniors, Economically disadvantaged people, Homeless people
Related Program
Arts Outreach Programs
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Percentage of participants highly satisfied with program
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Seniors, Economically disadvantaged people, Homeless people
Related Program
Arts Outreach Programs
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The group arts outreach program models employed by Tidewater Arts Outreach is scientifically demonstrated to increase feelings of social connectedness in older adults. In one study, 82% of adults perceived a link between arts engagement and these feelings of connectedness. Specific modes that were found to increase these feelings (and are used by TAO) are live musical and drama performances, writing and literary workshops, and creating visual arts pieces.
Tidewater Arts Outreach strives to achieve wellness outcomes in the areas of physical, emotional, spiritual, and social wellness (four of the Seven Pillars of Wellness) for groups facing isolation and its adverse effects – including older adults, individuals of different abilities, patients experiencing physical or mental illness, or individuals working through traumatic experiences.
Participatory art has been found to achieve outcomes in all four wellness areas for these groups including:
Physical: Cardio-vascular, mobility, and breaking control improvements as well as increased activity levels.
Emotional: Counteracting negative effects from loss, increase confidence and self-esteem, and improving cognitive function.
Spiritual: Creating more positive sense of identity, especially when an individual exceeds their own expectations on what they achieve artistically.
Social: Improves communication skills and extends an individual’s social network.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Tidewater Arts Outreach matches local artists with opportunities to share their creativity and compassion in support of Hampton Roads residents who are in nursing homes, hospitals, shelters or are isolated from society in other ways.
TAO’s outreach programs are typically one hour in length, consisting of interactive music programs, participatory spoken word/poetry and songwriting workshops, hands-on visual arts projects and interactive performing arts presentations. Artists are recruited, trained and compensated by TAO. Participants never pay to take part in an arts outreach program.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Tidewater Arts Outreach is led by a capable staff, including an experienced fundraising and arts administrator as Executive Director and a program administrator with excellent community ties as Program Director.
Tidewater Arts Outreach also enjoys robust volunteer support from board membership and other community volunteers.
TAO has spent over 18 years cultivating this mission and the community to support it.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2021, Tidewater Arts Outreach produced 360 programs to over 10,000 participants with 42 different program partners. Program partner needs drive program design with each partner receiving programs curated to meet their care goals and plans.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
TAO partners with senior living communities, nursing and rehabilitation centers, hospitals, shelters, hospice providers, day support centers, libraries, recreation centers, and other organizations that serve a population prone to isolating circumstances.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Focus groups or interviews (by phone or in person), Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
Tidewater Arts Outreach constantly updates its partner intake and programming processes based on the feedback from surveys and follow up calls. TAO also updates the artist booking process based on artist post-program surveys.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
Operations are done in a very partner and artist-centric way. Each partner and artist relationship is case managed by program staff to address each individual or organization's unique needs and desires from TAO programming.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is hard to come up with good questions to ask people,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
TIDEWATER ARTS OUTREACH
Board of directorsas of 01/16/2023
Dr. Stuart Goldwag
Hampton Roads Radiology Associates
Term: 2021 - 2023
Stephen Taylor
Oast & Taylor PLC
Stuart Goldwag
Hampton Roads Radiology Associates
Barbara L. Smith
Cherry Bekaert
Ira Steingold
Steingold and Mendelson
Shaune Thomas-Blanding
Port of Virginia
J. Benjamin Unkle
Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay
David Jacobs
David Duck
City of Newport News
Bryan Martin
Coastal Hardware
Valerie Morales
Howard Hanna
Sandra Gail Burton
City of Portsmouth
J. Bryan Plumlee
Poole Brooke Plumlee
Harriet Reynolds
Delphine Carnes Law Group
Teresa Kraus
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 12/29/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.