Songs & Smiles

Our mission is keeping families connected during the Alzheimer's journey. Our programs and activities are designed to: 1) Increase awareness of the challenges faced by families when a loved one has Alzheimer’s. 2) Help people living with Alzheimer’s better connect with families, friends, and their own joy-filled memories. 3) Provide practical help and encouragement to caregivers and families.

We focus on care, not the cure. We focus on practical and positive care. We focus on supporting primary caregivers by involving family, friends, and communities. And we focus on joy. We know the pain and frustration of caring for a loved one who has Alzheimer's, but we are committed to helping families find joy during the Alzheimer's journey.

Our strategy involves three primary areas of programming: educational resources, singalongs, and magazines.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

Our website and social media platforms teach and equip families and friends, encouraging them to 1) Grieve along the way, recognizing real loss. 2) Rest, realizing and accepting some things aren’t fixable. 3) Invite family and friends to join the journey. 4) Connect through songs and smiles. 5) Celebrate life with love and laughter.

In-person educational workshops provide caregivers and families with personal instruction and interactive training and discussion.

We provide a selection of helpful books and dvds to caregivers free upon request.

SINGALONGS:

Our singalongs are carefully crafted to engage people living with dementia, helping them better connect with memories and emotions, as well as with family and friends. Our singalongs also provide moments of respite for caregivers and families.

We present in-person singalongs and an online library of singalong videos.

MAGAZINES:

We are producing a magazine designed especially for people living with dementia. In the future, we also plan to produce a magazine designed to educate and encourage caregivers.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES:

Our online presence has grown steadily since we launched our website in August 2020. In 2021, more than 12,000 people visited our website, and we increase our reach and number of followers on each of our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube). More than 1,300 people read our article on Not-So-Obvious Dementia Care Tips. We added a translation service to our website, so visitors can now read all of our articles in English or Spanish. We continue to add helpful articles. Most are written by us, but we also have invited caregivers and industry experts to write articles for our website.

In 2021, we presented our first workshop on "Grieving Along the Way" to help dementia caregivers better understand and manage ambiguous loss and complicated grief.

We started offering books and DVDs to caregivers free upon request. In 2021, we mailed 55 books and DVDs to 43 caregivers in 27 different states.

SINGALONGS:

We presented 188 in-person singalong shows at care facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including 31 Christmas shows. We also presented singalong shows at care facilities in Iowa and Wisconsin. In 2021, our YouTube and Vimeo singalong videos received more than 17,000 views. We continue to expand our online library of singalong videos.

MAGAZINES:

We are currently working on layout and design of a magazine for people living with dementia. After a period of testing, feedback, and revision, we plan to launch mid-year on a quarterly schedule, printing 500-1,000 copies of each issue for distribution primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

OTHER:

We are now offering professional family photography services to local memory care facilities.