community connections programs

Caring for the Caregiver TM
The Family Matters Project
WASH: Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing
Beauty in Difference
Meaning in Movement

CARING FOR THE CAREGIVER TM
The Company’s signature program of workshops and performance work is designed to help healthcare professionals find expression for the complex emotional issues and unacknowledged stress associated with their work.  First introduced in 1992 at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, Caring for the Caregiver TM has been brought to hundreds of healthcare facilities throughout the United States, Canada, Russia and Israel.  SPDT has provided this program to a broad cross-section of the healthcare community including physicians, nurses, medical students, hospice staff, social workers, therapists, counselors, administrative personnel and, most recently, patients and their families.  Caring for the Caregiver TM is available to any healthcare facility interested in providing an arts and healing experience for its staff, patients or families.

THE FAMILY MATTERS PROJECT   
This is SPDT’s newest community inclusive project.  It has been designed to partner with a variety of Twin Cites social service organizations to address the needs of a cross-section of diverse communities. The workshops focus on issues and transitions being experienced by family members and combine the sharing of stories with expression through movement and gesture.  The program offers participants the opportunity to discover new means to enhance self-worth, stabilize relationships and improve communication within family units.

Goals of the project:

Participants are invited to attend the workshops as family groups, which might include parents with children, grandparents with grandchildren, siblings, life partners or any other family relation.

Partner organizations for the initial year of The Family Matters Project (2005/2006) included:

The Family Matters Project 2007

SPDT presented Relatives ALL, the culminating performance of the two-year Family Matters Project on June 23, 2007 at the

Neighborhood House in St.Paul, MN.

Relatives ALL included a new performance work for Hmong Youth entitiled, My Name is Tong Xiong, in which the youth explored movement through partnering and unison work as well as vocal exploration about their families, names and what they missed about their homeland.

Loteria, a new video-work, was also made for the culminating performance. The video explored a group of senior citizens from Dunedin Apartments who were brought together through their weekly games of Mexican Bingo. Through the commonality of the Bingo game, they became friends and a family of their own.

WASH: WORKING WITH ARTISTS, SHARING THE HEALING
Introduced in 2001, WASH: Working with Artists, Sharing the Healing is presented annually at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance at the University of Minnesota.  The three-day symposium is offered for professional artists and caregivers to explore strategies for the integration of healing and creative expression.  WASH is intended to nurture and expand the network of artists and healers in the Twin Cities as a way of creating future opportunities for partnerships.  The workshop includes large group movement sessions, small group discussions, one-on-one creative process work and guest speakers with expertise in the field of integrative medicine and the arts in healing. 

Participating artists have included writers, sculptors, dancers, musicians, photographers, painters, actors and many more.  Caregivers have included social workers, nurses, counselors, physicians, chaplains, therapists and family caregivers.

At the conclusion of the symposium each artist commits to presenting one satellite event at a participating caregiver’s workplace.  These satellite events expand the impact of WASH into the greater community and further the relationships between participating artists and caregivers.

WASH 2007 was March 9-11 at The Barbara Barker Center for Dance

at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The WASH weekend has a $175 workshop fee that is waived for participating artists
who agree in writing to present a satellite event of the collaborative weekend work
at a participating caregivers workplace before August 1, 2007.

If you, or any other artist or caregiver you know, are interested in WASH 2008,
please send your contact information to:
1937 Glenwood Parkway
Minneapolis, MN
55422
or contact us for more information at:
SPDanTh@aol.com or by phone at 763-521-7738

BEAUTY IN DIFFERENCE  
In the wake of current events, identity and personal history have taken on new significance and urgency.  Individuals in marginalized communities are forced to grapple with damaging biases and stereotypes.  SPDT’s community-based initiative, The Beauty in Difference, is a series of workshops that engage participants in movement and personal storytelling.  Presented at culturally specific neighborhood centers and schools, these workshops give participants the opportunity to voice their experiences with feeling different.  At the same time that individual biases and stereotypical patterns are revealed, so are the universal themes of love, loss and human need.

Current partner organizations in Beauty in Difference include:

Beauty in Difference:  a film premiere, live performance and community forum was presented at Intermedia Arts, May 12 & 13, 2006. 

MEANING IN MOVEMENT
A Workshop for Stroke Survivors and their Partners
This ground breaking program was first introduced in 2004 at North Memorial Stroke Center.  This multiple session workshop is designed to support stroke survivors and their care partners in rediscovering the creative mind-body connection through movement.  Participants are invited to share their life stories and experiences as stroke survivors.  These stories are translated into movements to help find expression for the complex feelings and unacknowledged stress associated with stroke.  

By reversing support roles in simple movement exercises, stroke survivors are given a unique opportunity to become the caregivers for their partners. In turn, they gain a renewed sense of their ability to reciprocate the tender care and strength that they receive from their partners.

Participants leave these workshops with a sense of accomplishment and pride in their commitment to live a full and generous life.  Similarly, the stroke survivors’ care partners experience a new appreciation for the survivor as the significance of their support is re-emphasized.

Meaning in Movement is available to all stroke centers or healthcare facilities interested in providing this unique experience to stroke survivors and their care partners.

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For more information on any of these programs, please contact SPDT’s
Community Connections Coordinator, Julie McBride
at 763-521-7738 or spdanth@aol.com.