Silver Kite Community Arts and LeadingAge WA receive CMP Funding to provide arts opportunities to skilled nursing residents during COVID 19

Grant provides arts engagement toolkits and virtual arts programming for 4,000 older adults in Washington State

SEATTLE, WA: Silver Kite Community Arts and LeadingAge Washington received funding from the Washington State Civil Money Penalty (CMP) Fund to promote creative engagement for residents in skilled nursing facilities in Washington State during the COVID19 pandemic. The funds are being used to provide SPARK Boxes (individual arts activity toolkits) and twice weekly live virtual arts workshops to 4,000 residents in 44 LeadingAge Washington communities across Washington State. The program began August 1 and will run until January 31, 2021.

The virtual arts workshops are offered by Silver Kite through the Zoom platform on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Participants in the program have taken workshops in storytelling, music, drawing, and dance. Recordings of the workshops are available to the communities to watch again later if they like. During a recent dance of the 20th century workshop (which is taught as a seated experience), one of the LeadingAge community staff members who participated in the workshop commented “the gals in the room are really enjoying doing the twist! They’re sharing stories about when they did the twist when they were younger!”

In additional to the virtual arts workshops, 4,000 SPARK Boxes are being sent to skilled nursing facility residents across the state. The boxes are self-contained arts engagement toolkits that include an activity booklet, arts supplies and a journal, all inside an artfully designed box that is a coloring page on the outside and has a watercolor painting by Washington artist Charlene Collins Freeman on the inside. After receiving a box one resident claimed, “It’s just like Christmas!” Others have enjoyed coloring the boxes, and staff members have commented that the boxes have “made our 1:1 time with the residents very nice.”

The funds for this program came from the Washington State Civil Money Penalty (CMP). Washington state receives a portion of the funds collected to be reinvested in support of projects that improve the overall quality of life and/or care of nursing facility residents. DSHS details 

Silver Kite Community Arts is a Seattle-based company dedicated to strengthening communities by creating opportunities for people of all generations to connect through the arts. Through our work, we strive to help people feel less lonely and isolated, making the world stronger – one connection at a time. www.silverkite.us

LeadingAge Washington serves as the voice for not-for-profit and mission-driven senior care and housing organizations, advancing both fundamental and innovative solutions to achieve an integrated system of quality post-acute and long-term supports and services for aging Washingtonians. www.LeadingAgeWA.org

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For more information please contact Jen Kulik  jen@silverkite.us or Pat Sylvia psylvia@LeadingAgeWA.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  September 2020                    

Jen Kulik, Silver Kite Community Arts                                

(360) 218-4884  *  jen@silverkite.us