Project Leaders: Ada Metaxas ([email protected]), Venezia Garza ([email protected])

Community Partner: Maplewood Senior Living Facility

Project Description:

Princeton Alzheimer’s Buddies is an intergenerational movement responding to the profound isolation and social disengagement experienced by people in the intermediate-to-late stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A central focus of Alzheimer’s Buddies is building meaningful relationships between volunteers, dementia residents, and staff/nurses. These relationships are cultivated with weekly 2 hour long volunteering sessions at Maplewood Senior Living Center and monthly reflection meetings among volunteers. During weekly volunteering, volunteers travel together to the facility and engage in a variety of activities such as arts and crafts, chair exercises, or cognitive memory games with the residents. Alzheimer’s Buddies encourages students to take the mindset of a friend rather than of a care provider, to learn about their patients' past and passions, and to establish real friendships with individuals in the broader Princeton community. 

Frequency/Time Commitment Expected: 2 hrs/wk volunteer session + 1 hr/month reflection meeting

Mode of communication: Email, Groupme

Link to a google sign-up form: https://forms.gle/z1a7gqCM8Sa8E7YK9