SEEDFUL ART AGING GRANTS

Aroha Philanthropies launched “Seeding Artful Aging,” a new initiative and national grant opportunity, in Spring 2016.

As a subset of the broader field of creative aging, artful aging programs inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging. Successful artful aging programs are led by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring joy, connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings.

The initiative is designed to support the development and expansion of successful artful aging programs, document their effectiveness and share that information broadly.

Through this initiative, Aroha aims to:

• Demonstrate the power and impact of artful aging programs to a broad national audience.
• Encourage arts and cultural organizations to develop participatory arts education programs for older adults.
• Encourage organizations that serve older adults to develop arts education programming.
• Disseminate program implementation models.

Fifteen nonprofit organizations were selected to participate in this demonstration project through a two-part application process. These organizations represent a broad array of communities to demonstrate the impact of the programs in a wide variety of situations. Selection of organizations balanced urban/rural communities, small/large organizations, culturally specific communities and geographic locations across the United States.

Grant awards range from $15,000 to $50,000 for programming to begin on or after January 1st, 2017 and be completed by November 30th, 2017. Grants may be renewed for a second year, dependent on first year program evaluation outcomes. Potential total grants to each organization thus may range from $30,000 to $100,000 over the period of the initiative. Each award must not exceed 20% of the organization’s total expense budget.

Organizations selected to participate will receive an array of additional benefits and services. For details, see the Initiative Components page.

Reader Email

Recently I’ve been so happily overwhelmed by the people who tell me they are moved by “Descendants of Hagar” I haven’t known what to do with myself.  This morning I received an email from a reader who actually came to my webpage, found my email and wrote to tell me what she thought about the book.  I am going to post it in it’s entirety.  

All of the warm receptions have definitely encouraged me to stay focused, motivated and goal oriented. Thank you Hazel

The letter is below:

Hello

 

I just finished reading Descendants of Hagar about an hour ago and I feel as though some bit of me was taken ,awakened and re-introduced to herself and taken again. A friend of mine gave me this book yesterday because I had been telling anyone who was willing to listen that I absolutely must read it this year, this after I saw a review of it on Sistahs on the shelf.

 

I’m feeling so many things, can’t really name them but they are familiar things, things I kept feeling whilst reading it, things I’ve felt before in my life. It’s just such a wonderful thing that this story made me remember all of those things that I’ve felt before. I feel like I’m still trying to catch my breath and take my head out of the story, I see myself living in the space where it’s most alive and breathing in my head for the next couple of weeks.

 

I just really want to say thank you, this was such a beautiful story and I absolutely can’t wait for September. September is my birthday month so I’m definitely going to guilt a lot of people into getting Daughters of Zion for me 😀

 

Your mind is such a beautiful place, the things it shows and the feelings they evoke are just sublime.  I also appreciate the amount of research that anchored this story. Uuuuuh your writing is appreciated.

 

 

I absolutely love it, thank you so much.

…As I wait for September…

 

Regards

Hazel Jambo