Since 2015, Art for the Journey has facilitated the award-winning program originally designed to positively impact people living with dementia, young volunteers, family members, and long-term care staff. After attending other trainings available to help people with dementia, Cindy Paullin, Mark and Kathy Hierholzer drove to Ohio after learning about the unique best practice approach. We were “blown away.” Because of how transformational OMA is, and the evidence that backs it up, we worked to plant the program asap in Richmond, VA.
Nan Pascal, with Saint Mary’s Woods retirement community met with Art for the Journey over a decade ago, and was the first person to see the extraordinary brilliance of OMA! So, with a little help with art supply money, Art for the Journey began to implement OMA at Saint Mary’s Woods with a five residents. OMA uses a one to one ratio for partners, AFJ recruited five VCU students as volunteers to sit with the participants, andit was immediately apparent that there was MAGIC in this!, the friendships were instant, and we made note of how partnering a college student with an older adult could transform BOTH lives.
In 2017, with the help of Jamie Wigginton, Cindy Paullin began to partner with Dr. Elizabeth Lokon as training support, so that more individuals could facilitate the best-practice OMA program which was a result of funding through ScrippsOMA and AJAS and other funders, and we were honored to help. From April of 2017, we began to train and certify individuals as Master training partners, and certified people from across the USA and Canada. Dr. Dianne Simons, a retired professor of OT, joined the training team.
In 2020, Art for the Journey partnered with LeadingAge Virginia, and wrote for funding to expand the program across the Commonwealth of Virginia. With Quality Improvement Funding through DMAS, Art for the Journey and LeadingAge Virginia were awarded $1.1 Million in funding to certify staff of medicaid certified nursing homes throughout the State. Stephanie Shanks became Director of the OMA expansion and after three years, Mission accomplished! There are now more OMA certified locations in Virginia than any other State, and we continue to grow this to reach new potential locations.
The expansion now reaches beyond assisted living, and through art agencies and libraries there are locations where people who live at home can find an OMA program in the Richmond area. Early in our training, we recruited trainees from the Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen. CACGA quickly became champions of OMA, and have an OMA center in their center partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association, and serving caregivers of people living witih dementia.
The Chesterfield County Libraries have recently begun to implement OMA in the library space, a safe and welcoming place for people and caregivers to enjoy all that OMA offers, with OMA art exhibits displayed for the public.
New relationships with art agencies, such as Tidewater Arts Organization in Norfolk, have the newly certified artists ready to utilize OMA in the arts outreach they do.
A trainee who coordinates nursing students at James Madison University, Kathy Guisewhite, also representing the Valley Department of Aging, has programs where nursing students have the wonderful opportunty to partner with people living with dementia and are trained to volunteer with the deeper knowledge of the OMA program, thus Opening their minds and attutudes towards people living with denetia and learning about non-pharmacologic therapy.
VCU Occupational Researchers work directly with Art for the Journey in helping us address all the populations we serve, and, all begin by becoming certified in OMA, which we believe is an impeccibly designed program, and a model for person-centered, intergenerational program, and failure free abstract art.
University of Richmond MBA graduate students have supported Art for the Journey by a deep dive and needs assessment around expanding OMA to implement adaptations that could help MANY new populations.
VCU MBA graduate students supported Art for the Journey in marketing research and helping us understand the impact of social isolation on many populations.
A steering committee of health care professionals have overseen the Art for the Journey adaptation of OMA and helped us consider all the ways we deliver programming as we develop, “Elevating Lives through Art” (ELA) to adapt with all of our current and future populations served.
What is the most exciting to our agency, is to witness this extraordinary impact where well-being can be tapped into through the arts, and if designed as well as the OMA program, can show evidence that placing well designed art projects in the hands of individuals of varying ages, and providing opportunities for people to connect and create together, will offer great potential, and a truly effective non-pharmacological opportunity within the intersection of art and health.
Thank you National Endowment for the Arts! This support has helped Art for the Journey expand upon the impact of OMA to reach so many more individuals!
OVER 320 individuals have been certified by Art for the Journey to Facilitate OMA, programs are being held widely across Virginia, (and beyond our borders thorughout the US and Canada). It has been an honor to be a part of the growth of this program that now impacts THOUSANDS of lives.
