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Rebecca Birotte M.A., Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist and CLC, shared her insights with program staff in December, providing a refresher on the how’s and why’s of effective memory care activities for Friendship Center members. “Activities are medicine,” she said. “That’s my business motto.” Rebecca owns and operates Los Angeles-based Healthy Solutions, a consultancy providing activity and recreation therapy training for a…
Please welcome Friendship Center’s new Associate Director Amy West, M.A. Amy West brings to Friendship Center a 25-year track record of public sector management, most recently as Program Administrator of an Adult Residential Facility at Devereux California, where she was recognized for her skills in problem-solving and collaboration. Amy earned a B.A. in public sector management and an M.A. in…
Friendship Center is now selling Axxess Cards! Axxess cards offer amazing local discounts in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Better still, for each $40 Axxess Card sold, Friendship Center receives a $13 donation. Present your Axxess Card at local restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers and more for 2-for-1 meals and/or significant discounts. Available now through early December. To purchase your…
Connections Senior Social Program, Friendship Center’s brain-training program, mid-December at All Saints-by-the-Sea Church. As the name suggests, Connections is about connecting, both socially and cognitively. Each three-hour session features socially engaging activities, music, group discussions and light exercise. Connections is geared specifically toward members in the early stages of a dementia diagnosis, with the two-fold goal of challenging the mind…
Prospective members and their families can now take a virtual tour of Friendship Center. Join Heidi Holly, executive director and Kim Larsen, family services manager as they walk through each of our Montecito facility’s recreational areas, while also providing an overview of our Covid-19 safety protocols. Click here to watch the video on YouTube. The video also features images of…
Friendship Center is proud to announce it was awarded “Caregiver of the Year” for a facility by the Central Coast Commission for Senior Citizens Area Agency on Aging in honor of Older Americans Month. “Friendship Center has been very successful in providing live virtual classes five days a week,” writes Sue Larsen of Gulley and Larsen Insurance Services, who…
As the State of California inches toward a comprehensive reopening plan, Friendship Center members and caregivers will be heartened to know that our own reopening plan has been in the works for months. The new hybrid plan incorporates both onsite and Zoom activities as it transitions toward fully re-opening. “We’re pleased to announce that our plan has been approved…
May 13 marked the 11th monthly delivery of Friendship Center’s signature comfort-food for the isolated soul Take Care Totes. Beginning just 10 days after mandatory shelter-in-place orders, Friendship Center’s Take Care Tote program represents a lifeline to homebound, isolated seniors. “Ideally, Take Care Totes represent joy and love as they open the bags to see what activities, treats and…
It all started with a small thing in the early 1970s when Cynder Sinclair was helping in her son’s classroom. “I noticed some of the kids were not dressed warmly enough for the weather,” she says. Cynder was living with her husband and five children in the small farming community of Kingsburg, where it gets cold in the off season…