ASEB staff, current and past members of the board, and supporters from the community gathered in January for a strategic planning meeting designed to further ASEB’s mission. Bringing a wealth of talent, expertise, and years of commitment to Alzheimer’s care to the meeting, participants focused on defining ASEB’s business model for the next five years.
Facilitator John Barr guided teams as they developed detailed strategies for getting word out about the valuable resources ASEB offers to the community. The group discussed ways to form alliances with organizations that can help ASEB achieve its goals.
Teams explored topics such as:
• Encouraging businesses, particularly large corporations, to understand ASEB’s potential as a resource for employee benefit and education programs
• Enlisting faith-based organizations to provide volunteer support to ASEB
• Communicating to clients, donors, foundations and the community the importance of supporting ASEB, both politically and financially
• Building capacity for ASEB’s educational and outreach programs
• The feasibility of creating private pay only day care centers
• Teaming with universities such as UC Berkeley to support ASEB’s mission
Ingrid Lamirault, Executive Director of Alameda Alliance for Health, gave a presentation about the new CBAS program. She explained how the Alliance will partner with ASEB in providing care for their clients. Ingrid has been incredibly generous with her time and knowledge in getting ASEB up-to-speed with the new program.
At a follow-up meeting in February, team leaders presented the results of their research and offered suggestions for future efforts. The teams will continue to pursue projects such as collecting data to support evidence that ASEB participants utilize fewer services (such as ER and pharmacy) than those who don’t attend the centers, making connections with organizations that have strong volunteer programs, performing a mini demographic study to ascertain the need for pay only day care centers, and developing educational webinars.
Board President Lance Reynolds told the group about his work with Associate Professor JoAnn Tsang of Baylor, who is seeking funding from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley to investigate the use of gratitude journals to mitigate caregiver stress.