Launching a Memory Café

Memory Cafés are meetings where people with a diagnosis of dementia (with and without IDD) and their care partners come together and enjoy a variety of activities. Memory Cafés can ease feelings of isolation and offer support and community to participants and their loved ones. The video and accompanying slides offer an overview of what a Memory Café is, how to start one, and other information.

The Gary Glazner video is an example of call and response poetry during a Memory Café.

This informational series on Memory Cafés is a collaboration of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston, and CDDER.

Presentation Slides: Launching A Memory Cafe (PDF)

Presentation Slides: Alzheimer’s Poetry Project  (PDF)

All documents mentioned in the video above can be found in the Jewish Family & Children’s Service Memory Café toolkit. This free Memory Café Toolkit provides step-by-step instructions to help you launch and sustain a memory café as well as templates you can download and adapt to fit your own program.