Proposal

Mrs. Amy Boutilier

Sports and Medical Sciences Academy

280 Huyshope Avenue

Hartford, CT 06106

Dear Mrs. Boutilier:

For my capstone this year I am looking to work with the senior population. I’ve always believed that the senior population has always been isolated, but it’s been greatly magnified now due to COVID. I am looking to work with a nursing home virtually to create some social interactions with the seniors. The name of the assisted living facility that’s working with me is One MacDonough Place in Middletown, CT. I am also looking into making some cards and putting them in envelopes with crossword puzzles or word searches for them. I have also reached out to multiple elementary schools where kids are going to participate in an activity to make some extra cards for these citizens. I am also beginning to read to them virtually once a week. Reading is a very important skill for me since it is how I learned to speak English. My goal is to make these senior citizens not feel so disconnected, especially right now. Once Christmas and the new year comes around we are going to incorporate a new program called Senior2Senior. For this program, every interested high school senior at SMSA will be paired with an anonymous resident at One MacDonough Place. Once paired, the seniors at SMSA will participate in handwritten letters with their residents. At One McDonough, the nurses will help the residents handwrite some letters back. Hopefully, this type of correspondence will take place for some weeks. The elderly community is one that is often overlooked when the world is going through difficult times and it’s quite sad, considering they might be the ones that need help the most.

The research question I would like my capstone to revolve around is what is the effect that isolation has on humans? How does isolation affect those with deteriorating mental capabilities? I’m trying to reduce the negative effects of the isolation they face by socializing with the elders in the homes. I would also like to specifically incorporate the effect of this isolation during COVID. While going through the motions for my capstone, I’d like to keep as many things as I can for artifacts. After every book, I want to do small reflections, this way I can know how the citizens liked it and I could use this to help with the book selections in the future. I’ll also try and capture the moments with my camera when the kids write cards.

I have an extraordinary mentor for this project. I’m working with Katelin Cummings, the recreational director at One MacDonough Place. Katelin has experience working with elders while also being activists for our older citizens. I believe this project could be so much bigger than just me and I’m looking for people to make this happen. A high percentage of our elderly community has gone without any interactions for months. They have been lacking the fundamental contact that is the human touch. Because of this, I want homes and programs to reevaluate how they do social interactions with their residents. Having a program like this in place could change so many lives in the long run. I know that it’ll push me out of my comfort zone since it’s going to tap into the politics surrounding nursing homes at the moment with COVID-19 and visitors, which is something I despise, but it will be essential to the lives of these people and that’s what drives me. I know personally how isolated we can feel during this quarantine, can you imagine that being your day to day life for the last years of your life?! Yeah me neither.

Sincerely,

Oneiry Restituyo