PROGRAMS

Long-term care residents in Fort Wayne and Allen County enjoy an enriched quality of life because of the Audiences Unlimited program and the caring community in which they live. Through the arts, Audiences Unlimited brings wide-scale community involvement into the difficult environment of long-term care.

AUI provides a healthier quality of life by providing access to programs that bring hope and inspiration during a challenging time.

Benefits:

          - Provides a healthier and more pleasing environment in a hospital like environment
          - Refreshes and engages the minds of nursing home residents
          - Offers residents the opportunity to be recognized on birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and
             other special occasions
          - Encourages social interaction and helps residents find acceptance and support
          - Allows residents to reminisce and share past experiences with others
          - Breaks down barriers allowing an easier flow of conversation among family members and friends
          - Serves as backdrop for special events and activities that include the greater community
          - Provides a reliable source of income for professional artists, musicians and entertainers familiar
             to and enjoyed by this segment of our population.

For this distinctive audience, AUI’s mission is clearly defined. It helps counteract the debilitating effect of institutionalization by providing access to cultural activities offered by the greater community. When individuals are placed in long-term care facilities, they are plunged into a world of new faces and unknown circumstances. They leave behind activities familiar to them and surroundings that brought them comfort. Their friends may stop visiting, and their social networks commonly shrink. For this group, AUI brings wide-scale community involvement into the activity rooms, courtyards, halls, and bedsides of this often overlooked group. The programs brought by AUI would otherwise be unattainable for participating facilities.

During the 2009 fiscal year, the organization served 41 area nursing homes, residential care facilities, subsidized independent living communities, and one hospital.

Each month, Audiences Unlimited coordinates nearly 230 onsite performances and community outings with the activity needs of participating long-term care facilities in Fort Wayne and Allen. Selected artists receive a calendar of dates and times of their scheduled performances. Long-term care facilities receive confirmation via phone, fax, and for those with internet capabilities, by login to AUI’s online calendar of scheduled events. Performances are verified and outcomes tracked helping to ensure quality performances. Three targeted programs benefit nursing home residents: In-Facility, Room-to-Room and In-Community Events.

The enrichment to the quality of life for long-term care residents is immeasurable. They are happier, healthier and more content with their lives. They experience, once again, some of the pleasures they enjoyed while living on their own. Their existence is given more purpose and it is with appreciation and joy that they look forward to the brief visits made by professional entertainers and the social interaction these visits bring.

AUI benefits the community in other ways as well. The organization has been instrumental in promoting handicap accessibility to community attractions and events benefiting both the aging and the disabled. This effort builds awareness and helps the community be more elder-friendly. The In-Community Events program allows the frail and the mentally and physically challenged to be visible in our community reminding us that all life has value.