Cognitive Connections Inc is a 501 C (3) nonprofit organization which organizes volunteers to engage residents at senior care facilities. The United States' population is aging, and consequently, so are admissions to senior care facilities. The problem arises when the residents are left there by their families, and they are unable to visit them often. The seniors are unable to interact with various kinds of people at the facilities, and because of that, many feel as if they are sent there to die. In addition, that sadness and loneliness significantly contribute to rates of dementia in our elderly. Loneliness cannot be addressed by one person, but a community effort to have people look out for each other is more effective. As a result, I made it my goal to bring students, and people from the community to spend time with seniors.

I started Cognitive Connections to make incremental improvements in seniors' lives. I The vision to combat loneliness and isolation and the passion to achieve it began in the year 2020 during Covid when people were confined to their homes. I would watch the news about seniors at facilities where the disease was taking a toll, yet families/friends of the residents were not allowed to visit to contain disease spread. Older adults are more vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness as they are functionally very dependent on family members.

During the pandemic, there were heavy restrictions on travel, and social gatherings were not allowed to prevent disease spread. The risk was higher especially amongst older adults. Although the move was to keep us all safe, the downside was social isolation. This impacted seniors especially those who lived by themselves or at senior care facilities. I saw the impact of loneliness firsthand with my grandma.

During that time, like everybody else my grandparents were confined to their home. My grandmother who loved being with immediate family, relatives and friends started feeling lonely and bored. Eventually, she started showing symptoms of memory loss which ultimately took her life.

Loneliness and dementia are intertwined, so I sought to concern myself with both and made it my mission to engage the elderly in my community. I saw this as more than just my personal experience. Isolation especially for seniors is a serious problem in our society and wanted to do something about it.

I started volunteering by myself to see what it took to help senior residents in a facility. I called several local facilities to introduce myself and what I intended to do to help the elderly. I met with an activity director at one of the facilities and she was delighted to see that a high school kid was serious about helping them.

I came to know these facilities are always short staffed and the existing employees ended up doing 70-80 hours per week including the weekends. The healthcare workers experience severe burnout due to work overload and the extra time they must work to offset the deficiency. This not only has an adverse effect on the workers who are deprived of rest and relaxation but also has serious implications on patient care. Providing care as such is a demanding and stressful job that is further accentuated by or leads to high levels of staff turnover and absenteeism.

I realized volunteering and engaging the elderly is a win-win experience. It improves the quality of life, builds stronger social networks, leads to increased levels of physical activity and in turn reduces mortality rates. One of the key benefits of volunteering is providing social support to an otherwise neglected community.

I started spending my time and got trained to do various activities. In a few weeks, I started leading some of the activities over the weekends and when I was comfortable that I could train others, I started a club at school and named it Cognitive connections.

I convinced my friends at school what we as youngsters could do by sharing our time with the elderly and what a difference we can make in their lives one hour at a time. By doing this, we develop skills in communication, empathy, and teamwork, which can be valuable in any career path. It can also provide an opportunity to explore a potential career in healthcare or social work.

I spoke to friends at school at lunch and other times, requested the teachers at school to share the fliers and the mission/vision of the club via Google Classroom to spread the word, made morning announcements etc. About 10 students showed interest and we met the Activity director on a weekend and started volunteering. It started off as a small group of volunteers at one facility.

The club has tripled its size and has members volunteering at three different facilities.

I started off doing Trivia, One-on-Ones and sing along and church activities at the facility while some others help with arts and crafts, dining, Bingo, devotion, exercise and games. We also helped decorate the facility for Christmas and packed presents for the residents.

Sharing anecdotes with the residents is really fun!

I arranged events for the residents such as the Derby party, Mother’s Day events, Father’s Day events such as mini-golf, and Ice cream social at one facility. In the second facility, we started doing a variety of games, New Year party, a Carnival event with lots of activities, Grandparents Day, Veterans Day, Halloween events etc.

In summer 2024, I organized an event to do a project with people at Memory care to make dog biscuits and donated them to a dog shelter.

In Fall 2024, I introduced new activities such as Family Feud, Board games etc. We did a candy drive to celebrate Trick or Treat for Halloween.

Every year, the team participates in fundraising for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s and participates in the walk at the Louisville Slugger Stadium.

I created a Non-Profit Tax Exempt organization in the state of KY and have reached out to foundations and wealthy donors who would be able to donate a generous amount. With these funds, I hope to help the financially deprived facilities at risk of closing by providing funds or pay for a driver to take the seniors for an outing or simply pay volunteers to help at facilities.

Donors can deduct contributions made to Cognitive Connections Inc under IRC Section 170.