Diana

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: American Adventure Month (August)

Really you can make up your own rules to fit your needs. Toss them in a bowl and let the compete to see who can assemble them the quickest.
Use it as a matching game to match them on the table individually.
Have them find their other half in a mix and mingle. You could add a twist and have them attached to their back and let the room try to help each person find their other half, especially if its a singles mixer.

Help!. I'm frustrated and bored with my activity program and don't know how to bring it to life.

I am the director of a Senior Center in Southwest Alabama.
We are a rural community and don't have the budget or resources for much of a program.
I am a one woman show most days, so I don't have the staff support to be everywhere and do everything. Our main focus has to be serving lunch and if we don't have enough volunteers to help, I end up in the kitchen or helping to deliver meals.

I joined Golden Cares, because they have so many great printable options I can adapt for our group. I am just bored with doing printables.

My group is constantly changing day to day with a small core group who generally attend every day. Unfortunately that group consist of mostly men who just want to drink coffee and talk. The few ladies who attend are content to just do word puzzles and chat. I have 2-5 who might do arts and crafts but they don't show up all at the same time or day. None will participate in exercise. If I schedule a guest speaker the seniors will avoid coming or wait until 5 minutes before lunch to show up. No one will play any of the games we have on hand, except the 2-3 people who will work on a jigsaw puzzle. Any visitors rarely return, because the place is boring.

Between the seniors lack of interest, inconsistent attendance, and my inability to carve out dedicated interrupted time to lead activities, I am at a loss on how to bring in new life and motivate the ones who come faithfully.

I have no budget and no staff. I rely on donations, volunteers, and end up spending way too much of my money just to try to do something fun once in a while. I just can't keep paying for it all.

I printed this out ages ago and finally got around to using it. I did not use all of the lines, but did cut them and then taped them on the poster boards I had laying around.
The other halves are in a basket near the boards, but for my senior center this worked best as an independent activity.

Much of my programming is to stimulate them in conversation since they don't wish to "play". However, they are masters of coffee and conversation before lunch.

My current group of seniors comes in about 30-45 minutes before lunch is served and leaves as soon as they put down their forks. It makes activity planning a challenge.

In the mean time we adapt and overcome the challenges and keep trying to reach our seniors where they are and respect their right to refuse.