What is an Evergreen Club?
Evergreen Clubs are small, member-organized groups of seniors, caregivers, and supporters who share responsibility for creating safe, social, and engaging experiences.
What are an Evergreen Club’s principles?
Consensus driven decision making: decisions should be acceptable to everyone. We recommend at least one member be familiar with the freely available “Consensus Handbook” for describing the decision making process
Shared Responsibility: all members accept some responsibility for the health of an Evergreen Club. More on this in the “shared responsibility model” section.
What are an Evergreen Club’s values?
Dignity: all members and all people are to be treated with respect
Equality: all members and all people are to be treated as equals
What is an Evergreen Club’s “shared responsibility model”?
Ultimately, each Evergreen club decides exactly what this means - but it is a requirement that all members participate. This might mean any of the following:
leading an adventure with participating members (i.e. total, undivided attention)
hosting a weekly in-home meetup with slightly lighter supervision (i.e. availability and presence)
any other form of participation agreed upon by the given Adventure Club
Why start another senior focused program?
The existing programs just weren’t what we (Colin Johnson and Susan Johnson) were looking for. We saw:
programs that accepted those with early-stage Alzheimer's typically operated during normal work hours and required caregiver presence at all times, requiring family or friends to take time off work or hire a caregiver ($30/hour to $50/hour)
programs specifically for those with Alzheimer's that felt structured around the needs of late-stage Alzheimer's patients (locked doors, limited outside activities, risk averse exercise)
Ultimately, we just preferred a more communal approach to care.