Karma for Cara Foundation microgrant recipients have competed in an application process alongside other young people who have spearheaded exceptional service projects that benefit their communities. In order to qualify for a K4C award, an applicant must be 18 years of age or younger, and the project must take place in the US.
K4C microgrant recipient Max from CA used his award to run a reTHInK Dementia Live workshop immersing youth in what life is like with dementia. His hope was to create awareness & empathy for the disease.
| What inspired you to start this project? | In 2021, my 54-year-old father was diagnosed with Behavioral Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia. I was engulfed by sadness as the father I had known my entire life started deteriorating. Constant tantrums of screaming, crying, and hitting himself echoed throughout the house daily. My family was lost with no direction on where to find guidance on the next steps. My mom was connected to a non-profit called For Their Thoughts Foundation (FTTF). I was left with a lasting impression from their reTHINK Dementia Live (DL) immersive education workshops. I wanted to educated other people about the challenges associated with a young dementia diagnosis. Not enough people know about young onset dementia and the effects it has on a family and a loved one. My goal was to educate youth about how to provide proper care, empathy, education, and communication to make a more understanding society and generation. |
| While working on your project, what surprised you? | While navigating this project, we realized we needed to prioritize educational materials, so we spent a lot more of time working on the creation of new education supplies. The costs and time associated with making such materials required a tremendous about of energy to ensure we provided appropriate education for anyone who had no experience with this disease. We wanted to make sure the educational materials were age appropriate, informative, and insightful. |
| What do you feel you learned from this experience? | I learned more about how you do not know what is going on in someone else’s life that could also be in your life. For example, our course for high school students had the following results: In every class, at least a few students raised their hands when asked if they were affected. No one could initially define dementia, but they were engaged during the experience and walked away empowered. There is a significant need to educate young adults about dementia and brain health. I learned that the more education and reaching out you do, the greater the impact and making these connections can be to find other people who are going through what other people may be going through. Caregivers and those whose lives have been affected by dementia are usually walking a lonely, silent journey. We can fix this through education and connection to make this a less isolating experience for both caregivers and dementia loved ones. |
| How did Karma for Cara impact your project? | Without K4C, we would not have been able to do this project. Around 70 high school seniors were educated regarding early onset dementia through our course. We teamed with high school students interested in health care to help them gain understanding of dementia through a hands-on learning experience. Because of K4C, our grant lets us educate these students how to provide proper communication, empathy, and skills to those navigating this scary disease. Without K4C funds, this event would not have been possible to create the education materials and have the proper equipment to put on the hands-on learning, immersive experience. |
| How will your project continue to impact others? | The event lets us educate a large number of high school students as to how to help loved ones and aging society navigate dementia. These high schoolers will go out into the world and teach society how to make a more caring, empathic world to provide proper care to those with dementia. Through our immersive experience and educational session, this allowed these students to learn how to care for future friends, loves ones, patients, and community members about how to provide proper care and empathy while navigating a changing world of dementia. |
