Postcrossing Program for Independent and Assisted Living Residents

I’ve been reading many topics and haven’t come across a discussion on this topic. So please forgive me if I’m bringing up something old.

I’m wondering if there is a postcrossing program set up for those who live in independent or assisted living facilities? This MAY only apply to the U.S. as I don’t know if similar places exist in other countries.

My thoughts are a program where post cards could be sent to a facility and then posted on a community bulletin board for the residents to read. Additionally, it’d be great if the residents could sit down occasionally and send cards out to others… this may require an organized activity supervised by a volunteer to assist those who need help.

So many seniors in our country (and probably in many countries) have become isolated and it seems like a good idea if we could make it easy for them to connect. Has someone set up any kind of program like this? Does PostCrossing have a program like this? I’d love to hear from anyone who can answer my questions and/or perhaps someone who can share experience in making something like this happen.

Please chime in on this topic. Thanks.

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I think each facility would have to organise this themselves. Find someone to run an account, and then do as you say; get interested residents together to write the cards and post the received cards when they arrive. Organising volunteers for this through Postcrossing is not very likely. You may find them on the forum, but Postcrossing official will not be involved.

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The person who would know about setting something up would be the activity director at each individual facility. Good Luck.

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There are requests for exchanges like this (with nursing homes, disabled people, lonely seniors, school classes etc) in the Non-RAS category in the forum.
https://community.postcrossing.com/c/trades-requests-offers/spread-the-joy/88

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I have seen some of those in the #trades-requests-offers:spread-the-joy Category. But most of them require a mediator who can contact the facility and organize the project. Here are some of them (not including the older ones, not sure if they are still receiving or an active project) :

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https://community.postcrossing.com/t/project-nurse-home/153182?u=dwmcguire

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The three previous respondents have the right idea - that is, having facility activities create and coordinate via the community spread-the-joy topic.

I live in a residential care facility (for US readers: a nursing home) where there are 200+ residents. Creating a Postcrossing account for the facility would allow, say, only 5 people to write a card; initially there would be very few cards to write out on any given month. However the number of cards that can be sent and received through a community project are essentially endless and would allow.for participation by more residents.

Please don’t give up on your idea! :mailbox_with_mail::grinning:

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There is a successful scheme which was set up during the pandemic

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I am very grateful for all who have taken time to respond and share your ideas. I’ve done some volunteer work at assisted living facilities as a project leader for arts and crafts activities so I’m comfortable with coordinating with the staff and meeting the residents. Yes, it appears that use of the non-RAS category, to solicit card senders would be the way to go. The ideas posted so far are similar to what I’ve given thought to… before I began moving forward, I needed to learn if someone else had done some organizing and could share what they learned.

Other ideas are definitely welcome and I’ll watch this topic. If there are other postcrossers in the Phoenix (Arizona) area who interested in teaming up, please get in touch. Thanks again to everyone for sharing your ideas and past campaigns.

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Hello!

Some insight… We drew a card once where the Postcrosser had in their profile that they were responsible for the activities at a Senior Community/Retirement Home & specifically requested the cards to be addressed for the general population to read - so there might be others doing the same thing?

Cheers,
Tara

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That’s great news to learn. Thank you for sharing. As I’ve been thinking through some of the details, I’ve thought about something similar and then take the incoming cards on a display board in the facility recreation room. It might even be cool to connect one retirement (independent and assisted living) center to others (domestic and abroad) who are doing similar things.

If you happen to come across the username for that person, please let me know. You’re awesome!

Larry

And if others here are involved with a similar projects, I hope to hear from you.

I just took part here in a project of a fellow German Postcrosser who collected Easter cards and Easter greeting cards for a home of the elderly in the German town where she lives. :slightly_smiling_face::+1: 120 people live there.
She also does this every year with christmas cards and Christmas greeting cards. :christmas_tree:
Each round of the project has been a great success and been liked by the seniors. :smiley::+1:
Her projects doing this have been running for 3 years now. :+1:
The cards are given/read to the seniors by caring staff, but depending on the number you could also set up a Display Wall. :slightly_smiling_face:
Perhaps that is also an idea for you.

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I belong to a Facebook group called Postcards From The Heart. It’s a group where people can request postcards for senior citizens in their lives, such as family members, friends, etc. There is a master list of each senior’s name, address, and a short blurb about their interests. It’s a one-way response meant to brighten an elderly person’s day, especially those in care homes without many visitors or who are lonely. :love_letter:
Editing to add this is mainly USA residents.

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I’ve sent/received cards from official accounts for elementary school classes, in which they, as a group, choose a card and message and send it along its way, and enjoy the fruits of their labor when they receive one back. The received postcards are then posted on a bulletin board for the remainder of the school year. I would have loved that as a kid!

I can see this working in a smaller-sized nursing home. Otherwise I have seen “Spread the Joy!” for nursing homes, but that is dependent on people choosing to send a card, versus having an official account in which a sender is given your address. Depending on the size of your interest group at the assisted living facilities, I think it would be feasible to have an official account, though you would need one person to take over the responsibility of running it. As @turtlepoint stated, the more cards the group sends as a whole, the more individual cards they could send (written by one person in the facility, but sent from the joint official account).

Plus, I’d love to send your interested friends a card!!! Best of luck with your idea - it sounds great!

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What a great topic. I’m not sure about postcards but I did send some cards to seniors through this avenue in the past: Letter Requests — Love For Our Elders - there are different names of elders every month that people can write to but it’s not reciprocal, just one way.

In Canada, there’s this site, where people can send written cards that are then forwarded to different homes. https://www.sendingsunshine.ca/

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Very good information. I plan to visit the FB group. Thank you so much.

Larry

Thank you, Jenny. If I can get a start with this idea, I’ll definitely send a note and ask for your card.

I’m sure learning a lot today. A few years back, my departed wife used to lead the residents in an activity for an assisted living facility, by getting them to create homemade greeting cards to send out. Her efforts were met with a lot of enthusiasm and she frequently had 15 - 20 residents who participated. When my idea came about, I recalled how it had worked for her and the many smiles that the residents shared.

Larry

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I love that this idea is drawing international attention. I just replied to Jenny about a project that my departed wife used to organized, which is very similar to the project you mentioned. Thank you so much for the ideas and for writing.

Regards,

Larry

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In the project I just took part homemade cards or homemade greeting cards were also accepted, but any bought cards/greeting cards, too. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Maybe we can work something out for the coming christmas. :slightly_smiling_face::christmas_tree:
I would be happy to exchange a greeting card. :ribbon:

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