GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Two Green Bay area neighborhoods are about to see a change after a grant from United Way.
The Navarino neighborhood and downtown Green Bay will benefit from the effects of the dementia-friendly neighborhood initiative. The initiative includes training for both businesses and residents on dementia.
Therese Barry-Tanner, project manager for the dementia-friendly neighborhood initiative, says these two areas were selected due to their makeup.
“Downtown has a large number of businesses, and Navarino is more resident-focused,” said Barry-Tanner. “But many of the Navarino neighbors go to the businesses downtown.”
The dementia friendly neighborhood initiative is supported by the Brown County Dementia-Friendly Community Coalition through the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Brown County. Through the initiative, businesses can receive Purple Angel training by a certified volunteer .
“The business learns what dementia is, the different types of dementia, common behaviors of people with dementia, and how they can help someone who has dementia that may be having an issue in that business,” said Barry-Tanner.
So far, 11 downtown businesses have agreed to receive training. One business, Lion’s Mouth Bookstore, was already trained before Christmas.
The Brown County Dementia-Friendly Community Coalition currently has 165 businesses throughout the county that have gone through Purple Angel training, but this is the first time they’ve hyperfocused those efforts to one area.
Similar to Purple Angel training, Dementia Friends training will be offered for residents in the spring. This training focuses on how a resident can be alert to signs of a neighbor with dementia within their neighborhood and offer a helping hand, if needed.
To help residents learn about the initiative, an informational session will be held on January 25 at the Grounded Café inside the Brown County Aging and Disability Resource Center beginning at 5 p.m. At the event, they can sign up to receive training.
Barry-Tanner says she thinks this program has great opportunities to expand.
“The idea is to start with this type of neighborhood so we could get a good sense of how well it works, and then from there we can move out to other neighborhoods,” she said. “We believe this neighborhood approach is the first of its kind in Wisconsin and maybe even beyond because it focuses on a smaller geographic area which means hopefully getting higher training penetration rates.”
To learn more about the dementia-friendly effort in Downtown and Navarino, and sign up to attend the information session, see the initiative’s Facebook page here.
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