The beginning of the pandemic was met with confusion, then came a creativity boom in order to reform the way we live our everyday lives. The senior living in particular was one of the most impacted industries from the pandemic. It’s had to make tough decisions in order to keep residents, staff and family members of residents safe.
In addition to those choices, caregivers had to make changes to keep their residents engaged. For a generation that did not grow up with technology and FaceTime calls at the touch of a button, seniors have had to adapt and learn in so many ways, and many of them have embraced this new way of connecting.
Here is a list of virtual event ideas to engage residents today:
Host a Virtual Craft Night
Drop off supplies to each resident’s door so that they have everything they need to get creative. Then all they have to do is join a video chat link where the activities director or perhaps an outside artist leads the event so everyone can follow along and do it together! Crafts could include painting, origami, sewing or pottery glazing.
Online Exercise Classes
There are many on-demand exercise programs to choose from, but other options could be finding YouTube fitness videos or have a staff member host a live class on a group video chat.
Host an Online Trivia Night
Kahoot is a great website to use for this purpose. Trivia night themes can range from TV & Film, history, landmarks and more. Poll your residents to see what categories interest them.
Virtual Happy Hour
A place where all residents can connect with each other and meet new people in a casual setting. Consider having different breakout rooms and different prepared topics for residents to converse about. Find willing residents to lead and nurture the discussions in each breakout room.
Virtual Clubs
Create different virtual clubs that meet weekly to let residents talk and connect about things that they are interested in. Club ideas could include books, bible study, histories, movies or TV shows where they watch the same show each week then come together to discuss.
Online Games
Charades, a Family Feud style game and Pictionary are a few ideas that residents could play together over zoom.
Take a Virtual Trip to Europe
Many museums have created virtual tours of their facilities. Never had the chance to visit Europe? Well, here’s the perfect opportunity. A few museums now offer these virtual walkthroughs: the Louvre in Paris, Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Uffizi Gallery in Italy and even the Vatican.
Not Much of a European History Fan? How About Some Other Options
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is offering various live streams
The Metropolitan Opera offers free nightly live streams
The Houston Zoo has live cameras on their grounds that provide an opportunity to watch the animals in their habitat
Team Up for a Virtual Escape Room
Escape rooms have grown in popularity. They are a series of connected rooms filled with hidden messages, objects and clues. These usually take place with a group of people in a physical location all working together to piece these clues together to escape, but now there are virtual options. Check out these different escape rooms that could serve as virtual events for smaller groups of 10 or less residents.
American Revolution breakout
Alice in Wonderland escape
Sherlock Holmes digital escape room
Virtual Classes
Provide your senior residents with an array of virtual classes or resources for learning. There are courses for new language, history, cooking and technology, just to name a few. There’s always time to keep on learning!
We hope that you find something in our list to inspire you to keep life interesting for your residents while the pandemic continues and even when it finally subsides. Whether your next event is an online breakout room or a virtual trip to Europe your residents are sure to appreciate the creativity.
To read more unique ideas shared from a community click here.
