AgeWise Colorado brings together resources to help people to age well in Colorado. Unsurprising, political state boundaries have little bearing on the relevance of the thoughtful guidance and advice the partners of AgeWise Colorado share in the organization's regular webinar series. From solo aging to nutrition at every age to the latest in tech, AgeWise Colorado helps you stay abreast of the latest so you can make transformative, knowledgeable, and informed choices as you live your best life.

Cue story-sharing, in its many forms and purposes. Enjoy the show!

If you skip the video, here's what you missed!

Leading off the discussion was Lisa Culhane, a guided autobiography instructor and life coach. It can be intimidating and frustrating for some just to get started with their stories. What's my objective? Where to begin? How much detail? Lisa is herself an author and believes writing your stories is the key to discovering the lessons and wisdom you want to carry forward into your third act. It’s why she is passionate about supporting people in finding, writing, and sharing their unique stories. 

Artifcts co-founder Ellen Goodwin offered insights into how the simplest and most ordinary of objects are powerful inspirational sources for story-telling and story-sharing. Artifcts is the means through which you can ensure those stories are actually captured along with the photos, video, and audio to help bring them to life and give them fuller context. "You'd be surprised how the most reluctant storytellers or interviewees will open up when you grab an object and ask the simple question, 'What is this?'" Of course, Ellen pointed out, you then have the huge benefits Artifcts offers to share that story or use your Artifcts for other purposes, such as estate and financial planning, insurance support, and more.

Closing the discussion was Maggie Gannon, an advanced practice nurse and founder and CEO of Haven—keeper of life stories and magic moments of the heart. Haven is an all-in-one, under one roof space for legacy preservation. Haven aims to make it easy to preserve your story and grow closer together with loved ones now, while helping everyone stay connected to your memory after death.

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Lori La Bey, founder of Alzheimer's Speaks, brings people to her "radio show" who are in the trenches, working to make a difference for those who have dementia as well as the caregivers to those with dementia. Lori is also the co-founder of sister site Dementia Map, which supports you and your family and/or business with free educational resources, a guide to service providers across 150 categories, and a growing collection of local memory cafes, searchable by state. (You can read more about Artifcts and how to get started in the Dementia Map blog, too!)

The cofounders of Artifcts, along with the executive director of the National Aging in Place Council, joined Lori to talk very directly about all our stuff and how Artifcts helps you to transform the stuff we collect and accumulate in life from a burden today—dust it, store it, move it!—and on future generations, who must wrestle with what to do with it all when it outlives us! Artifcts is here for your entire "village," no matter age or life stage. 

Enjoy the replay!

And before you go, check out Lori Le Bay's new book, Betty the Bald Chicken: Lessons on How to Care. Inspired by Lori’s journey caring for her mother, who lived 30 years with Alzheimer's disease, this endearing book explores hard topics and the tough feelings that go with them. 

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© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Artifcts is pleased to announce its expansion into the memory care community, where the joys of our daily lives represented by the objects we keep can empower everyone to capture their story. Artifcts' collaboration with Virginia-based Insight Memory Care Center (IMCC) will help to bring the power of story-sharing to the IMCC community.

"Insight Memory Care Center is excited to collaborate with Artifcts to bring their innovative, engaging and meaningful service to IMCC families with early stage dementia," said Lindsey Vajpeyi, Early State Programs Director. "IMCC values care, connection, and creativity, and Artifcts is a platform that strives for the same. Artifcting provides an opportunity to spend quality time with friends, family, and care partners to remember, document and share stories in a safe and supportive environment."

Artifcts does away with the need for story prompts and tedious inventories of a life lived. Instead those tangible mementos, photos, and videos you keep provide the source of inspiration. Artifcting is an easy and fun way to remember the moments of life behind those objects and preserve your personal history and legacy. Keep your Artifcts collection private or share it to connect with your community and your loved ones – you decide!

IMCC cares for a diversity of memory impairments and offers a variety of innovative programs to support individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. IMCC also provides support, education, programming and resources to families, caregivers, and the community. By offering person-centered and holistic care, IMCC creates opportunity and a community for those affected by memory impairments to live their highest quality of life.

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DEMENTIA RESOURCES

During the course of our work at Artifcts, we've come across a pleathora of resources related to those affected by dementia. Starting local is imperative to social connection and availability with the every expanding digital universe, so many more options are now at our fingertips. Many you likely know, including the Alzheimer's Association, UsAgainstAlzheimer's, and AARP. There are two additional resources that have learned about more recently that we wanted to flag for those just starting this journey or on the lookout for new resources:

• • Alzheimer's Speaks. Artifcts recently joined their free directory called the Dementia Map. We encourage you to explore the map to find the right resources for you and your loved ones.
  • Great Age Reboot. One of the standout features is that the Reboot Your Age app includes research-supported programming, including the quintessential "games" associated with brain health. Artifcts has no affiliation with this company.

© 2022 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

AgeWise Colorado is a non-profit created with older adults, their loved ones, and current and future caregivers in mind, helping them to find the products and services to help older adults stay in their homes and Age Well ... Age Wisely. "AgeWise Colorado is exactly what we need more of in this world. Essential to life-fulfilling services, vetted, and in one place to benefit the local community. We're honored to be a small part of their work." said Artifcts Co-founder Ellen Goodwin.

Artifcts is an agile provider that not only cherishes the value of our personal memories and histories but wants to ensure that's what we carry with us in life, and not the burden of 'stuff.' Artifcts is a fun and powerful website and app that helps you connect the dots of a memory to create a personal collection that you can privately or publicly share. Combine a photo with audio or video to share Mom's story about her and your Dad's first home, remember the details behind all those medals, flags, and uniforms of Dad's service in the Korean war, capture that family recipe for all time, with a video tip from Grandma on that key step.

"We saw in Artifcts a platform that puts people first. Whether in-home care providers spend time Artifcting with your loved one, or together you use Artifcts for estate and end-of-life planning, it's the experience that keeps on giving. It's time well spent. You can enjoy those memories together now and simplify what can be a difficult process at end of life, too," said Bob Brocker, Founder and Board President of AgeWise Colorado.

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© 2022 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

AARP Innovation Labs has selected Artifcts to join the Labs' Accelerator 2022 winter cohort. This represents a meaningful milestone for Artifcts and an uplifting way to start the new year.

The eight-week program launches 31 January 2022 and will help Artifcts to better support the 50+ population. Together AARP and Artifcts will collaborate through research opportunities such as focus groups, feedback sessions, and available primary and secondary research sources  to refine product usage, placement and position in the 50+ population. We will harness our learnings to better serve the 50+ population and share related announcements here and on social media this spring.

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© 2021 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Enabling the Decluttering Movement 

At Artifcts, we know that not all "stuff" has meaning. Some things enter our lives, get shelved, boxed, stashed. Some things just help us make a cozy, livable, or "us" home. And stuff accumulates. But the rest, the rest has meaning, and objects cannot speak for us. Just ask these garage tools! Our team is focused on making it simple and fun to capture the meaning behind the objects of our lives. By doing that, we can help reduce the emotional burden, energy drain, and general chaos that physical objects around us can impose. 

Last month we published an interview on ARTIcles with a home organization professional that clearly struck a chord. We heard a resounding, "Been there!" message and the click as one of the superpowers of Artifcts fell into place: Organize and declutter without guilt. 

We are joining forces with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing (NAPO) Professionals as well as the local NAPO-Austin, Texas chapter, to help people through the organization process when you will need to know why you are keeping something (and then "organize that") or send it on to its next home. Each of those objects is a potential Artifct with a story, history, or meaning to capture whether you're holding onto it or not. 

We invite you to consider how Artifcts can help organize, declutter, and downsize so that you hold onto memories, not just objects.

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© 2021 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.