Education | Mentorship | Community

Connect + Create Forum
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Join us on a 4-week accompaniment journey to form the way we care for others in ways that are filled with dignity, creativity, and purpose-driven.

Led by Kate Fassbender, The Connect + Create Institute offers a robust curriculum designed to address the needs and full potential of those working in elder care today. Through a combination of weekly videos, 1:1 mentorship meetings, and monthly group calls, participants will create ways to transform the way we approach the care for our residents and clients.

Magnify the Gifts you have to give others who seek your support and care.

Break Free from the task-oriented Cookie Cutter care and into DIGNIFIED, relational care.

Connect with others in care, freeing yourself, your clients, and your residents from isolation and silos.

Make it Real! Find ways to offer the care you desire to give working with the REGULATIONS and limitations, not against it.

Lecture Hall

What We will Learn

Each week we explore the following modules.

1

Module 1 – Understanding Dementia:
The Art of Accompaniment and Becoming Relational

2

Module 2 – Understanding Prediction in the Care Relationship

3

Module 3 – Communication that Works
Transforming Challenges into Moments of Connection

4

Module 4 – Breaking Down Team Challenges + Strengths
Working Together to Create a Community of Purpose

5

Module 5 – Putting it All Together
Active Accompaniment

Connect and Create
Programs

Together you will receive

  • 4-Weeks of both on-demand and live learning
  • 1:1 mentorship with Kate
  • Workbook filled with guides, questions, and materials to take back to your team
  • Quarterly on-going workshops
  • Monthly gatherings
  • 1 year of continued accompaniment with renewal options

New Cohort starts Spring 2027

Join our NExt Cohort

Your Invitation

Families

Perspective Professional

The Career Shift, the Second Career.

For those who are working to enter elder care as a professional, regardless of the path they took to this place, your education, your age, we need those who’s hearts are built for the receptivity of caring for our elders.

Vibrant artist palette with paint and brush creating colorful artwork.

Family Member

How May I Support You?

While this program is designed for the professional care partner, you may find this program fit for what you are seeking. Please, reach out to Kate if you are interested in joining the program.

Professional Care Partner

Any Role, Any Title, Any Setting

From the housekeeping staff to the Administrator. You are welcome. Home Care, Assisted Living, Skilled Care, Memory Care, Hospice, Doctor, Nurse, Pastoral Care. You Are Welcome.

Two individuals playing piano together in a close-up shot, focusing on their hands and the musical keys.

Student

Nurse, Creative Arts Therapists, Business, English, History…

No matter your Major or degree path, if you are seeking ways to serve our elders, there is room for you in this program.

Understanding Dementia

Meet your Faculty

Hi! I’m Kate

HI THERE! I’m Kathryne (Kate) Fassbender

I have been called a Creative Gerontologist, Speaker, and Arts and Innovator.

I continue to dedicate my life to accompanying those living with dementia. I believe dementia is not a death sentence, a reason to squash dignity, purpose, and joy, nor an eraser that eliminates the beauty of your life. But it is also not a reason to fear suffering, and “shush” conversations about the real trials of dementia. Whether you have the diagnosis yourself or are a care partner, I seek to walk with you through the trials and triumphs of this life.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, I have spent 16 years “out East.” This connection between these two creative, innovative, and leading regions of our country in aging and dementia (as well as arts and health) has allowed me to dream big, to put out into the deep and imagine a better world for those on the dementia journey.

I am the granddaughter of someone who lived with Vascular Dementia.

My grandmother was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia when I was 16. After already volunteering in memory care since I was 11, her diagnosis made dementia real in a new way. I saw the family dynamics, the trials as well as the triumphs, what care looked like across the spectrum, and where I wish we could have done better.

About Photo

Joing the Institute

Membership Levels

Families

Family Membership

Designed for family members and those living with a diagnosis to better understand their dementia journey, finding ways to live the highest quality of life possible in continued with relationship with those they love, doing what they love. This membership will give you access to the Dementia Letters Project email newsletter archive, special podcast and videos, and articles from both myself, Kate, and others who seek to support and accompany those living with dementia.

Join as a Family Member
Lecture Hall

Connect + Create Institute

A membership designed for clients and professional care providers who are busy, overwhelmed, longing for better ways to care for those living with dementia and our elders in general. It is for the innovator, the rebel, the dreamer, the one who desires to transform care, because they see in their client and residents a heart longing to be seen, heard, and cared for in more dignified ways. Care Should not be Overwhelming, but a place of Relational Beauty.

Join as a Full Member
Creative Engagement

Connect and Create Forum

Occurring every year in the spring, the Connect + Create Forum is a 4-week intensive designed for dementia professionals and family members alike to come together to dive deeper into specific topics, receive mentorship, and enter into community with other care providers. It is perfect for someone who is not ready or can afford the full Institute, or is simply in a role that does not need the full program. Registration will open in January for 2027.

Registration Closed

We Believe In

The Connect and Create Institute started as a small online conference for Life Enrichment Specialists back in 2018 in hopes that every type of care partner
could be supported in networking with others in elder care, and grow in knowledge and skills to navigate the day-to-day of senior living programming.
Today, I am re-launching the Connect and Create Institute to better address the trials and uplift the triumphs of non-medical care partners and support new
care partners as they enter their professional life.

FAQ

We know that insolation is devastating to our health and care partners are equally, if not more, susceptible to loneliness. We also know that when taking a broad look at the professional landscape, care partners in dementia are undertrained by 230-280* hours of formal education. Not to mention the lack of support for family care partners. This gap in education in multiplied for those working in activities and through social connection means in our senior living communities, care organizations, and in our homes. The Connect and Create Institute is a place where we can bridge the gap between professional development, community, and service.

*When we look at an average Activities Director only needing 180 of specified training, if required at all.

Professional Care Partners working in Senior Living and Care (especially those in non-medical care)

Pastoral Care and Specialist on care teams for those living in long-term care.

Students and Individuals looking to enter activities or senior living professions

Occurring every year in the spring, the Connect + Create Forum is a 4 week intensive designed for dementia professionals and family members alike to come together to dive deeper into specific topics, receive mentorship, and enter into community with other care providers. It is perfect for someone who is not ready or can afford the full Institute, or is simply in a role that does not need the full program.

One-on-One Mentorship: Bi-weekly calls to help you develop and grow as a professional care partner through a sharing of knowledge, skills, and/or experience, accompanied by tangible resources, and the development of actionable plans. Creative Brainstorming Calls: With fellow dementia professionals, to network, share ideas, and create new programs together for your community or organization. Monthly Professional Support Group: Coming together as care professionals to share experiences and struggles of life in dementia care. Exclusive Digital Content: Videos and Podcast episodes created by myself (and hopefully you one day) that are designed to fit in busy schedules with ideas and actionable steps. A Private Community: A place where we can come together to share in triumphs and trials between digital gatherings. Early Access: Get first notice on anything new with Dementia Letters Project, including any services or products with a chance to give feedback before it hits the public. Discounts on Services: Work for a community or organization? You can get discounted training and program fees. Access to the Annual Connect and Create Digital Conference for FREE

Materials: Email and Online

Mentorship and Roundtable Sessions: Zoom

For partners every three months you will be prompted to renew or end the partnership. At which point you will continue on with active accompaniment, and access to any new programming developed, or lose access to the videos and recordings and invitations to roundtables.

Renewal takes place annually.

Of course! No contracts or monthly minimums are set and you are free to cancel anytime. Upon cancellation, you will be immediately removed from the digital community and may rejoin at any time. Not, however, that you may not be able to rejoin at the same rate you initially had. Note that if you are in the middle of the 4-week course, your cancelation will take place upon completion of the first 3 months and if you selected the forum and membership level, you will be refunded all but $199 of your dues.

Because of the nature of a digital community, the general policy is no refunds will be granted for online content. However, if after the first mentorship call with Kate, you both decided that your styles of working are not a good fit, you may receive a full refund within 24 hours of that call. Other special circumstances may grant a refund, please email Kate@dementialettersproject.com with questions.

If registration is closed or a cohort is full, please email outreach@dementialettersproject.com to have your name put on the waiting list. Sometimes, even if a registration is closed, we might have room to accept you into a newly begun cohort, so don’t hesitate to ask.

Dementia Letters Project and Kathryne Fassbender own this course, however, you will receive lifetime access to the program to revisit as needed. Each participant must register for themselves unless purchased at the group rate for your entire staff. Individuals will have lifetime access to the program. Organizations will have 1 year of access, and must repurchase after 1 year if desired.