The Creativity Discovery Corps

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The Creativity Discovery Corps

• Co-Sponsored by
• The George Washington University,
• IONA Senior Services,
• The Washington, DC Area Geriatric Education
  Center Consortium (WAGECC)

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Who is the Creativity Discovery Corps?

• The Creativity Discovery Corps is
• Headed by a committee of professionals and
  students from a variety of disciplines
• Creative older adults
• Volunteers who collaborate with older adults on
  creative projects
• Programs that creatively foster the release of
  human potential and growth in older adults

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What is the Mission of theCreativity Discovery
Corps?

• The Creativity Discovery Corps is dedicated to
• Discovering promoting the work life histories
  of talented older adults
• Developing building intergenerational
  creativity collaboration
• Identifying disseminating best practices
  related to intergenerational community
  collaboration around facilitating older adults
  creativity

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What is the Vision of theCreativity Discovery
Corps?

• The Corps is working to ensure
• That older persons have opportunities to continue
  their creative growth
• That society may recognize, celebrate, benefit
  from the achievements of creative older adults
• That stereotypes of aging may be dispelled
• That more older persons can become role models
  for those at any age to explore creative
  potential.
• www.gwumc.edu/cahh/discover

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Theoretical Orientation of the Creativity
Discovery Corps

• The Creativity Discovery Corps recognizes
• That human beings continue to grow develop
  throughout the life span
• That older adults continue to make creative
  contributions to society their families
• That older adults sharing their knowledge life
  experiences with others enables them to assume
  new roles in their families and communities

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Perspective of the Corps on Creativity

• Older adults have enhanced potential for
  creativity because they have accumulated its key
  ingredients -- life experience perspective

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What kinds of creativityis of interest to the
Corps?

• Public Creativity -- creativity in the public or
  community arena
• Private Creativity -- creativity on a personal or
  family level
• Collaborative creativity -- creativity that
  emerges in relationships activities with
  others
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Public Creativity

• Creativity with a big C
• Refers to creative acts that are recognized by
  ones community /or culture
• Often refers to extraordinary accomplishments of
  unusual people -- such as Einsteins theory of
  relativity or Madame Curies discovery of radium
• Also refers to local public acts by ordinary
  people -- such as solving a community problem or
  beautifying a public space with a mural
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Private Creativity

• Creativity with a little c
• Grounded in ways people develop their individual
  potential and personal interests
• Someone using imagination and inventiveness to
  solve a problem, create a product, or approach a
  challenge from a new perspective
• Some examples -- inventing a recipe, growing
  plants and trees in a garden, taking a
  photograph, writing a poem or email
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Collaborative Creativity

• Social creativity autobiography
• Creative expression which enables older adults to
  assume one of their most important creative roles
  -- as keepers of the culture
• Transmits knowledge they have accumulated through
  life experiences to younger members of the family
  or society
• Indigenous foods, crafts, trade skills, songs,
  dances, stories
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Opportunities for Creativity that Change with
Age

• Creativity that commences with aging
• Creativity that continues, sometimes changing
  with aging
• Creativity that continues with aging
• Creativity that develops in response to loss or
  adversity
• Creativity in diverse realms -- such as musical,
  linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial,
  bodily/movement, social, artistic
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Benefits of Creativity

• Strengthens morale
• Improves physical health
• Enriches relationships
• Enables the leaving of a legacy
• Cohen, Gene D. (2000). The creative age. Avon
  Books, Inc. New York.

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Opportunities for CreativityThe role of the
Corps

• Discovering promoting the work life stories
  of creative older Washingtonians
• Facilitating intergenerational interpersonal
  collaborative creativity
• Recognizing programs best practices in the
  areas of intergenerational community
  collaborative creativity
• Professional education in creativity aging

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How can you become involved?

• Be creative!
• Lifelong interests, new areas of enrichment,
  problem-solving, creating a product, traveling,
  expanding your perspective, sharing your story
  with others -- are all opportunities for older
  adults to use their life experiences
  perspective creatively
• Volunteer with the Creativity Discovery Corps!
  help an older adult access his or her creativity.

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Thank you!