EngAGE Beverly

10/20/2026

Thank you to Bridget Seagroves for joining us at EngAGE Beverly today and teaching us how to type braille! We all appreciated the chance to try something new and learn together.

Have a skill, talent, interest, or work experience you’d enjoy sharing? Come spend 30 minutes with us! Whether you join us once or every week, you bring fresh energy, conversation, and fun to our days.

Message us if you’d like to join an upcoming gathering. We’d love to learn from you!

Gather. Connect. Belong.

10/19/2026

Tomorrow we’re heading back to October 1979! Gas is about a dollar a gallon (bring a book for the line), The Waltons are on TV, and Y.M.C.A. is on repeat. We’ve got the Speak & Spell, the Simon, and a Tupperware of something that likely held leftover Jell-O salad at one point. Oh and Garfield is coming along too. 🧡

10/15/2026

Thanks to Jim Lynch at Block Club Chicago for spending time with us at EngAGE last week and helping us share our story

Based out of Bethany Union Church, EngAGE Beverly holds gatherings twice a week for adults experiencing early memory changes and their families.

10/06/2026

Today, EngAGE Beverly gathered for our first official day!

A table filled with pieces of the past sparked conversation about history, Sputnik, and the world we remember. We stretched and moved, sent paper airplanes flying, worked with clay, and shared plenty of laughter.

But the best part was getting to know one another: the quick wit, shared stories, and small moments of connection.

That’s what we’re building at EngAGE Beverly, a neighborhood day community for people living with memory changes, with meaningful time together and room for care partners to take time for themselves.

Memory changes don’t change the need to explore, laugh, and belong.

There's still room at the table.
engagebeverly.org

10/01/2026

Hi, Beverly and South Side neighbors!

At EngAGE Beverly, memory changes don’t change the need to connect, contribute, and make a difference. This month, our members are collecting and packing donations for families served by the Crisis Center for South Suburbia. We’d love for you to help us!

Here’s what’s needed (new, small items only, please):

🧴 𝗧𝗼𝗶𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: sturdy-bristle brushes, wide-tooth combs, deodorant, feminine hygiene products
🍼 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝘆 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀: wipes, baby wash (no shampoo), diapers in sizes 4 and 6, pull-ups in sizes 5T and 6T
🧦 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀: socks, underwear and undershirts for women and men, plus slippers and onesies
🍎 𝗦𝗻𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀: Goldfish crackers, chips, canned fruit and other after-school snacks

Please drop off donations by 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟳, in the drop box by the back entrance of 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗵, off Wood St.

Our members will sort and pack everything on October 8. On October 13, a guest from the Crisis Center will join us to collect the donations and share with our members how they have made an impact for people in need.

EngAGE Beverly is a neighborhood day community for people living with memory changes. Giving back is part of how we gather, connect, and belong.

Questions? Reach me at [email protected]. Thank you for being such good neighbors! 💚

09/25/2026

Yesterday we gathered around the table at Bethany Union Church for EngAGE Beverly's very first Welcome Gathering.

I would have loved to share photos of the people who joined us, but their privacy matters more. So instead, I'm sharing this little glimpse of our table, including the names of just a few of the people who helped bring our EngAGE Welcome Gathering to life.

This gathering didn't happen because of one person. It happened because people have opened doors, shared ideas, made introductions, offered encouragement, carried things, created things, shown up, trusted me, and believed there should be a place like this in our community. A special thank-you to Pastor Larry and Brother Benedict for welcoming us into the Garth Room, and to Ann at Greater Chicago Music Therapy Inc. for the music.

Around this table, people talked, laughed, listened, shared stories, and began getting to know one another. For the first time, EngAGE felt less like something I was building and more like a community beginning to form.

I'm so grateful to everyone who helped us get here. 💚

Our first Founding Member gatherings begin October 6. There's still room at the table: engagebeverly.org/gatherings

Gather. Connect. Belong.

09/15/2026

Hi, Beverly and South Side neighbors,

We're holding two Welcome Gatherings next week, before we open in October. Tuesday, September 22 and Thursday, September 24, in the Garth Room at Bethany Union Church.

It's a short morning together. Coffee, conversation, music, something to make, and a bite to eat. Care partners stay for the morning, so we all get to know one another.

These two mornings are also how we learn. It's the first time we're setting up the room and trying out the rhythm of a day, and some of it we'll work out as we go. Come see whether it feels right for your family, and tell us what would make it better.

We keep these mornings small, so each family starts with a short conversation before a first visit. I'd be very happy to talk.

[email protected]

09/10/2026

Yesterday I spent the day at the Destigmatizing Dementia Symposium at Fourth Presbyterian Church, listening to compassionate experts who are doing remarkable work alongside people living with dementia and the people who love them.

One line from Susan Frick of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center has stayed with me: “Finding all the joys within the struggles.”

Susan has spent decades working with individuals and families navigating dementia, including through Without Warning, a community created specifically for families living with younger-onset Alzheimer’s.

She also speaks powerfully about something at the heart of why we are building EngAGE Beverly: loneliness.

A dementia diagnosis can change relationships, routines and social circles. But it does not erase a person’s need for friendship, laughter, purpose, belonging, or joy.

Susan’s TED Talk, Loneliness and Alzheimer’s Disease, is well worth a few minutes:
https://www.ted.com/.../susan_frick_loneliness_and...

I left yesterday with pages of notes, new ideas, and even more conviction about what we are building here in Beverly.
There are struggles. Yes.

But there is also so much life still being lived despite them. Our job is to make room for that.

Gather. Connect. Belong.

09/03/2026

Today, a little gratitude for an organization that helped us imagine what EngAGE Beverly could be.

Long before EngAGE existed, Elderwise in Seattle was creating a different kind of experience for people living with dementia, one rooted in Spirit-Centered Care®. Their work begins with a belief that resonated deeply with us: memory and abilities may change, but the person remains whole.

That belief has shaped how we are building EngAGE Beverly.
We want a small community where people are known, where connection is real, where days have substance and choice, and where everyone is celebrated for all they still have to offer.

We are grateful to Elderwise for nearly three decades of showing what this can look like in practice, and for giving language to something we felt so strongly for our own family.

Learn more about their work at elderwise.org Elderwise

And if this is the kind of community you’ve been looking for here on Chicago’s South Side, join us.

engagebeverly.org