The LiveWell Institute
Transforming how communities think about brain health and living with dementia.
The LiveWell Institute advances brain health research, dementia prevention, and wellbeing innovation through collaboration, education, and community engagement. As a leader in strength-based, evidence-informed approaches, the Institute connects science, clinical practice, and lived experience to improve quality of life for people living with dementia and those at risk.
At its heart, the Empowering Partnerships Network (EPN) unites individuals, care partners, clinicians, and researchers to co-create innovative solutions.
Through partnerships with universities, health systems, businesses, and towns, the Institute drives initiatives such as the FINGER Clinic, Evidence-Based Appreciative Inquiry (EBAI), and the Dementia Positive movement—transforming how communities think about aging, cognitive health, and wellbeing so every person and every brain can thrive.
Empowering Partnerships
Empowering Partnerships Network
The Empowering Partnerships Network is a diverse peer network of individuals living with dementia, care partners, and multi-stakeholders that are engaged to transform care, services, and experiences with and for people impacted by dementia.
The network is the product of the Empowering Partnerships Project that worked to create opportunities for peers living with dementia to support and empower one another in four areas: peer support, advocacy, community education & research, and volunteerism.
Today the Empowering Partnerships Network is at the forfront of creating a movement to build an inclusive and accepting ‘dementia positive’ community.
- Mission: To create a diverse peer network of partners that are leading a movement to promote cognitive health and transform the experience of living with dementia.
- Vision: To make an impact that matters through research, policy, and practice.
- Design Thinking Workshops for People Living with Dementia, Care Partners, and Researchers
- Involvement of People Living with Dementia and Care Partners in Study Design, Award Selection, Implementation, Evaluation, Dissemination
Accomplishments
The EPN has designed, facilitated, and implemented 10 design thinking workshops in partnership with nationally recognized colleges and universities. Additionally, several partners in the EPN presented at an IMPACT Collaboratory conference presentation on co-partnerships in research.
Four partners in the EPN are on the International Advisory Council for the EMPOWER Dementia Network and consult with this organization to determine how funds should be disseminated to researchers interested in co-partnerships. Partners in the EPN have also been critical in the conceptualization and writing of several grants LiveWell submitted in conjunction with renowned universities, and should we receive this grant funding, they will be acting as consultants. As of the end of 2025, the EPN has partnerships with 26 universities.
- Education for Healthcare Professionals
- Creation of a new Dementia Positive and Healthy Brain Learning Experience
- Meetings with legislators to influence policy change
Accomplishments
Partners in the EPN are Chairing the Dementia Positive Southington Ambassador Council and have co-created a new Dementia Positive and Healthy Brain Learning Experience, that the EPN is excited to launch in Southington and beyond. The EPN is proud to have formalized its Speakers’ Bureau, which is now comprised of over 20 speakers, including individuals living with cognitive change as well as care partners.
The Speakers’ Bureau delivered dozens of presentations in 2025 (virtual and in person) and was invited to participate in several podcasts. The EPN collaborated with the Alzheimer’s Association by participating in Connecticut Alzheimer’s Advocacy Day and the statewide Alzheimer’s Walks. The EPN also coordinated the design of tee-shirts that said, “Ask Me Why I’m Agitated” that were worn in response to videos and pamphlets disseminated by the Gerontological Society of America that perpetuate the myths surrounding dementia and agitation
Program Design/Development and Facilitation
Accomplishments
Partners in the EPN have helped to co-design the first US FINGER-based cognitive wellness clinic at LiveWell’s Resilient Living Center, led by internationally recognized dementia prevention expert Dr. Miia Kivipelto. Additionally, over 10 partners in the EPN co-facilitate a variety of Resilient Living Center Courses and Programs, including the Resilient Living Education Series, Healthy Lifestyles, and Cognitive Stimulation Therapy.
Partners in the EPN have co-designed new courses, including a course on the Art of Storytelling: Crafting Your Personal Story. Partners in the EPN deliver lectures in their areas of expertise as Special Events in the Resilient Living Center.
- To leverage your unique skills and talents
- To share your personal stories
- To engage in meaningful initiatives that matter to YOU
- To experience a sense of purpose
- To be a part of leading a Dementia Positive Movement
- To bring your authentic voice to the table
Rev. Marilyn Kendrix
Rev. Marilyn Kendrix served for many years in local church ministry and as Conference Minister for the Rhode Island Conference UCC before retiring. Her husband of 55 years is living with Frontal Temporal Dementia, and Marilyn has walked beside him as a devoted care partner. Becoming part of EPN connected her with others who truly understand this journey, and the friendships formed there have meant a great deal to her. She speaks often about the importance of creating a “dementia positive” culture, one that sees people first rather than diagnosis. For Marilyn, this work is both hopeful and practical: it challenges stigma, supports families, and helps researchers listen more carefully to the voices of those living the experience every day.
Betsy Mintz
For Betsy Mintz, joining EPN was a way to take action against the silence and misunderstanding that often surround changes in brain health. She has found energy in working alongside people of different ages and backgrounds who share the same goal- building communities where no one feels pushed aside because of dementia. Serving as Co-Chair of the Dementia Positive Southington Ambassador Council has been a highlight of her involvement and a place where she can help ideas turn into real community impact. Betsy believes the strength of EPN is its spirit of welcome, and she invites others to step in, learn together, and be part of something that is already changing lives.
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Joan McCarthy
Joan McCarthy brings the heart of an educator to everything she does. After 36-year career teaching children of all abilities, she now uses that same love of learning to advocate for people affected by dementia, including herself. Within EPN she has found not only a platform for advocacy but a circle of genuine friendships. Joan has focused much of her energy on helping libraries become more inclusive spaces, encouraging librarians to think creatively about programs and resources for individuals and caregivers. She often says that involvement in EPN transformed her diagnosis from something isolating into a source of purpose, and she hopes others will discover that same sense of belonging.
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Janet Peck
Janet Peck devoted three decades as a mental health counselor in a private practice, and continues to support and help people discover their own strengths. Life shifted when her wife Carol was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s ten years ago, and Janet stepped into the role of care partner. The couple, together for 50 years and married 17 years ago, faced this chapter with honesty and determination. Through EPN, Janet found a community that believes people living with dementia still have stories, gifts, and leadership to offer. She helped create a speakers’ bureau so those stories could be heard beyond clinical settings, in everyday community spaces. Janet often tells others that EPN gave her a way to transform fear into meaningful action.
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Carol Conklin
Carol Conklin was the first licensed female electrician in the State of Connecticut and owned and operated her own electrical contracting business for 15 years before ending her career as a state employee in 2015. She lives in Colchester with her wife Janet; they have been together for 50 years and married 17 years ago after participating in the effort that allowed same-sex couples to marry. As a person living with dementia, Carol has most enjoyed being part of a group that values her voice and lived experience. She is proud to have been instrumental in informing the design of a research project and helping professionals better understand dementia from a personal perspective. Carol encourages others to get involved because EPN has given her purpose and meaning, and she believes it can do the same for others.
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Chris Brunette
Chris is 73-years old. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, and daughter who began a new chapter three years ago after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Through EPN and LiveWell she has taken roles she never expected; co-facilitating classes, speaking publicly, and helping plan research. She often says EPN gave her a louder voice in the fight against stigma and in the call for better brain health at every age. Serving as a work group leader for Dementia Positive Communities and Co-Chair of the Southington Ambassadors has allowed her to turn personal experience into community change. Her message to others is open and generous: there is room here for anyone who wants to be heard and to help.
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Lucy and Lee Rosenblatt
DIDN’T RECEIVE THE BIO YET!
- Dementia Positive Communities: If you want to help to create a Dementia Positive Southington, this is the Impact Project for you!
- Speakers’ Bureau: If you want to become a speaker, moderate speaking engagements, help to secure venues, or participate in the overall organization of the Speakers’ Bureau, this is the impact project for you! Don’t want to participate in the Speakers’ Bureau but have an idea about where to host a Speakers’ Bureau engagement, let us know!
- Research Impact Project: If you want to help vet researchers who want to collaborate with the EPN and help to coordinate periodic Research in Action events to bring the latest research to the EPN, this is the impact project for you!
- Brain Health and Dementia Programs: If you want to help to co-create new programs or advise LiveWell about existing and new Resilient Living Center programming, join this impact group!
- Peer Mentorship Program: If you want to help to design and develop one of two mentorship programs (one for care partners mentoring other care partners and one for individuals living with cognitive change mentoring others living with cognitive change), this is the impact project for you!
- Educational offerings led and facilitated by individuals with cognitive change: If you’d like to help co-design topics and presentations to educate the community about dementia, this is the impact project for you!
Speakers Bureau
Mission: As people living well with dementia, care partners, and other allies, we provide community education and raise awareness by sharing our dementia positive stories. We aim to promote cognitive health, reduce stigma, and change the narrative around dementia and cognitive change, empowering individuals to embrace life with dignity, hope, and joy.
What to Expect When Hosting Speakers-
- In person or virtual engagement
- 60- or 90-minute sessions
- 1 or more speakers sharing their personal stories
- Interactive Talk-Back
What to Expect When Hosting Speakers-
- In person or virtual engagement
- 60- or 90-minute sessions
- 1 or more speakers sharing their personal stories
- Interactive Talk-Back
Other Initiatives
LiveWell offers a variety of support to improve your wellbeing following a dementia diagnosis. Click the plus signs to explore options to help you build habits for a healthy lifestyle and begin living well with cognitive change.
Dementia Friends Connecticut
Dementia Friends is a global movement that is changing the way people think, act, and talk about dementia. LiveWell is leading this movement throughout Connecticut. By helping everyone in a community understand what dementia is and how it affects people, each of us can make a difference for people touched by dementia.
Dementia Friendly Southington
Southington Connecticut residents, businesses and organizations are coming together to support a grassroots Dementia Friendly Southington where people living with dementia and their families are supported, included and enjoy a good quality of life.
Memory Cafés
Often a diagnosis of dementia means friends stop calling. As a result, people living with dementia can lose ties to their friends and their community. They retreat behind the walls of their homes, and becoming isolated. This happens just when social connection is needed most. As the Beatles sang, “we get by with a little help from our friends.” Attending a Memory Cafe is a great way for people with dementia and their family members to make new friends and remain connected to their community.
LiveWell led the movement to increase the number of community-based Memory Cafes in Connecticut. When the pandemic prevented in-person gatherings LiveWell adapted the program to be virtual and has continued to foster a place for people to gather and connect safely.
Southington – Every Brain, Every Age • One Community
Building a community where brain health and compassion go hand in hand.
Southington is leading a movement to protect brain health and celebrate inclusion.
The Dementia Positive Southington movement began with a community Summit that united residents, caregivers, schools, faith groups, businesses, and town officials to co-create shared goals for a more compassionate, brain-healthy town.
Guided by people with lived experience of dementia and community members committed to brain health
The movement is driving solutions that enhance wellbeing, inclusion, and prevention—improving lives today while cultivating a Healthy Brain Zone for the future.
Together, Southington is demonstrating how every person, and every brain, can truly belong.
Three Pillars of Action
Community Leadership: Southington Ambassadors and Action Teams lead advocacy and inter-generational projects that shape the community’s dementia-positive future.
Ambassador Training • Ambassador-Led Events • Local Special Programs • Action Teams • Community Conversations
Creating a movement powered by connection, purpose, and lived experience.
Community leadership is at the core of Dementia Positive Southington. Ambassadors and Action Teams, made up of residents, care partners, people living with dementia, students, and local professionals—are shaping how Southington becomes a more compassionate, brain-healthy town.
Together, they host community conversations, lead intergenerational projects, and organize local events that amplify the voices of lived experience. Their work is transforming understanding into action, helping every sector of the community play a role in supporting brain health, inclusion, and belonging.
Healthy Brain Zone & Dementia Prevention Clinic: Evidence-based programs that help residents protect cognitive health through daily habits and early screenings.
Dementia Prevention Clinic Details • Healthy Brain Workshop Series • Dates & Calendar
Turning science into daily habits that protect and strengthen brain health.
The Healthy Brain Zone and Brain Health and Dementia Prevention Clinic represent LiveWell and Yale School of Nursing’s commitment to prevention and early intervention. Grounded in global research from Dr. Miia Kivipelto’s FINnish GERiatric (FINGER) Study and delivered locally through LiveWell and the Yale School of Nursing, these programs make brain-healthy living accessible for everyone.
Residents can participate in screenings, classes, and coaching to build brain health literacy and apply lifestyle strategies proven to support cognition—nutrition, movement, cognitive engagement, social connection, and vascular health.
Together, the Healthy Brain Zone and Dementia Prevention Clinic are helping Southington become a model for dementia prevention and brain health promotion.
Dementia Positive Awareness and Training: Training and recognition programs for Southington businesses, schools, and organizations committed to supporting inclusion and actively creating welcoming and responsive environments for individuals living with dementia and cognitive change.
Dementia Positive Trainings • Certification Process • Resources for Participants
Building a community that understands, includes, and supports every brain.
Dementia Positive Southington offers awareness and training programs that equip schools, businesses, and organizations to create more inclusive, dementia-friendly environments. Participants learn practical ways to communicate, connect, and adapt spaces so that people living with dementia feel safe, respected, and valued.
Through certification, recognition, and ongoing education, Southington is becoming a Dementia Positive Community—one where compassion and understanding are built into the fabric of daily life.
Our Progress & Your Role
Southington’s Dementia Positive movement continues to grow through partnership and action.
- Action Teams: Residents and partners are advancing projects in brain health education, business training, youth engagement, and storytelling.
- Outcomes: Increasing brain health screenings, training more local businesses, and expanding ambassador programs throughout Southington.
Counters (visual): Ambassadors | Partners | Individuals Trained | Businesses Certified | Stories Shared
Ways to Participate:
- Attend a Brain Healthy workshop
- Become a Brain Healthy Zone & Dementia Positive Partner
- Sign Up for the Newsletter
- Become an ambassador
- Share Your Story