History of the JF&CS Memory Café Percolator
In early 2014, JF&CS launched the second memory café in Massachusetts. Several organizations expressed interest in the café model, and guests of the JF&CS Memory Café asked for more locations and meeting dates. To respond, JF&CS launched the Percolator Memory Café Network in October 2014. Since then, the Percolator has helped other organizations across Massachusetts, as well as individuals and organizations in other states and countries, to learn how to start and sustain their own café. In 2017, the JF&CS Percolator Memory Café Network received a Rosalinde Gilbert Innovations in Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiving Legacy Award for its impact in helping to make memory cafés more widely available.
What Are Memory Cafés?
Memory cafés, also called Alzheimer’s cafés, are welcoming social gatherings for people living with dementia and their family members, friends, and professional caregivers. Dr. Bere Miesen started the first café in Holland in 1997, and since then they have spread as a social movement throughout many countries. Cafés meet in many types of locations, such as libraries, community centers, restaurants, and houses of worship. Cafés should fit the interests, needs, language, and culture of their local community, so each café is unique. Their main purpose is to provide a welcoming, stigma-free social setting where people living with dementia and their care partners can meet others and enjoy time together. Cafés aim to decrease the social isolation that often accompanies dementia.
Join the Percolator Email List
To join the JF&CS Memory Café Percolator email list and receive information about our quarterly meetings, please fill out this form. Note that our meetings take place in Waltham, MA and via Skype/conference call.
Memory Café Resource Links
- Massachusetts Memory Café Directory
List of all the memory cafés in Massachusetts organized by region and town.
- National “Virtual” Memory Café Directory
In this time of social distancing, many cafés are going virtual. List your café and find cafés here.
- Massachusetts Guest Artist/Activity Facilitator Directory
List of teaching artists and other facilitators in Massachusetts who are available to lead activities at memory cafés. Join the Guest Artist/Activity Facilitator Directory by filling out this form. (Massachusetts only, please!)
- Massachusetts Memory Café public service announcement videos (1 minute):
Watch on YouTube in English and in Spanish
This video introduces the general public to memory cafés.
- Memory Café Toolkit and Virtual/Hybrid Toolkit Supplement in English and in Spanish
A step-by-step guide to starting and sustaining a memory café.
- Spanish webinar on starting a Spanish-speaking memory café
A 25-minute video explaining how to start and run a café, focusing on the experience of Aroma de Café, the first Spanish-speaking memory café in Massachusetts.
- Webinar on IDD-Inclusive Memory Cafés
A 38-minute video about the lessons learned by nine memory cafés that partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services starting in 2016 to serve people with intellectual/developmental disabilities who are also living with dementia.
- Webinar on starting a memory café network
A 30-minute video about how the JF&CS Percolator Network got started, its benefits, and how people in other states or regions can start their own memory café network.
- Webinar: Creating and Sustaining Memory Cafés: Lessons from the Coast and the Heartland
A 60-minute video produced by Dementia Friendly America about best practices and structures for helping memory cafés to spread, from Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
- Webinar: The Power of Social Connection: Memory Cafés and Tête-à-Tête
A 60-minute video produced by the National Alzheimer's and Dementia Resource Center and Administration for Community Living about the memory café model and a memory café-inspired program for a Haitian Creole-speaking faith-based community in Florida.
- TEDx Talk: Memory Cafés - Making Space for Dementia and Joy
Our own Beth Soltzberg spoke at TEDxWaltham about creating safe spaces for those with and without dementia to experience connection, creativity, and joy.
Resources for Virtual or Hybrid Memory Cafés
- Webinar: New Ways to Connect: Running a Virtual or Hybrid Memory Café
A 33-minute webinar sponsored by Massachusetts Councils on Aging that describes the steps for running a virtual, hybrid or outdoor memory café. See the slides from the webinar.
- Webinar: A Whole New (Virtual) World: Creating Connections with Online Dementia-Friendly Programs
A 38-minute webinar produced by Dementia Friendly Washington that discusses how memory cafés are transitioning to or starting up as virtual programs. See the slides from the webinar.
Archive of Percolator Quarterly Idea Exchanges
Percolator meetings are held quarterly in Waltham, Massachusetts and by Zoom/conference call. We began recording the meetings in June 2019.
- June 2019 Meeting: West County Memory Café of Shelburne Falls; supporting guests with Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) at a memory café
- September 2019 Meeting: South Shore Conservatory Memory Cafés; results of Percolator survey on how cafés respond to death and disease progression
- December 2019 Meeting: Burlington’s Memory Café; results of Percolator survey on how cafés create a sense of community and belonging
- March 2020 Meeting: Literacy-based Café programming; Brookline’s Memory Connections Café & Camp Memory Connections; Short brainstorm about the response to COVID-19
- COVID-19 Response Meeting (3/24/20): How memory cafés are responding to the coronavirus. See the slides from the meeting.
- COVID-19 Response Meeting (4/28/20): Idea exchange about virtual memory cafés. See the slides from the meeting.
- June 2020 Meeting (6/10/20): Virtual JF&CS Memory Café; A panel of teaching artists spoke about their transition to facilitating virtual cafés. See the slides from the meeting.
- September 2020 Meeting (9/10/20): Five memory cafés in the U.S. and Brazil adapt to COVID-19 through virtual or outdoor programming. See the slides from the meeting.
- December 2020 Meeting (12/9/20): Virtual 5th Street Café and Activities for People Living at Home with Dementia; TimeSlips resource update; Percolator survey on cafés’ adaptations to pandemic. See the slides from the meeting.
- March 2021 Meeting (3/11/21): Metrowest Memory Café Provider Coalition; Memories International; Percolator survey on how cafés plan to operate in 2021. See the slides from the meeting.