“Music really is key to keeping people happy here. Some days we just play music and don’t turn movies on at all.”
Activity Coordinator, Laguna Honda
CityBridge Laguna Honda has brought music to brighten the spirits of those in long-term care and skilled nursing care facilities such as Laguna Honda Hospital. Here are few examples of what we’ve funded.
Community Music Center
Community Music Center (CMC) is a nonprofit music school and performance space founded in 1921 with branches in San Francisco’s Mission and Richmond Districts. Its goal is to make high-quality music accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. As a cornerstone cultural institution and a vibrant hub for music, education, and performance, it makes high-quality music accessible regardless of financial means.
With the support of CityBridge Laguna Honda, CMC’s Neighborhood Choir Program expanded with two new choirs with seniors in underserved communities. One choir is in the Alice Griffith Community Wellness Center in the Bayview District, one of four clinics that provide behavioral health care, nursing services, and wellness programs to people living in Hope SF Communities (Alice Griffith, Hunters View, Sunnydale, Potrero Hill). The other choir is at the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center (TEL HI) with a faculty member who speaks Cantonese and has knowledge of Chinese music.
“Thanks to this program, we elderly people have added more fun to our lives, and it is beneficial to our mental and physical health!” – Mandarin-Speaking Participant, translated
LITA
Love Is The Answer (LITA) currently serves over 35 long-term care facilities in Marin with its efforts to overcome the devastating impact of loneliness in long-term care facilities.
With a grant from CityBridge Laguna Honda, LITA will grow its reach in facilities that serve Medi-Cal and Medicare residents and expand its Bridging Thru Music program. The broader program called Bridging Thru the Arts will include more music and a variety of other arts activities such as visual arts classes, poetry readings, film screenings, and dance.
Live Music Performances and Musical Instruments
We believe that music is part of life. That is why CityBridge Laguna Honda wants to bring performers to entertain the elderly and disabled where they reside.
When possible, CityBridge Laguna Honda brings live music to long-term care and skilled nursing care facilities such as Laguna Honda Hospital. For the elderly and disabled who are bed-bound, having a live performer play classical, jazz, and/or traditional cultural songs is simply magical.
We have also funded electronic pianos, karaoke machines, Spotify accounts, and electronic jukeboxes, which gives people the chance to make or share their own kind of music.