Staying Apart Together Webinar

The ‘Staying Apart Together’ virtual event was hosted by the Wellness Edge grant. Wellness Edge aims to increase the quality of engagement for individuals with paralysis and their support networks, including caregivers, family, and friends in recreational settings, and thereby improve health outcomes of not only the individual but also his or her support network by building capacity of local communities to enhance and facilitate access to recreational programs, so they might effectively serve individuals with paralysis and their support networks. The grant is funded by the Administration on Community Living (ACL). The project is housed at the Human Development Institute, University of Kentucky. With many people in isolation due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, this virtual event was organized to create a platform that could reach people and provide ideas, resources, and activities that could be accessed from home, in an interactive environment with other attendees. The virtual event agenda was as follows – introduction by Dr. Kathy Sheppard-Jones (Executive Director, Human Development Institute) and Ms. Elizabeth Leef (ACL, grant project officer), Seated Zumba, Yoga, Virtual Arts, Virtual Peer Meetings, and Instructions to Google Hangouts. Interspersed between each activity was quick group interactive polling. A total of 350 individuals participated in the event through Zoom and YouTube Live; with approx. 200 individuals participating on YouTube Live and approx.150 individuals participating in Zoom.