Anastacia Kakorin is a bachelor's of social work practicum student at the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, focused on supporting and evaluating a wide variety of programs for people living with memory loss and caregivers, offered at Memory Hub community center.
In her time here, she has made a major contribution to the MBWC'S Dementia Friends Washington program: translating the program's educational materials into Russian, her native language. Dementia Friends Washington, run out the Memory Hub, is a dementia awareness program in which community members take an information session on dementia and commit to one action to support people living with dementia in their community. With this new translation, Dementia Friends information sessions can now be offered to the local Russian community.
"As a Russian speaking person that grew up in a community that mostly spoke only Russian, It was a very valuable experience for me to help expand a program to a community I am a part of. Seeing the work in print was a highlight. After many months of translating and formatting the worksheet, handouts, and presentation slides, it was amazing to see the hard copy in my hands."
Anastacia is looking forward to helping lead the first Dementia Friends session in Russian in the upcoming months . "Hopefully, this outreach can create momentum in providing Dementia Friends sessions in Russian in the future," she said.
Katie Zeitler, Dementia Friends program manager at the Memory Hub, who has helped the state reach 4,000 Dementia Friends, is thrilled to have this new Russian community outreach resource. “Anastacia has been instrumental in helping to bring dementia awareness to the Russian-speaking community by helping to translate Dementia Friends Washington materials into Russian," said Katie. "Not only did she work on the translation, but she also formatted the session workbook and brain health handout so that the design matches the Dementia Friends brand guidelines. It all looks so beautiful. I can’t wait so share these materials with our Russian-speaking community members."
At the Memory Hub, Anastacia is able to explore her artistic side as well. She volunteers once a week as a facilitator in the Elderwise Adult Day program, in which participants regularly engage in painting. She is also working on a project related to arts-based dementia-friendly programs in Seattle.
"Working at the Memory Hub has been one of the best experiences for my education," she says. "There is so much exposure to many different social work-related programs, and Marigrace Becker, Director of the Memory Hub, has been so helpful in making sure I am making the most of my time here. I love that I can take my personal interests, such as art or my native language, and be able to apply them to the work I do here." •
