Life Story Research and Practice Collaborative

Purpose: 

To provide opportunities for networking, collaboration, education, and dissemination of research and best practice among life story practitioners, researchers, and others with interest in the Life Story field.

Our next meeting will be held on Webex on Wed Sept 10, 2025 at 1pm EST  

Meeting: July 9th, 2025 11:00 am EST

New Business included opportunity for attendees to share information about themselves, their work, their learning needs and interests.
Affinity groups were introduced to be used for small group discussion in the September meeting and potential topics include:  end of life practice, safe practices with culturally diverse/underrepresented groups, resource sharing, use of AI and technology, brain research, funding mechanisms
Attendees were able to enjoy the guest talk by Dr Gerben Westerhof, Professor, University of Twente, NL; Past President, International Institute of Reminiscence and Life Review.
Dr Westerhof, thank you for sharing your expertise with us through this excellent talk!

Recording: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/ldr.php?RCID=e865036d8bb868ff1e8a66e14db19f80

Meeting: May 7, 2025 4:00 pm EST

Recording: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/webappng/sites/uconn-cmr/recording/f8c738e1384c4b94a4a04c0131fdef00/playback

Inaugural Meeting Summary: March 5th, 2025

Fifteen life story enthusiasts participated in our inaugural meeting. Participants were from across the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan representing 5 time zones. The group consisted of academic researchers and educators, clinicians, ethnographers, and product and service innovators. A needs assessment was conducted to assess participants areas of interest and goals for participating in the collaborative. Participants shared interests for professional development in life story approaches to enhance health outcomes in older adults including end-of-life, safe practices with culturally diverse and underrepresented groups, networking and resource sharing, and disseminating work to advance and draw attention to the field.  Suggestions for future meetings included specific guest speakers and topics such as use of artificial intelligence, brain research, practice methods, and funding mechanisms. Positive comments were shared about the meeting and future directions for this group. 

Recording: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/uconn-cmr/recording/01c0f426f9f7470c8f6ec2c8c27bcdbe/playback