About
The place we wish had existed.
EngAGE Beverly is a neighborhood community for older adults on Chicago's South Side, with particular care for those navigating memory changes — and for the care partners who love them.
Our story
EngAGE Beverly began in a family. When we went looking for a place that would feel like home for Pops, after his Alzheimer's diagnosis, what we found felt like a hard choice between exhausting care at home and large, clinical settings — with very little in between. So we set out to build the in-between: small, warm, and genuinely human.
What we believe
Enrichment over simplification
Memory change calls for experiences that are enriched, not stripped away. We keep the pace unhurried and the conversation real.
Relationship-centered
Consistent, caring people build genuine relationships, and relationships create trust, comfort, and belonging.
Small and intentional
A limited circle means each person is known and met as an individual, never as one of a crowd.
Our inspiration
Our approach is inspired by the spirit-centered philosophy of our friends at Elderwise in Seattle — a small, spirit-centered day community that meets each person as a whole, creative human being rather than a diagnosis — and their book, The Elderwise Way (by Sandy Sabersky and Ruth Neuwald Falcon), with gratitude to Shanta, who welcomed us. Connections through The Memory Hub continue to shape how we meet each person as they are.
Founder & board
Julie Singler, EdD — Founder & Executive Director
A doctorate in urban education leadership and eighteen years in Chicago Public Schools, brought to the work of building a community her own family went looking for and could not find.
Bob Otter
More than forty years in finance and nonprofit leadership.
Mark R. Singler, JD
Elder law attorney and Beverly resident.
Dr. Ann Navarro-Leahy, MD
Hospice and palliative medicine.
Beth O'Grady
Longtime Beverly resident and former executive director of the Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly.
Old Friends Club
EngAGE Beverly is an Affiliate of the Old Friends Club Network — a Seattle-area nonprofit whose warm, volunteer-supported social clubs give people living with memory loss a place to belong and offer their care partners a welcome break. Its example helped shape ours, and several of our gatherings, including our History Café and Community Café, are offered as affiliated Old Friends Club clubs.