About Us
A Community Where You Belong
Dementia Mentors was created to help people living with dementia feel seen, heard, and included. We believe a diagnosis may change parts of life, but it does not take away a person’s identity, relationships, voice, or ability to experience meaningful moments.
Through community, education, and lived experience, we are helping create a more connected and understanding world for people affected by dementia.
Our Mission
To show people living with dementia that a diagnosis is not the end of their story. We provide an international community where people find ways to live well and live fully. Connection is at the heart of all we do, and everyone belongs here.
Our Vision
A world where those living with dementia do not feel alone after diagnosis, and have access to understanding, connection, community, and opportunities to live as fully as possible.
Our Origin Story
Where It Began
Dementia Mentors started in 2014 on a single conviction: people facing dementia deserve to meet others walking the same path. Lived experience formed the foundation from day one.
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We watched too many individuals, freshly diagnosed, drift into isolation. So, we built a harbor— a place where they could gather guidance from those who already knew the road.
Growing Beyond Borders
What began online grew into an international community, bringing together those living with dementia from different places and backgrounds. Technology made it possible to stay social, share experiences, and build meaningful relationships from home.
Continuing The Connection
Today, Dementia Mentors continues that purpose through Virtual Memory Cafés, community-created videos, education, and resources that help those living with dementia stay connected, engaged, and heard.
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Meaningful Connection
We create welcoming spaces where those living with dementia can build friendships, share experiences, and feel connected to a community that understands.
The Heart of Our Mission
Everything we do is rooted in dignity, connection, and respect for the lived experiences of those living with dementia.
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Lived Experience
We listen to and value the voices of those who understand dementia firsthand. Their experiences, perspectives, and stories help shape our community.
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Dignity & Respect
We see the person before the diagnosis and believe everyone deserves to be heard, included, and respected as an active part of their community.
Meet Our Founder
Gary Joseph LeBlanc, CDCS
Founder, Author, Dementia Education Specialist.
In 2014, Gary launched Dementia Mentors, an endeavor rooted in more than twenty years of firsthand caregiving. He had tended to his father through the long unraveling of Alzheimer’s, cared for his mother after her vascular dementia diagnosis, and guided another family member—experiences that forged his commitment to improving dementia care. Out of that depth of personal understanding, he has authored books, published hundreds of articles, and led 100s of dementia care trainings, including First Responders. He remains a steady voice for awareness, compassion, and dignity across the dementia community.
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For eight years, he was the Education Director for the Dementia Spotlight Foundation.
Delores Schiraldi
Café Manager
Delores's life has been shaped by Alzheimer's across generations. She supported her mother through a twenty-year journey with the disease until her passing in 2013, after her grandfather had also succumbed to it. More recently, she cared for her husband until his death in 2023. A Medical Registered Assistant by training, she has been part of Dementia Mentors since its beginning.
Our Team
Deb Gabriel
Assistant Café Manager
Deb’s journey into caregiving began with her father, who passed in 2010 from complications of Vascular Dementia, and continued with her mother, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2013. Now, she tends to her husband, navigating his Alzheimer’s diagnosis day by day. Her professional background includes five years at a Long-Term Care Community, facilitating an in-person Alzheimer’s Support Group for 6 years, and twelve years immersed in the complexities of Elder Care Law.
Meet Our Virtual Cafe Hosts
Benjamin Caskey
Bill Corrigan
Craig Hanke
Larry Donigan
Voices From Our Community
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It allowed me to have fun, to be able to laugh, to enjoy those that I was with, because they understood what I was going through, and they were one of me. So I would encourage you to take an opportunity to just visit a Memory Cafe. See the importance of it in your life and what it can do for your life.
Robert Bowles
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I joined in my first virtual Memory Cafe meeting that now reaches out to my area in Asia, Indonesia, and beyond. And I just want to say that it really was a great social meeting of people with similar problems, whereby we can exchange thoughts, feelings, fears, the future, and with others that understand our feelings.
Barry Pankhurst