Happy New Year News!
Successful Bid for Dementia Inter-Generational Innovation Fund 2019
Happy New Year! We hope you had a fantastic Christmas time and are excited about what 2019 has in store for you. The Stories for the Soul team have just got back to work from visiting family and friends across the UK and Switzerland. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to catch our breath and to share some very exciting news with you…
We waited with eager anticipation two days before the Christmas holidays to hear if our ‘Connecting Across the Generations Through Creative Life Story Work in Care Homes’ bid had been successful. They kept us in suspense as they were overwhelmed with applications and delayed a few days telling us. But we are VERY pleased to announce that our application for £10,000 has been successful. What a great start to 2019! We are ready and raring to go to share all our work from the last 3 years and develop some exciting new intergenerational training for care homes.
The plan for the project is to work with 10 Sheffcare Care Homes to support their staff, families and volunteers to do intergenerational creative life story work. This will be done through training in Stories for the Soul sessions, reminiscence, music and using the creative arts. We want to work with Sheffcare as three of our storytellers have been running Stories for the Soul sessions at 3 of their care homes and have existing links with their staff. Also, they have a great ethos and person centred approach to care.
Bringing the generations together brings so many benefits to both the young and older people. We’ve been inspired, as I’m sure you have, by the channel 4 documentary Older Peoples Home for Four Year Olds. Also, from joining in Oaks to Acorns sessions at Hallamshire Care Home where local mums, Helen Cottrell and Rachel Widdows, have organised toddler groups to visit. The interaction between the staff, residents, parents and children is magical, and there are so many smiles and lovely moments.
The Montgomery Reminiscence Collection in Sheffield has received £2,000 of funding and will be running 5 public engagement sessions. These are for anyone who want to build relationships between children and a loved one with dementia. The sessions will use the collection to run activities to promote storytelling. Also, the money will help to enhance the collection, adding ideas booklets and catalogues to give you 100s of ideas how to use the objects when you borrow them.
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