Care Homes have worked so hard through the recent pandemic in caring for their residents. Alive and The Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service have come together to provide online support, ideas and inspiration to Care Homes to help them continue to support their residents in meaningful activity. With two different forums, they aim to ensure the whole home approach to activity is maintained through these challenging times.
Activity Cupboard
Aimed at care and activity staff, this 2 hour long forum will provide activity ideas and inspiration for those who are delivering activity on a day to day basis. Find more information here
This shorter, 45 min forum looks at the importance of maintaining good activity and how to deliver in the current restrictions and limitations. Find more information here.
Sam, Eeva and Jacqui are three of our amazing facilitators and their activity sessions in care homes and across the community bring smiles, comfort and joy to so many older people. Here’s what they said…
Sam
Having retrained as a community dance practitioner last year, I feel very lucky to share my joy of dancing and music with people. Seeing people smile the moment they hear a favourite tune is the best feeling you can get.
Having cared for my Mum who had dementia, I know just how much music and dancing can help people relax by bringing them back into happy memories. Now I get to hear lots of amazing stories: from the excitement of seeing The Beatles live, to hearing how people met their partners at the local dance. I’m so lucky to be able to do this as my job.
When people find it difficult to express themselves, dancing provides a different way to communicate. I love to see how playing music helps people to connect with others.
Eeva
My work with 0-104 year olds has always got the first focus on wellbeing and learning ‘sustainability’ in relation to ourselves/our bodies.
I like teaching movement to ‘ordinary people’ who might very well say at first, ‘oh, I’m not a dancer!’. It is very rewarding to discover, together, where everyday movement becomes something else, something with meaning, with feeling and the effect is felt in a smile or an uplift in mood.
Through the work with Alive, I have been lucky to make many a heartful connection with people in their care settings and hopefully my sessions have contributed to the elders’ overall sense of wellbeing and belonging!
Jacqui
Knowing that I will have brought some extra cheer, smiles and kindness through touch, conversation and beautiful music is a wonderful feeling.
Making those special connections with individuals and groups, that really need uplifting and human warmth, fills my heart with joy.
Want to know more?
Dive in to our wide range of activity sessions, or get in touch with us to book here.
We’re thrilled to announce that we will be returning to Birmingham in March for the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards.
Following on from a triumphant 2022 which saw us winning the Dementia Care Award for our dementia-friendly allotment in Brentry and Technology Award for our Alive on Demand service, 2025 sees two of our gardening projects shortlisted:
Abi’s work at Sanctuary Square Garden with the Bristol Royal Infirmary is up for the Collaboration (Integration) Award.
Guy’s project with the University of Bristol’s Brigstow Institute, Hoppiness: Brewing with Care Homes, is up for the Development and Innovation Award.
Excited for another opportunity to see both Guy and Abi out of their gardening clothes, we are especially proud of our team and wish them and all the other nominees the very best of luck.
Read about our 2022 awards here. Learn more about the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards here.
Since last we spoke, Bristol has been hit by its first frosts of the year and some quite lairy winds, forcing our growing spaces to hunker down for some rest. We, on the other hand, and those who come to our sessions, certainly haven’t been doing the same.
Read on for some of our autumn highlights – we’ve been busy!
Wellspring Settlement
The Wellspring Settlement gardening group recently welcomed the new Gardening for Health worker to her first session. Harriet will be with us now every week, helping us with session delivery.
We’ve already enjoyed collaborating on community bulb planting around the centre and a bug hotels workshop.
We’ll be heading out locally foraging materials to make wreaths soon – then returning to base to get creative.
North Bristol Dementia-friendly Allotment
Session sizes have been a roller-coaster over autumn. In the middle of November, we had our busiest session of the year, with 26 people joining us. The less busy sessions have been a welcome chance to reflect on the season and make plans for 2025.
Our volunteers continue to make Brentry the success it is by instilling a sense of community through a warm welcome to all, so an especially heartfelt end-of-year thank you to all of them.
BRI Sessions
With the support of donations from the public and involvement from UHBW volunteers, we have managed to replant the living wall in Sanctuary Square, where we deliver our BRI sessions.
We’ve also been at UK Dementia Congress 24 to share learning and inspiration from the project. We hope it will encourage others to bring gardening to patients with dementia in acute hospitals.
South Bristol Dementia-friendly Allotment
The Talbot Road site has grown some bumper crops this autumn and has become home to a thriving wildlife community.
We have loved engaging with the allotment community and supporting our participants with our wonderful volunteers who have helped make the space so bountiful and healing.
Hoppiness Project
The Hoppiness Project culminated in two beautiful sessions celebrating our collective endeavour with parties. We spent the sessions crafting hop-themed bunting together (because whoever heard of a party without bunting?). Then, we sampled some of the beer our hops helped make. Except for one woman who was adamant, “It’s not as good as Northern beer,” it was a resounding hit!
ICYMI, a team from The Guardian visited one of our Hoppiness sessions in September, producing a short film they published on social media. Check it out on Instagram or TikTok.
Laurence Hill Health Centre
The incredible wildlife garden at LHHC featured in the Trinity Arts Nature in Newtown series, showcasing how local older people benefit from the beautiful plants and abundance of biodiversity onsite. Check out this inspiring video showcasing the project.
As well as weekly green craft activities and further improving the space for the local wildlife, we’ve also been working hard developing the terrace for the wellbeing of NHS staff.
Weston General Hospital
Our latest opening! Following the success of our work at BRI, we’re excited to announce that we’ve now launched dementia-friendly weekly gardening sessions at WGH as well.
Thanks to help from wonderful volunteers and hospital staff, our work here is already proving to be hugely impactful for patients.
Our initial focus was beautifying the Rainbow Garden, a staff wellbeing sanctuary. We are now delivering sessions indoors to keep patients warm over winter.
Wondering what to buy your loved one this Christmas who would love to travel but is unable to? Pre-orders for the Athens Tabletop Travels box are now open!
Tabletop Travels is a multi-sensory and interactive travel box with a selection of food, drink, pamper and activity items designed with and for older people facing barriers to travel. Built in partnership with Alive Activities and University of Bristol this research- driven box aims to intrigue, entertain and boost wellbeing through meaningful at-home activity. With multi-sensory items accompanied with audio, video and written guides to explore.
Just £35 + free postage to UK Mainland.
Get your limited edition Athens-themed box today before they fly off by clicking here.
Watch a virtual walkthrough and see highlights of our brilliant exhibition: Celebrating 15 Years of Alive.
Held from 7 October to 14 November 2024 at our home in the Create Centre, our exhibition took a look back across our history from our very first community projects, to our work in care homes, dementia-friendly allotments, and everything in-between.
A huge thank you to everyone that visited, we have been blown away by the response from our community and couldn’t have been more proud to share it with you. As always, we are incredibly grateful to all our funders, supporters, trustees and team of staff and volunteers. 15 years of such important work; we couldn’t do any of it without you.
The Malcolm X Elders Group celebrated Black History Month with a brilliant afternoon of music, poetry, and amazing food.
Discussing the importance of commemorating and observing the occasion, Dr Roger Griffith MBE MC’d the day with everyone enjoying an incredible performance from the Windrush Choir.
Nia performed traditional songs in patois, which the elders had great fun joining in with, and even tried teaching our CEO Isobel some patois!
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the fantastic celebration!
We’ve turned 15! The opening night of our retrospective exhibition was a wonderful way to commemorate fifteen incredible years of Alive. Reflecting on our journey that began in 2009 and the various projects and services we’ve run ever since, the exhibition allowed us to consider the impact Alive has made.
We were honoured to receive a High Sheriff Award last night for our contributions to older people in Bristol. A heartfelt thank you to Richard Pendlebury for joining us.
As we bid farewell to our Chair of Trustees, Phil May, thanks also go to one of our biggest advocates who is stepping into his retirement. Phil has been at the heart of the charity for so long and we wouldn’t be here today without his support.
Welcoming friends of the charity, partners, trustees, volunteers, and both former and current staff, we are immensely grateful to everyone who celebrated with us.
Our CEO, Isobel Jones, remarked: “It was a privilege to share, last night, our work and those we have reached over the years. To pay tribute to our founder, Tim, and everyone along the way for their dedication and efforts over the years. It has just been incredible and very emotional!”
The ‘Celebrating 15 Years of Alive’ exhibition will be open until mid-November at Create Centre, Bristol. Free entry – all welcome!
The BRI Sanctuary Square Courtyard is home to our weekly dementia-friendly gardening activities.
Providing comfort and joy to so many older people at the hospital, we need your help restoring an important part of this healing space by mid-November 2024.
How To Help
We’re looking for donations of shade-loving perennials, such as ferns, heucheras and geraniums, to transform the living wall back to its former glory.
Together with hospital volunteers, we will begin replanting in mid-November, using violets, strawberries and ajuga propagated at our community sessions, plus the other shade-loving perennials we are donated. Alongside the beautiful Acer trees, colourful planters and wheelchair-accessible raised beds of the courtyard, this wall of greenery will once again help create a tranquil oasis at the hospital.
Where To Donate
We are gratefully accepting plant donations at the below locations:
Wellspring Settlement, BS5 0AX
Thursdays between 1:00-4:00pm
Charlton Road Allotments, BS10 6JZ
Mondays and Tuesdays between 3:30-4:30pm
Create Centre, BS1 6XN
Mondays to Fridays between 9am-5pm
How Your Donation Will Help
The Living Wall is an important part of the Sanctuary Square Courtyard where we deliver our gardening sessions for patients at the BRI. By donating, you will be directly helping the restoration of the space. Here are some quotes from patients who attended our gardening sessions:
It’s so beautiful here, you can just let all of your troubles disappear!
The walls close in on the ward, but being outside is therapeutic.
Everyone should have the chance to come here, it uplifts the spirits. This is so lovely in the fresh air.
I didn’t even know this was here, this is where people go to get their brains back in control. In the hospital, you feel like you’re nobody, nowhere – so this is very necessary.
To find out more, please contact us by calling 0117 377 4756 or emailing info@aliveactivities.org.
This year marks 15 years of Alive. To celebrate, we’re holding a retrospective exhibition at our home in the Create Centre: chronicling the journey of our charity, from its beginnings back in 2009 with our founder Tim Lloyd-Yeates, to the projects and services we’ve run ever since and the impact they’ve had on older people on a local and national scale.
Free entry. From 7th October 2024. Create Gallery, Create Centre, Smeaton Road, Bristol BS1 6XN
As he steps down as our Chair of Trustees and into retirement, Alive’s CEO reflects on the leadership and contributions Phil May has generously given to the charity over the last 15 years.
Trustees are the lifeblood to any charity; helping them to see them through the good and the bad times. At Alive, we’ve been lucky to have Phil May leading us for the last 15 years. We’d like to say a huge thank you as he steps forward into a well-earned retirement and we will miss him enormously. We want to thank him for his dedication, professionalism, advice, love and support that he has poured into the charity and wish him well as he enjoys his time on the golf course and with his beloved family.
Phil was instrumental in setting Alive up with Tim Lloyd Yeates, our founder, in 2009. He has been the constant for Alive over the turbulent 15 years we’ve been in existence. As a solicitor and being well-connected in Bristol, he was able to help Alive launch successfully and has continued to be at its helm. When Tim tragically passed away five years later, Phil stepped in as acting CEO. He supported the staff both emotionally and practically, enabling Alive to carry on and continue to grow in Tim’s memory. He was the anchor that held everyone together.
As Alive grew, he was the one who supported Simon Bernstein in his role as CEO. He was the one who steered the merger with Growing Support. He was the one who helped navigate the choppy financial and funding waters we found ourselves in. He was the steady hand when Isobel Jones stepped up as CEO and helped to mentor her in her new role. He guided us through COVID and continued to be the steady hand, ensuring we were tethered to our values and mission whilst we changed direction and evolved.
“I’d like to pay a huge tribute to Phil. He has been incredible and has been with Alive for so long, seeing us through some good and bad times. His direction, vision, and leadership have been inspirational. Alive would honestly not be here if it wasn’t for Phil. When Tim died, he kept us altogether and, when I stepped up as CEO, he was the one who believed in me when I didn’t really believe in myself. He has been such a support and a great advocate for Alive, and myself, and I know Alive holds a special place in his heart. He really has been the captain of our ship for so long, and I can’t thank him enough for his service. He has been so fun to work with and I miss him already.”
– Isobel Jones, CEO
But as ever, his final duty was to find someone who he could trust to hand his role to, which he has. Kevin Woodrow has taken over as Chair of Trustees and brings an enviable skill set and sense of humour to the role, already looking forward to taking Alive forward for the next 15 years!
Good luck, Phil. Thank you for your service to us, it will never be forgotten.
