Community Gardening | Spring Update

Our community gardens are slowly returning to life after a wet, cold start to the year. Despite the weather, it’s been heartening to see people coming out to all our sessions, no matter what the elements have thrown at us! It demonstrates how important gardening and being outside is to the people we work with.

With warmer weather on the horizon (please!), we have lots in the pipeline – read about it and what we’ve been up to so far this year below.

Blaise Weston Court, Lawrence Weston

The LW group were lucky enough to go on a trip to Blaise Plant Nursery when it reopened this spring and bought plants to renovate our large entrance planters and for participants’ gardens and balconies. We have been joining and hosting events as part of Lawrence Weston’s “Grow, Cook, Eat” initiative and signposting participants and volunteers to other local groups and services. We also welcomed children from Avon Youth Club to sessions to learn about sowing veg and flower seeds in homemade pots and planted trees for the next generation.

Wellspring Settlement Community Garden

The Alive Wellspring Settlement group have been busy planting crops such as chayote, ginger, turmeric and callaloo. We’ll be working with some of the Food Club’s community chefs to learn how to cook these in the months ahead. We also spent an afternoon sprucing up the Wellspring surgery garden with plants Ashton Court Estate’s head gardener, Tom, donated to us. The beds surrounding the community centre are now a riot of colour, brightening the neighbourhood. We’ve also been having community conversations for Friends of the Earth in partnership with Tay Aziz from Avon Wildlife Trust about urban greening, which has been illuminating.

Dementia-Friendly Allotment

We’re now back to two Bristol sessions a week at the allotment, which is great, as there’s lots to do! As of March, we’ve also been running a Monday morning session for people who live in South Glos.

We have a few extra sessions and open days at the allotment coming up soon:

15th May, 13.30 – 15.30: The site will be open for Cuppa for a Cure – a fundraiser for BRACE, the dementia research charity. It’ll be an opportunity to experience a session, see the site, drink tea and eat cake with us!

22nd May, 10.00 – 12:00: We’re also running an open event for people interested in our South Glos session. Feel free to drop by for any or all of the session. This session is aimed at prospective new participants and health/social care practitioners.

2nd June, 14.00 – 16.00: Happy Days Memory Cafe is back at the allotment for the first of this year’s biannual trips. We’ll be doing clay-based green craft activities and hosting a cream tea. Do get in touch with Bristol Dementia Action Alliance if you’d like to join us.

4th June, 14.00 – 16.00: The allotment will be part of this year’s Get Growing Trail – a citywide opportunity to explore secret growing spaces. Join us as the allotment’s gates open for tours, tea, coffee and a chance to learn about our work.

The Hoppiness Project

We recently launched the latest project to come out of the brains of our Social and Therapeutic Horticulture team – The Hoppiness Project. The idea is that we’ll join forces with care homes to grow hops which a local brewery will make a green-hopped beer with in autumn. Our first session was a reminiscence and sensory session, which went down very well with residents at Deerhurst. Read all about it here.

Activity Sessions & Training | Spring Update

Sessions

We are thrilled to be able to introduce five new Session Facilitators – Sam, Emma, Louisa, Jacqui and Eeva.  All of them are multi-skilled, and have lots of experience to bring to our sessions, from gentle exercise, dance and movement therapy and guided reminiscence, to live music, therapeutic horticulture, art workshops and multi-sensory techniques.  We are so proud to be able to offer such a great mix of sessions both in care homes and community settings.

We were lucky to receive funding from the NHS Ageing Well Fund to run seated movement sessions in care homes in Bristol, Weston Super Mare and South Gloucestershire.  They have been a great success – getting people moving, enjoying themselves and maintaining strength and mobility.

Spring is here and our Growing Support sessions are becoming more popular as the weather warms up.  Residents have been planting seeds for summer growth and looking forward to a bumper harvest.

Our new 2 Hour Alive Clubs are proving to be popular – many care homes are opting to choose an hour of group activity followed by an hour of one-to-one sessions, ensuring that residents who don’t usually participate in group sessions, can enjoy some quality, meaningful one-to-one engagement with one of our Facilitators.

If you would like to book an Alive session, please call the office on 0117 377 47 56.

Training

We have carried out Activity Audits in 15 care homes, helping to give care homes ideas of how they can take their activity provision to the next level.  Care homes have been booking these audits annually, so that they can work towards the recommendations we give for best activity practice.

We have been busy training teams from St. Monica Trust, Bristol Care Homes, Hallmark Care, Bristol City Council Independent Living Team and Network North Somerset, embedding the importance of meaningful engagement for older people.  Topics have included “The Whole Home Approach To Meaningful Activity,” “Co-Production In Care Homes,” and “Engaging With Later Stage Dementia.”

Activity Cupboards

Our Activity Cupboard sessions are now face to face again! These are free workshops in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset, for people working in care homes and activity provision, and give opportunities to develop skills and meet staff from other care homes.

Book your place and find out more here.

Carers’ Workshops at North Somerset Dementia Meeting Centre

In collaboration with Wellspring Counselling (a charity based in Nailsea), a series of workshops were facilitated at the Dementia Meeting Centre in Christchurch, Clevedon during February and March 2023.

These aimed to help Caregivers learn a number of skills and coping strategies to build resilience in their care role. These workshops have included the following topics:

  • Managing your stress levels
  • Improving how you feel about yourself
  • Managing your frustrations
  • Coping with change
  • Keeping your spirits up

In addition to developing a deeper understanding of the many emotions experienced as a care-giver, participants were offered a range of practical skills to support them on a daily basis e.g., breathing and relaxation techniques, learning to be kind to oneself and how to express emotions in a safe and supportive way.

These workshops were well-received with the following feedback:

  • Peer support brought a sense of unity and solidarity in their shared experience.
  • Provided a safe place in which to share knowledge and other hints and tips learnt from the experience of being a carer
  • Carers felt more at ease knowing that their cared-for were meaningfully engaged with other members of the DMC whilst they were attending the workshops.

Including these heartwarming quotes:

  • “I now know it’s okay to cry”
  • “It’s important to be kind to yourself as you’re doing the best you can”
  • “It feels good knowing that I’m not alone and spending time with other people in the same situation is a huge source of support and comfort”

If you would like to learn more about our Carers’ Workshops, please reach out to our Building Mental Health Resilience Manager, Julie Drew on 0117 377 4756

#OneGoodEgg-Stravaganza!

Enabling five care homes across North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to host festive celebrations this past Easter, we would like to eggs-tend a huge thank you to our funders #iwill National Lottery Community Fund and Dunhill Medical trust for helping our #OneGoodTurn project’s Easter Egg-Stravaganza. 

Held on Good Friday, five of our #OneGoodTurn care homes invited young people from the local community for a special day of festive fun. Activities included Easter crafts such as egg-painting and decorating bonnets, an egg and spoon race, an Easter Egg Hunt and even a visit from the Easter Bunny! With meaningful bonds formed over lots of chocolate, it was a fabulous day by all accounts.

Maria, Activities Coordinator at Robinson House shared, “We really enjoyed putting this event on. It was lovely to see our residents interacting with the children and other family members. Some of our staff came along too which was nice as they got to spend quality time with the residents.” 

Abbie, Activities Coordinator at Badminton Place, echoed these sentiments and shared that the event at their care home was also a triumph with 25 residents and 40 visitors attending. “It was lovely to be with the children and see them doing the activities together with the residents. It was lovely for the residents to be with friends and family and to meet new people.”

We would like to thank Badminton Place, Bishopsmead Lodge, Robinson House, Blossom Fields and The Grove Care Home for participating and making the day such a success. We’re thrilled you all had such a cracking time!

The Hoppiness Project!

Alive recently ran the first session of the latest project to be conjured up from the brains of their gardening team – growing hop plants in care home gardens with which to make a unique green hopped beer.

We’ve been growing hops in our community gardens for several years now. One of the participants at our Lawrence Weston Community Garden initially proposed the idea. The group had been discussing what they’d like to grow in the coming season, and G quipped: “I’d like to grow beer”. Little did he know that one of the team already grew hops alongside the East Bristol Hops Collective – a group of over 100 gardeners and allotment holders across Bristol who supply Dawkins Brewery with freshly picked hops at the end of the growing season. Before he knew it, a hop plant was being grown at Blaise Weston Court, which hosts our Lawrence Weston Community Garden.

A former colleague suggested we take the idea into care homes. This year we’re piloting the proposal with Deerhurst Care Home, and the hops will join those grown by East Bristol Hops Collective. The following year we’re hoping to collaborate with a local brewery to make a beer containing hops solely grown by care home residents.

The first session at Deerhurst Care Home introduced the project via a reminiscence and sensory session. We took photos of hop picking in Kent, the old Courage brewery in Bristol and scenes from inside pubs to stimulate conversation. We also had objects for people to touch and play with – dimple glasses, bottle openers, beer mats – and sang drinking songs together. We smelt and ran our hands through dried hops and sampled locally brewed beer!

There was much laughter during the session, and we discovered many people who had a connection to beer and gardening. One man used to grow hops in his garden, and another spoke enthusiastically about St Austell Brewery. There was lots of engagement throughout, and we can’t wait to return.

Once brewed, the beer will go on sale in local pubs, helping to raise awareness of dementia and to challenge stereotypes around old age, care homes and activity provision for those living with dementia. We’re also excited to be starting a project accessible to male residents who are often under-represented in activity provision. And, of course, the project will also tap into all the benefits of gardening – getting people outdoors, connecting them to nature, providing multisensory stimulation, giving people physical exercise and improving their mental well-being.

Academics from Bristol University will be with us for the journey, exploring some of the above issues. So expect to hear a lot more about The Hoppiness Project very soon!

Guy Manchester, Community Allotment Project Officer

A Trip to the Skies and the Power of Positive Gossiping

Hear from Winsome, our South Gloucestershire Meeting Centre Manager, about the group’s recent trip to Bristol Aerospace.


Last Tuesday, our Thursday group visited Concorde as part of our Cultural & Historical trip. It was a windy, cold day with some light rain showers, but it didn’t matter too much as we were planning to soak up the sights of the museum.

Our itinerary for the day included a peek inside the mighty Concorde and tour of the conservation hanger, but first: coffee! For two of the carers in our party, the trip held a special place in their lives with both having worked for Aerospace before; one in providing parts for the planes, and the other in wing development.

Chatting continued after a much-appreciated and generously-sized lunch, with our discussions turning to other places our members and carers would like to visit in the future, ranging from National Trust gardens and steam rails, to WWT Wetlands Slimbridge and everything else in-between. It was then that Jeff, our Meeting Centre Activity Worker, was asked by a party at a nearby table who we were!

Finding our conversation interesting, the party consisted of two parents and their daughter visiting from Germany, who were looking for a social group for the dad who they explained was living with moderate dementia. Taking their details, I promised to send them some information about attending a taster session at our Dementia Meeting Centres soon.

Three cheers for the power of positive gossiping! Not only did our Thursday group have a great visit, but our lunchtime chatting may even see some new faces join our mix. It was a great chance to really see the importance of getting out and about and you’ll also find me carrying one or two flyers in my bag from now on!

Our Dementia Meeting Centre celebrates its first anniversary

With a momentous birthday comes three days of celebration for our Dementia Meeting Centre!

Marking one year of our Meeting Centres opening in Clevedon, Portishead, and Nailsea, we joined together to celebrate in style – with the festivities chosen by our very own members.


In Clevedon, Elvis entered the building thanks to the European Elvis Tribute Artist Champion, Emilio Santoro. An open house that saw friends and partners from Alzheimer’s Society, Vision North Somerset, Wellspring, and Curo attend, we sang and danced along to all the old classics.

“I can’t believe we’ve been open a whole year,” said Anne Ellis, North Somerset’s Meeting Centre Manager, “it was great to have such a fun party, all the members were up and dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves. We’re so proud of the centres and how they have grown and supported so many people – Elvis was an amazing way of celebrating our achievements!”.


The next day, we set our sights to the skies with a trip to Aerospace Bristol. With several of our members having worked there in their younger years, we exchanged stories and said hello to Concorde before enjoying lunch and a traipse around the museum. The wonderful trip was a ‘Gift in Kind’ funded by a family who had recently lost their beloved mum, Pat. Her son, John, who came along, said; “It was a fitting tribute to my Mum who had dementia in the last few years of her life and it was wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of members and their carers”.


Finishing our celebrations in Nailsea with some delicious fish and chips from Noggin’s Old Fish Bar, we were also treated to a show from The Deadbeats – a six-person ukulele group. With the members across all three Centres invited to each day of the celebrations, it was a wonderful opportunity to get together.


A huge thank you to Emilio Santoro, Aerospace Bristol, Noggin’s, The Deadbeats, and the folks at Blue Iris for helping us celebrate in such style. And a special shoutout to Clevedon Lions & Clevedon Inner Wheel whose generous donation paid for our lavish buffet and very own Elvis.

As always, we are hugely grateful to our amazing members, team of volunteers and staff, as well as everybody who has contributed to our Dementia Meeting Centre this past year. Here’s to more birthdays to come!

Dr Shirley Evans and Jennifer Bray visit our Dementia Meeting Centres

Last week we welcomed two special visitors to our Dementia Meeting Centre groups – Dr Shirley Evans, Interim Director of the Association for Dementia Studies (ADS), and ADS Research Assistant, Jennifer Bray from the University of Worcester. 

Speaking to our members in Bristol and South Gloucestershire, we heard how the Meeting Centre concept was brought over from The Netherlands; with there now being over 50 Dementia Meeting Centres across the UK! Our members fed back to Jen and Shirley, who is the UK’s leading expert on Meeting Centres, about how the sessions have been great for them and offer a much-needed resource for those living with dementia and their caregivers. 


Bristol
In Bristol, the theme was 1960s Liverpool and our members enjoyed recalling artists such as Lonnie Donegan, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cilla Black and, of course, The Beatles (all of whom performed at the legendary Cavern Club!). It was great to look at some wonderful Beatles memorabilia and talk about our favourite tracks. After lunch, we enjoyed a truly magical performance from Emily at Mini Concerts as she re-created the Merseybeat sound. A lovely rendition of The Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” got everyone singing along at the end of the show – which provided a very fitting finish to a great day!


South Gloucestershire 
Our South Glos members enjoyed puzzles, singing, quizzes and exercises with music – and even had the opportunity to stretch their muscles while dancing with feathers! Our late morning members engaged in an art therapy workshop where artistic talents were ignited and rediscovered. Everyone was sharing a smile and a bounce in their step as we sat down to chat about life over lunch. 

A huge thank you to Shirley and Jen for their visit, and a special shout out to the fabulous folks at Mini Concerts. If you live in Bristol, South Glos., or North Somerset and are interested in joining our Dementia Meeting Centres, please get in touch or find out more here.

Bristol: 07377 199 148 / bristolmeetingcentre@aliveactivities.org
South Glos: 07377 197 893 / sglosmeetingcentre@aliveactitivities.org
North Somerset: 07423 741459 / northsomersetmeetingcentre@aliveactivities.org