We’re looking for new Sessional Workshop Facilitators to join our friendly team at Alive.
If you’re someone who wants to make a real difference to the lives of older people, by providing Men’s Clubs in care settings and the local community, check out the job description below and get in touch today.
We welcome applications from all members of the community but, due to the occupational requirement of this role, we are actively encouraging applications from men.
Help us give the gift of gardening to twice as many older people this Christmas and see your donation matched £1 for £1 thanks to the Big Give Christmas Challenge.
Alive’s community gardening groups provide important spaces of support and friendship for older people and those living with dementia.
From 2-9 December, donations towards our groups will be automatically doubled – at no extra cost to you.
1.4 million older people in the UK report that they feel bitterly lonely.
A staggering 49% of them saying their only company is a pet or the TV.
Alive have been using gardening as a therapeutic tool for over a decade. Welcoming older people, those living with dementia, and their carers, our groups have created safe, accessible spaces of joy and connection.
The benefits of nature-based activities for older people are well documented, including improvements in emotional state, physical health, verbal expression, memory and attention, wellbeing, independence, self-esteem, social interaction and a sense of belonging.
For many of our members, our community gardening groups are a vital lifeline.
Please help us reach our fundraising goal by 9 December, donate via our Big Give page here.
To find out more, contact the team on info@aliveactivities.org or 07861 385 543.
Sprouting from an idea in one of our care home sessions and growing into a fully-fledged tipple making national TV headlines, we’re thrilled to that Hundred Not Out is now available to purchase.
Starting life at our dementia-friendly gardening sessions, Alive helped St Monica Trust commemorate their centenary with a beer made by their residents.
Working with them to plant and harvest their own hop plants, we then entrusted the folks at Wiper and True Brewery to work their magic. The result is a beer co-produced, from beginning to end, by over 200 older adults and people living and working in care homes.
Light, crisp and made with love every step of the way.
Hundred Not Out is the outcome of a creative collaboration that involved older adults, people living with dementia, and local care teams. From nurturing hops in the garden, to deciding on a name for the beer, the process was a partnership of joy and purpose, and can now be purchased online, right in time for Christmas.
Hoppiness Brews, a new CIC, has now been launched to be able to sell the beer and bring out new products in the future.
The innovative project combines gardening, brewing and the reminiscence associated, to enrich the lives of people living with dementia. It comes out of Alive’s work – and in particular that of our very own media star, Guy Manchester – over the last three years, developing our Hoppiness Project:
“Along the way, we’ve delivered therapeutic multi-sensory activity sessions for residents with a diagnosis of dementia which, as well as fostering socialisation and a sense of identity, have also triggered happy memories of earlier get-togethers, including in a place most of us visit at some time in our lives – the pub! It’s been an amazing collaboration and I can’t wait to take it further.”
Co-production remains central to the project, and with residents now asking for a non-alcoholic beer and a flavoured gin, please watch this space!
To keep up to date with Hoppiness Brews, please follow us on social media @hoppinessbrews. You can also learn more on our website where you can subscribe to our newsletter.
What a year it’s been for Alive.
As always, we’ve continued to bring joy to thousands of older people – both in care homes and throughout the community. We celebrated our 15 Year Anniversary and had a new Chair of Trustees. We opened another hospital garden plus a second allotment. And we’ve seen this incredible work reach millions of people through huge media coverage.
We are so proud of everything we’ve achieved. Thank you to all those that support us, through the sunshine and showers!
Click the front page below to read Alive’s Impact Report 2024-25:
This week, we celebrated two years of our Sanctuary Square hospital garden at the BRI and toasted to another year of funding from Bristol & Weston Hospital’s Charity.
Enjoying wonderful tea and cake, we also unveiled the amazing mosaic created by BRI patients living with dementia, in collaboration with UHBW Artist Residence Jo Sinclair, and local artist Vic from Bluebell Treasures.
Arranged by Poet in Residence Beth Calverley, the poem written by patients, staff and volunteers was also proudly mounted outside for all to see.
A huge thanks to BWHC, the Dementia, Delirium and Falls team, our volunteers, and all those at UHBW for a brilliant two years of connecting older people on the hospital ward to nature (and each other!).
May Sanctuary Square continue to bloom!
Find out more about out gardening initiative at Bristol Royal Infirmary’s Sanctuary Square here.
In light of #WorldAlzheimersDay, our CEO wrote about the importance of coming together – one of the most vital things we can do.
Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. One in three of us born in the UK today will go on to develop the disease, and every three minutes someone is diagnosed with dementia in the UK. These are frightening statistics.
But together, we can improve the lives of those living with dementia. Together, we can create a support network for our army of carers. Together, through research, we can defeat it. We can’t do it alone. It will take a society working as one – in funding, in research, in care – to create a world that isn’t so devasted by this disease.
This year, our ‘Let’s Talk Dementia’ event was a positive example of what partnership work can do. Three small Bristol charities working together to educate, support and shine a light on dementia.
“I learnt so much today, I’ve found some more supportive groups and I didn’t know about all the symptoms either,” one attendee told me.
Our work with the NHS and Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity through our gardens and intergenerational sessions is improving the quality of life and engagements of patients during their stay in hospital. Very often reducing their length of stay and just bringing joy and light into a difficult situation as one lady said: “this has really made me smile today. I love coming off the ward and doing something fun.”
But we can’t do this alone. We need society to talk about dementia more. Everyone’s understanding of dementia has to be improved, so symptoms can be recognised and an early diagnosis sought.
Carers need to be adequately supported and understood to prevent breakdown. Those living with dementia need to be treated with dignity and empathy. We need to ask what people want and need and feel – and not assume we know.
We all need to change our thinking and support those who are living with dementia to lead lives as full as possible.
It’s time to act, and it’s time to ask, but we need to work together.
Celebrating the voices of our community, we’re thrilled to announce the opening of our intergenerational art exhibition at Weston Museum: A Calling.
Intergenerational connections benefit us all. Creating connections that unite, and not divide, us is essential in creating stronger communities, combating loneliness, and addressing ageism.
Alive, through our STANd (Strength Together Age Network development) project, have partnered with artist Ramona Eve to create A Calling: an exhibit that spotlights the voices of our community, expressing their passions through the ages. Promoting a real sense of togetherness, the installation features input from local older people, sharing their interests and encouraging others to learn new things and reignite past passions.
Engaging in meaningful activity for older people, particularly those living with dementia, has many health benefits. Enjoying hobbies and interests later in life can improve physical health and aid in promoting positive mental health and wellbeing. And it’s by taking part in these hobbies together, that we can really promote a sense of community across the ages.
We hope you enjoy hearing older and younger people raise their voices to express their passions through the generations.
A Calling
Open Until 8 October 2025
Weston Museum, Burlington St, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1PR
Word-blooms spoken and written by patients, relatives, staff and volunteers in the Sanctuary Square garden, arranged by Poet in Residence Beth Calverley.
Find out more about out gardening initiative at Bristol Royal Infirmary’s Sanctuary Square here.
The Bristol Elders groups hosted Tony Kelly at Easton Community Centre earlier this month, inviting the Diabetes Ambassador to give a talk about diabetes prevention and explore how the disease affects the Afro-Caribbean community.
Part of the groups’ varied programme of speakers, Tony’s talk highlighted how people from Black African, African Caribbean and South Asian backgrounds are at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes from a younger age. With the exact reason for this not yet known, the disease can lead to serious health conditions if not treated, making talks like this crucial for our communities.
Drawing on his specialist knowledge of diabetes in the Afro-Caribbean community, as well as his own experience of living with the disease, Tony shared important information on how diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening, as well as treatment for complications.
Finding the talk incredibly informative, the Bristol Elders have invited Tony back for a longer Q&A session for anyone that is interested.
Download some more information about diabetes here.
Keep up with the Bristol Elders Groups here.
We’re thrilled to announce the public release of ‘Forget Me Not’: a documentary from UWE filmmakers, featuring our dementia-friendly allotment in Brentry, which celebrates its four-year anniversary this July.
Back in October 2022, Alive were approached by five second-year filmmaking students who had been tasked with creating a 10-minute documentary on a subject they felt passionate about. We jumped at the opportunity to collaborate with Fay, Charlotte, Freya, Romy, and Emily, and invited them to join us for a cup of tea at the end of one of our sessions.
Their initial visit turned into three, during which time they built genuine connections with participants, filming with great sensitivity and care in a way that made people feel respected, comfortable, and truly seen.
Filmed as autumn transitioned into winter – on days that were cold, damp, and misty – the footage somehow radiates warmth and a space full of joy, meaning, and belonging. Through interviews and glimpsed moments of digging, planting, laughter, and quiet conversation, the film beautifully captures the essence of what our sessions offer.
The film is a powerful and evocative snapshot of a moment in time at the allotment, full of meaning, purpose, and connection.
More than anything, we hope the film shows how vital it is to support people living with dementia in ways that honour who they are; and the importance of not wrapping people in cotton wool or underestimating their abilities.
After pitching to film festivals, ‘Forget Me Not’ enjoys its public release on the anniversary of our North Bristol dementia-friendly allotment, which was officially opened in July 2021 by Marvin Rees, the then Mayor of Bristol.
Since its launch, our Brentry site has blossomed into one the charity’s biggest achievements. In 2022, the allotment won Markel’s prestigious Dementia Care Award and welcomed the BBC film crew for a special feature on Gardener’s World. Hosting regular events, launching new schemes for carers, inviting care home groups and our amazing team of volunteers, as well as our regular members for weekly sessions of dementia-friendly gardening, the allotment continues to thrive as a sanctuary for our entire community.
At the launch, Marvin Rees said the space will bring “hope” to Bristol, and it’s been a pleasure to see that come to fruition.
Having gardened all her life, Bruna and her daughter-in-law, Karen, gave us this heart-warming exchange in the film:
Karen: “It’s a nice, peaceful place to come. The people are lovely; the atmosphere’s lovely, and it’s just your happy place, isn’t it?”
Bruna: “Yeah, when I come in from the top, I always think ‘This is my life. I love it, I really love it.”
Credits:
Director: Freya Wellaway
Producer: Charlotte Anderson
DoP: Romy Robbin
Editor: Fay Rippon
Sound: Emily Jorgenson Stephens
Music: Noah Merrall
