Redbridge Carers Support Service (RCSS)

We're joining the Redbridge Carers Support Service (RCSS) during their monthly meet ups, to offer creative and sensory activities for older people living with dementia and their carers. Running from October 2024–May 2025, we'll be inviting participants to join them in crafting, moving to music, and conversation. Activities are flexible and we encourage carers and those they care for to all get involved. During these sessions, we're also asking carers to speak with us about their own needs, interests, and experiences, as we design a larger scale creative project that supports carers specifically. 

Queens Theatre Hornchurch

As a participatory theatre company, there's a lot of work that goes on to create our multisensory shows such as On the Beach and We Will Be Happy Here. Artistic Director, Rebecca Manson Jones, alongside a host of other creative artists and facilitators, will host workshops to engage directly with participants to inspire and guide the shows direction. In the summer of 2023,we worked with a group of people with dementia and their carers at Queens Theatre Hornchurch for On the Beach, and we also hosted some larger Dementia Cafés.

Dementia Cafés–Stanley Arts

Part of our regular creative programme engaging with older people with dementia and their carers, is to host Dementia Cafés. We host these informal sessions in arts venues, community settings, and/or public spaces to encourage participants who may not usually access creative activities in these settings. The cafés are a fantastic way to promote cognitive function through artistic and sensory activities, while providing an outlet for carers to socialise. The focus of these sessions is on the senses through objects we bring such as fabric batts (blankets), smelling oils, differing textures, music, and more. 

In September 2024, we ran a series of workshops supporting creative engagements with older people with dementia in Croydon , including 2 public Dementia Cafés at Stanley Arts. We were welcomed by local care home, Acacia Care Centre, where we hosted 3 sensory workshops for residents with advanced dementia. Check out photos from these fab sessions by clicking the link below.

Hoxton Hall

One of our favourite venues in London, we brought our Sensory Cafés for older people with dementia and their carers to Hoxton Hall for a series of workshops in January & February 2024. Our trained facilitators–who each have their own creative practice such as dance or visual arts–met with Hackney residents at our public sessions. We also ran workshops for residents at the Mary Seacole Nursing Home, which engaged with participants using our sensory techniques.