The Power of Stories: Tales for Telling and Sharing
L4A was delighted to be featured on regional news as part of The People’s Projects (more information here). Five charities pitched projects to the TV audience in order to gain votes from the public and L4A The Power of Stories won. This project ended in March 2017 but a legacy from the project continues with staff and volunteers feeling empowered to continue the work.
You will see from this video here that stories really do have the power to help older people feel healthier and happier. Listening to stories together unlocks memories and prompts people to share their own stories – making friends in the process. Working with professional storytellers, this project also involved training and supporting carers, care home staff and volunteers with storytelling skills.
Learning for the Fourth Age (L4A) delivered storytelling in 10-12 care homes and we have found it to be a very positive way of including and involving those whose situation can cause them to feel isolated and excluded from activity. The impact of the project was so significant that we recruited Hilary Comfort to evaluate the project in detail for us. We are delighted with what she found and the full report can be downloaded here for free:
We are so inspired by the impact of this work that we are going to try and find further funding to roll it out to more settings, more nursing homes, more staff and even, for example, community hospital ward settings in the near future so watch this space!