L4A

We work with older people receiving care across Leicester and Leicestershire

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Help us win £50,000

L4A is really excited to be one of the five organisations shortlisted in the Central East ITV region to compete for £50,000 in this years Peoples Project competition. This is being decided by a public vote online HERE and we would very much like your vote!

Voting is open from Monday and runs through until Monday 30th April at 12 noon. It would be great if you could help by voting for us. We will need as many votes as possible, so please also pass this on to your friends and family. You could also help us out by liking us on Facebook, sharing our posts and retweeting us on Twitter us as much as you can! THANK YOU!

Our pitch for your vote will be shown on Central East ITV news between 6pm and 6.30pm on Monday 16th April 2018.

(More information about how to vote will follow on ASAP on Monday!)

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‘Painting by Numbers’ Workshop proves great success for L4A volunteer

Experience met imagination recently with beautiful results – all thanks to retired architect and L4A volunteer Nigel King.

Below is Nigel’s watercolour painting, capturing the faded charm of Evington Park House, in Leicester. This was the inspiration behind the ‘Painting by Numbers’ workshop he organised and expertly led at a ‘Keep Calm and Get Creative!’ Wellbeing Day, held at Evington Park House itself.

Nigel has been participating in L4A’s Social Prescribing project since June 2017 – first exhibiting his artwork at our patient-led community events within the Evington area.

Coming from an architectural design background much of his work is naturally influenced by buildings in both urban and rural settings, including pencil drawings and paintings of local landmarks.

On viewing his work, L4A’s Social Prescribing project coordinator Anita Barrand had a ‘light bulb moment’ and suggested to Nigel a ‘Paint by Numbers’ activity which would recreate the image of the Park House. Anita says she was aware it was ambitious – “but given Nigel’s consummate skill, both as draughtsman and artist, I instinctively knew this could work!”

Nigel commented “There are no rules in art and the concept of deconstructing and recreating something new appealed to me. Also, painting doesn’t have to be a lonely, solo exercise. This workshop was devised to be inclusive, enabling people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to work together.

I was originally reluctant to get involved in the workshop because of the time commitment but although it did involve a lot of work I found myself looking at the historic building with new eyes and in more detail.

I enlarged the original artwork, re-drew and gridded it up then divided it into individual pieces so everyone could paint a square in their own way. Combined together, this produced a completely new, colourful work of art. It was a very sociable day and great to work with old friends and new acquaintances in a relaxed and happy atmosphere.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves; many said they would like to do this again. It felt very satisfying to be a part of such innovative activity with successful outcomes. Feedback during and after the session was extremely positive, with over 25 local people contributing to this collective community painting. Seeing my artwork make the front cover of the Evington Echo was an added bonus and a very pleasant surprise too! My thanks to all.”

This special event was run by a partnership between L4A’s Social Prescribing project, WEA and Friends of Evington, and was part of the wider Leicester Ageing Together festival ‘Celebrating Older People in Leicester 2017’. It provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the invaluable contribution older people can make to the life of their local community – something which is at the heart of L4A’s Social Prescribing project.

To find out more please contact Anita Barrand on 07964 091693 or email: anita.barrand@l4a.org.uk .

 

 

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Special Movie Matinee spreads that glorious feeling!

‘Grand as owt!’ – a lovely comment made by an audience member after the movie matinee of Singing in the Rain’ – a unique event organised as part of our Social Prescribing project by L4A and Friends of Evington.

Fun and fond memories were shared by 40 delighted film lovers enjoying this ‘feel good’ classic at Evington Park House, and in all of its technicolour glory! With a mobile film unit hired from the Phoenix Theatre- a huge 10 foot screen, high definition film stock and quality ‘surround sound’ the Panel Room was transformed into a comfy cinema for the afternoon.

The idea for this special screening was inspired by Lionel Oakley, a participant on L4A’s Social Prescribing Project whose love of film he shared with his dear late wife Joyce.  Lionel recalls “ ‘Whilst courting we regularly went to the pictures (or ‘the flicks’ as we sometimes called them) because back in our day that’s how we entertained ourselves. Once, after watching ‘Singing in the Rain’ at the Odeon in town we walked home up the High Street. It had been raining heavily that evening so with careless abandon we splashed in the puddles, dancing and laughing all the way at our own, funny renditions of songs from the film. It was a beautiful moment and one that I still cherish to this day.’

 

‘It’s been an honour to share my love of film with friends and neighbours, bringing the cinema to our doorstep for everyone in the local community to enjoy. I was pleased as punch with the turnout and I’d love to do this again. I’m sure with Anita’s help we’ll be able to make this happen. ‘What a Glorious Feeling’ that would be!’

 

And we will! L4A’s Social Prescribing Project hopes to work in partnership with the Downing Drive Patient Group to plan another exciting social event soon.

To find out more please contact L4A Project Coordinator Anita Barrand on 07964 091693 or email Anita.Barrand@l4a.org.

 

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Continuing Impact of ‘The Power of Stories’

Following the success of our ‘The Power of Stories’ project, which took storytelling into care homes and trained staff in techniques of storytelling, it’s been wonderful to hear about a developing legacy from the project.

Karen Faver from West View care home has written and illustrated her first book, which she designed especially for use in the care home!

Karen undertook the training and mentoring offered by ‘The Power of Stories’ project and by the time it ended she was using storytelling regularly with residents at West View. Inspired by the impact this was having, Karen combined her 21 years experience of working in care with both her love of drawing and her wire-haired fox terrier Herb – and ‘Herb’s Perfect Bone’ was born.

The book tells the story of Herb as he travels around the world in search of his perfect bone. Discussing the story and seeing iconic images from the different countries Herb visits has given residents the opportunity to tell stories of their own – where they have been and what they got up to.

Residents love it, as do their families and other staff in the home, as it helps enable recall and gives them something to talk about.

“It’s about going on a journey with them, bringing back memories that have been long forgotten – it’s all positive!” says Karen; “and the repetition engages people – residents pick the words up and say them with me as we go through the book.”

Karen is delighted with the impact ‘The Power of Stories’ has had on her own life too.

“Doing the storytelling project was quite out of my comfort zone and I didn’t know if I would be able to carry on with it, but with the help and support from the project I began to grow in confidence. Because I enjoyed drawing I was encouraged to do a storyboard – then I took things further and decided to do a book that I thought would be good with people with dementia.”

Plans are already underway for the next story, with residents fully involved and eager to think up new adventures for Herb.

 

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Tactile Textiles Update

Since November 2015 we have been working with residents of Pilgrim Home Evington on ‘Tactile Textiles’, a project within Leicester Ageing Together, funded by the Big Lottery.

Each week small groups of pupils from Linden Primary School have been visiting a group of residents from Pilgrim Home. The combination of 9 and 90 year olds sharing creative activity has been a wonderful success, providing constant opportunities for young and old to share skills, ideas and experiences. Whilst they were choosing fabrics, threading needles and learning how to finger knit, children have also heard about what daily life was like long before they were born and the older people have learned all about the latest playground crazes. The different ages have happily shared their stories and thoroughly enjoyed each others company – “I didn’t think the elderly liked being around children but as soon as we came here I realised that we have a lot in common – the elderly are very interesting” commented one of the children.

One of many highlights of the project has been celebrating the achievement of making three collaborative textile wall hangings, each depicting a verse from ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. Over the weeks these were stitched from scratch to designs created by the group, each hanging made up of six background pieces made by a younger person/older person partnership. Everyone had such fun in the making of all the elements for these and now the hangings are proudly displayed in the hallway of Pilgrim Home.

 

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We’ve Baked A Difference

After 12 successful pilot sessions in three different care settings, the Baking a Difference project has sadly come to a close. For now.

Having conducted experiments about yeast and gluten, learned how to create our own sourdough starters and discussed our own individual personal histories with bread, we plaited, kneaded and ate our way through all sorts of dough.

As well as being great fun, Baking a Difference workshops proved to be bonding and sociable for everyone involved. The smell of freshly baked rolls wafting through the home brought staff, visitors and other residents to see the activities underway and prompted many to join in future sessions.

We are grateful to our partners Planet Leicester Bakers for their thoughtful input into planning and delivery the sessions to two nursing homes and a sheltered housing unit, sensitively tailoring the workshops for the individuals living within each environment.

There is a report about the work that we did, including lessons learned and ideas for future development, available here: BAKING A DIFFERENCE END OF PILOT PROJECT REVIEW

We would love to receive any feedback from you about this project and it’s work so please do get in touch with us.

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Patchwork Project

Learning for the Fourth Age is privileged to work with lots of different older people in many different and varied care settings. However, some are very closely located and we have been keen to bring people together from different settings for shared learning activities for a while.

By working closely with the wonderful staff at Harley Grange and Ashlands care homes, we are proud to have brought together residents from both settings to share the craft activities that they had undertaken together and produced a shared piece of work – the patchwork! Plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits were also enjoyed too.

The patchwork project has been led by Anita Barrand with support from volunteers Jean Helps and Dee Lehan-Matthews and staff from both homes. We are keen to explore other ways of helping to bring the outside in and take residents out in going forwards, particularly when we can support people to learn about different people and cultures. Watch this space!

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Tom cycles for 12 hours straight to raise £500 for L4A!

At 3am on a cold, rainy and dark Saturday morning in August, Tom March climbed onto a bike at Anytime Fitness Corby, started cycling and did not get off again until 12 hours later. At 3pm, he clambered off the bike having raised £500 for Learning for the Fourth Age and we could not be more grateful. 

Tom is no stranger to fitness challenges and works as a personal trainer. Between all the cyclists on Saturday 5th August, the combined distance achieved together was 270 miles and most of these were achieved by Tom himself who did not stop pedalling at an impressive cadence throughout his challenge.

With such a huge challenge to undertake, he had spare bikes next to him for other people to join in support. Many people did, including some of his family members and friends, and even our very own CEO (in spite of being almost 7 months pregnant).

It is not too late to sponsor Tom for this huge effort or to donate to our ongoing work here.

And if you need some help with a similar challenge or would like to work with Tom as your personal trainer, please see here for more details or call him on 07739 558171.

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Cam’s Fundraising Story!

I had really wanted to do the North Norfolk Coast walk for a year or so, and thought it would be nice if I used it to fundraise for charity.

I had visited some care homes with L4A previously as a volunteer, helping with activities and storytelling. During these visits I had seen the difference it makes to older people’s lives, and how it makes them feel involved. It had also been a worthwhile experience for me, and so I decided to use L4A as my chosen charity.

I made a justgiving account, and the setting up was as simple as selecting the charity on the justgiving webpage, then updating it every so often. This also meant donations went straight to the charity, making the process hassle free.

The walk itself was a real struggle, and a test of endurance, but it felt like a great achievement when it was finished. Hopefully the blisters wear off soon!

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50+ Wellbeing Day proves to be a big hit in Evington!


We were very proud to learn of the success of a recent 50+ Wellbeing Day event that was organised and led by Anita Barrand as part of our Social Prescribing project in Evington, with lots of help and input from the Helen Pettman at Friends of Evington too.

The 50+ Wellbeing Event was held on Saturday 24th June at Evington Park House and tried to get awareness of our charity, our Social Prescribing project and LAT out there at hyper local grassroots level.

Anita Barrand says “We had great turn out! Huge heartfelt thanks to all of the wonderful LAT staff and volunteers who ran stalls and activities: Outstanding moments include Suky Garcha’s ‘laughter yoga’, WEA aromatherapy ladies (WOW!), the Downing Drive patients who did a sterling job of recruiting volunteers, exhibiting their artwork and generally mucking in and not forgetting the truly lovely Gurpreet from AoHL. Thank you for your support and look forward to future collaborations!”

Following the success of this initial event, we hope to be able to try and organise future ones to drum up more awareness in the future. We hope that some of the contacts we made will become volunteers and learners through our Social Prescribing: More Than Medication project.