A social group for men aged 65 and over has been recognised with a national award, which was presented to local project Celebrating Age Wiltshire, the organisation that set up the group.
The project won the Best Age-Friendly Outreach Award in the Fantastic for Families Awards 2024 for its Men’s Group, held at Melksham Library every Tuesday.
The Men’s Group is for men aged 65 and over and provides a space for them to discuss their lives, careers, hobbies, and make new friends at Melksham library. It was selected out of over 150 applications, initially shortlisted to 26 organisations from across the United Kingdom.
The group is part of Celebrating Age Wiltshire’s Creative Conversations programme, developed in the Covid pandemic, which offers one-to-one and small group creative sessions for people aged 65+ who are socially isolated.
Led by an experienced creative facilitator, participants are encouraged to take ownership of the content and the topics shared, and the groups often continue to be peer-led, with lasting connections between participants.
“To be acknowledged for a national award means so much to a small project such as the Creative Conversations,” explained the Creative producer for CAW, Rebecca Seymour. “It gives those who attend the Men’s Group an enormous sense of pride to be recognised in this way.”
Last year, members of the group collaborated with a local professional musician Bob Heath to write and record a song titled We are the Grey People, which expresses their thoughts on life as an older person.
“This group reminds me that I am glad to be alive, reminds me I am alive and that I am able to make it along each week,” said a participant. “I can listen to views; it is amazing – the variety of interpretations on an item we discuss.”
The project said the group was set up because they recognised that over 80% of participants engaging with Creative Conversations’ projects were women, or men accompanied by women.
“We piloted sessions especially for isolated men over 65 in Melksham library,” explained Celebrating Age Wiltshire’s marketing and fundraising assistant Megan Warmisham. “The group enjoys discussion, delving into heritage and history, selecting music choices, telling stories, reading aloud, and more.”
The Men’s Group sessions run in Melksham Library on Tuesdays from 11.30am to 1pm.
Celebrating Age Wiltshire is a partnership of cultural, heritage and community organisations using high-quality creative arts, heritage, and cultural activity as a vehicle to improve or maintain the health and wellbeing of older people.
