Creative artists and volunteers are delivering 10 weeks of ‘Creative Conversations’ on the telephone to isolated older people in Melksham.
The ‘Creative Conversations’ project is connecting isolated older residents over the phone with volunteer creative artists who through weekly phonecalls, empower the person to reengage with an activity they used to enjoy.
The pilot project is organised by Celebrating Age Wiltshire – a county-wide project delivering culture and heritage events and activity in community settings to support the wellbeing of vulnerable older people – and is supported by local organisation, Age Friendly Melksham, who identify and refer residents to the project.
“Many people are feeling particularly lonely due to mobility issues and lack of activity and contact with family/friends during lockdown,” said Rebecca Seymour from Celebrating Age Wiltshire.
“Age Friendly Melksham has been working in partnership with Celebrating Age Wiltshire on this pilot project, helping to train up volunteers and referring their clients to the service. Local volunteers support the artist’s calls by catching up with participants and seeing how they’re getting on with the creative tasks set for them at home each week.
“Materials and resources are printed from the Wiltshire Music Centre office, the project’s base, and posted to participants in preparation for their next call; so they’ve got deliveries to look forward to as well as creative phone calls.
“The six artists currently on the project are working their creative magic with participants and it really is incredible what you can do just on the phone!
“Here are some of their achievements to date: Song writing, poetry and journal writing, singing songs from the musicals, art and crafts, life history stories, illustrations, descriptions of local photos and much more.
“We have plans to roll the Creative Conversations project out across more of Wiltshire during 2021, with referrals coming from GPs, local Community Connectors and Alzheimer’s Support so far. We always need more volunteers, so if you think you might like to join this rewarding project please get in touch: Rebecca.seymour@wiltshiremusic.org.uk ”
