We are delighted to share more with you about our new project – The Care Project.
This pilot project, developed in partnership with Scottish Care, is designed to support the creative wellbeing of both staff and residents in care homes across Dumfries & Galloway.
In Phase 1, we’re collaborating with three care homes, Allanbank, Fleet Valley, and Munches Park, to explore and foster creative initiatives. Our aim is to enhance the creative wellbeing of staff and residents, strengthen their connections and create a more inspiring and supportive care home environment for everyone.
So far, we’ve partnered with Julie Stephen from the Artful Corner to deliver engaging creative sessions in each care home. These sessions have helped us gather valuable insights and ideas from both residents and staff by asking them what brings them joy, how they enjoy expressing themselves creatively and the kinds of activities they love most.
During these workshops, residents and staff worked together to create an inspiring Tree of Life artwork in each home. Using hand-decorated leaves to express their interests and passions, they collaboratively built vibrant pieces that now proudly adorn their walls. Each care home also received additional blank leaf cutouts, encouraging other residents and staff to add their thoughts and creativity over time. Across all three homes, common themes emerged, including a deep appreciation for nature, the outdoors, music and visual arts.
Looking ahead, we’re planning two exciting pilot activities for each care home:
- A musical jam session led by Paragon, and
- A nature-inspired mark-making workshop led by Lucy Lee from Old Mill.
We’ll evaluate the impact of these activities on creative wellbeing and use our findings to produce a detailed report on Phase 1, before scoping the potential to develop the initiative into 2025. Our longer-term vision is to establish lasting opportunities that nurture creativity for wellbeing in care homes across Dumfries & Galloway.
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