Activity / Wellbeing Coordinators Resources

• Toolkit: Great Winter Get Together – The Jo Cox Foundation
• Growing Health Community Garden | Nantwich Town Council
• Live Well Cheshire East: link
• Live Well Cheshire West: link
• Green Spaces for wellbeing
• Creative Crewe: link
• Wishing Well: link
• One You; offer Stand Strong Classes and other wellbeing programmes: link
• Dance to Health: link
• Dementia Support Groups- B’s Cafe: link
• Thursday Club, Nantwich: link (new early onset dementia group and dementia group also started in Crewe via the same contact)
• Everybody Leisure; gyms across Cheshire East with Health Orientated Programmes: link
• Silver Rainbows: link
• Local Area Coordinators also share fabulous newsletters. Sarah is the LAC for Macclesfield – Email: Sarah.Jacklin@cheshireeast.gov.uk
• Congleton rickshaw: link
• Motherwell have a wide wellbeing activities calendar: link
• Community Development Officers: Information about services and contact details can be found on here: Connected Communities. Click on “Our Team” for names and email addresses of the community development officers, and which area of cheshire east they cover. They send out regular newsletters with information on what is going on in the community in the local area.
• Healthwatch Cheshire West
• Healthwatch Cheshire East
• Chester Zoo Memory Cafe 
• Community Team Local Authority Contacts:

  • Chester: chesterlocality@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

  • Ellesmere Port: ellesmereportlocality@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

  •  Northwich and Winsford:  northwichwinsfordlocality@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

  • Rural: rurallocality@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

• Blacon History Group: Alan.Smith@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

• CVS may be able to support with asking for volunteers for day trips , etc: link

Contact local colleges for students on Health and Social Care Courses who may help as part of their work experience:

• Cheshire College South and West – Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Chester – link
• Macclesfield College –link

• CO OP Foundation:  link
• Cheshire East Crowd Funding: link
• Cheshire West Crowd Funding: link
• Cheshire Community Foundation: link
• Many supermarkets also have community champions you can speak to regarding fundraising and donations to support with activities.

• The Royal College of Occupational Therapists: Ideas for activities 
• National Activities Providers Association: FREE Resources – NAPA Activities 
• Marks and Spencers: Marks in Time Resources, offers community resources including sheet music,image packs and a reminiscence box lending scheme:link
• Age of Creativity: Age of Creativity
• BBC Reminiscence Archive: Provides access to a selection of content from the BBC archives, designed to support reminiscence therapy.
• Pets as Therapy: Pets As Therapy
• Famileo: The family newspaper that brings joy to grandparents (famileo.com)
• Blacon History Group: Alan.Smith@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk

My Life TV

A video on demand streaming service for people with dementia.

Created by award winning dementia charity My Life Films, My Life TV has programmes and content for the cognitive needs of people living with the condition, accessed on tv, tablet, phone or laptop.

It’s a fantastic tool for activity providers and care givers;

• Keeping residents engaged and occupied with meaningful activities.
• Enhancing therapeutic provision, supporting exercise and enabling social connection.
• Providing opportunities for respite or delivery of care.
• The content can help improve mood, quality of life and care, and help address agitation, anxiety and apathy.

Arts4Dementia

Charity organisation developing arts activities to inspire and re-energise people living with dementia and their carers in the community.

Activities – a guide for carers of people with dementia.

Alzhiemers Scotland have produced a useful booklet. Note some of the telephone numbers are for Scottish organisations and therefore are not relevant for those working outside of Scotland.

• Arts in Care Homes is a project managed by NAPA and funded by The Baring Foundation and the Rayne Foundation. There is lots of research that proves that access to the arts makes care home residents happier and healthier. We believe that residents should be offered a wide range of arts activities on a daily basis to enhance their quality of life and increase wellbeing and motivation.

Art in Care Homes External link

• Social Care Institute for Excellence – Art in Care Homes Resources

SCIE have a website with resources that can inspire care home residents to be creative

Involving people who live in care homes in the creative arts can delight, inspire and even bring health benefits. SCIE inspiring care home residents to be creative External link

• Creative Paths External link deliver arts in care workshops, both in house and via Zoom, discreet community learning, arts projects and commissions. For care staff and activity coordinators they offer ideas via their blogs and newsletters, consultation services, training and resources.
• There website has downloadable resources External link  that you can use.        Creative Paths also have a YouTube presentation External link  that covers why creativity counts, tips and suggestions, using your local resources and things to consider.

Constella OperaBallet

Free, virtual and interactive performances for care homes

Delivered by some of the UK’s most exciting musicians and dancers who also work with the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Their innovative model provides high-quality performance and well-being support for care home residents. They use an optimised Zoom setup enabling an easy-to-use setup and a Covid-secure environment for performance. This enables their artists to interact with your residents, including performing requests, engaging in conversation and encouraging participation by clapping, singing and even dancing!

To see their work in action, please watch their short video

To set up performances for your home, please email info@constella.org.uk.

Website: Connecting Stars

Together with Music (TwM)

An intergenerational membership platform centred around connection, community and music: Together with Music

BBC Music Memories

Website designed to use music to help people with dementia reconnect with their most powerful memories.

The Playlist for Life  contains tips on how to use playlists to create an activity.

• 10 Today is an exercise programme from Sport England and Demos designed for older people to protect against poor health and improve mental health and maintain independence:  10 Today

• The Royal College of Occupational Therapists have produced the Living Well in Care Homes guides which include practical ideas for activities. This resource is for residents, members of staff and care home managers. It offers best practice in supporting older people to enjoy daily activities that support their health and wellbeing.

• For those managing a long term condition We are undefeatable offers inspiration and ideas to help people get active by finding what works for them. We are undefeatable

• Some usefule ideas can be found here: https://fb.watch/l8aOO5xCYt/

NAPA Nutrition and Hydration Toolkit for Activity Providers: link