Our Home Is… where the heart is’

Home is where the heart is’ is a project bringing  cheer to some of Canterbury’s older people who live in sheltered housing schemes or other care settings.

Lovely hand-crafted postcards have been illustrated and written by volunteers from the ‘Our Work of Art’ team, led by Catherine Arnell from Espression Arts CIC, supported by Kent Arts & Wellbeing (Fay Blair and Ken Scott).  Beneficiary project partners are Age UK Canterbury and Age UK Herne Bay & Whitstable.

Among the first to receive their colourful cards are residents from the Old Farmhouse Care Home and the sheltered housing schemes Whitgift Court and Lang Court. Also to be included will be some older vulnerable people with their carers, some of whom previously attended day centre, or group sessions, at Age UK Herne Bay & Whitstable.

A small team of trained volunteers (in the ‘Covid-19 Daisy Chain’ method of remote access befriending) is encouraging each of their ‘postcard pen-pal’ residents to write back, using a simple post card template. Through this simple, traditional means, the volunteers are establishing rapport or are rekindling relationships, some which they formed in an earlier 2019 Our Work of Art creative programme.

Extra treats are in store too.  Jill Fell one of the long-standing Our Work of Art project volunteers explained: “We thought it would be a lovely gesture in the lead up to Christmas to make and send each participant a personal Christmas card with a mini personal creative kit for them to make their own Christmas decoration”.

Assorted Christmas Cards

Into the New Year, the creative making will continue. A series of themed of ‘Our home is..’ activity sheets and linked personal creative kits will be delivered to the project participants.

Each volunteer will connect by phone and where possible, will support and encourage people to engage via tablets, online, via Zoom. They will be reaching out to people to talk about and share what they have made as part of the on-going friendly dialogue.

Fun, light-hearted conversations will also draw out what people value about their immediate home, environment and neighbourhood.  Among the topics to be covered are: ‘Living life in full bloom’, ‘The sky’s the limit’, ‘Precious pets & cute creatures’, ‘Down on the farm’, ’Time for tea’, ‘You feel like home’ and ‘Home is where the heart is’.

The ‘Our Home is…..’ programme is funded by Canterbury City Council, Kent Community Foundation, Kent County Council and the Government-supported Coronavirus Community Support Fund, distributed by The National Lottery Community Fund. It will help many older, frailer people overcome some of the loneliness, anxiety and social isolation they are experiencing due to the direct and indirect impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project back story can be seen here.  www.kentartsandwellbeing.org.uk/news

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram  #Covid19DaisyChain #OurWorkOfArt   

#OurWorkofArt2018   #OurWorkofArtRuralOutreach2019 

     

 

Latest News

VICTORY IN EUROPE CONCERT

Posted: March 2nd, 2025

Kent Arts and Wellbeing have been awarded a contract to put on a celebration concert on Saturday May 10th in All Saints Church, Maidstone. The concert will be preceded by…

‘THOSE WE HAVE LOVED’ Concert

Posted: March 1st, 2025

Kent Arts and Wellbeing

The Maidstone Singers(TMS) are once again supporting Building a Dementia Friendly Maidstone(Ba DFM), the voluntary organisation that seeks to enable people living with dementia live their best possible lives.They performed…

COFFEE & CAMARADERIE

Posted: February 17th, 2025

Kent Arts and Wellbeing

A roll call to veterans! Here’s a great place for you to get yourself some coffee, some breakfast bites and meet others… See our upcoming dates! – March 5th and…

Latest Projects

Partnership in Mind Project – Report

Posted: April 13th, 2025

During 2022-24 Kent Arts and Wellbeing (KAAW) was delighted to be part of the Veterans Places, Pathways and People (VPPP) project in the Southeast of England, in partnership with Veterans…

Thrive Together – VPPP

Posted: March 4th, 2025

From January 2022 to December 2024, Kent Arts and Wellbeing (KAAW) was part of the Veterans Places, Pathways and People (VPPP) project in the Southeast of England, led by Veterans…

Partnership in Mind – VPPP

Posted: April 11th, 2022

Kent Arts and Wellbeing(KAAW) is delighted to be part of the Veterans Places, Pathways and People project in the Southeast of England, in Partnership with Veterans Outreach Support (VOS). Thanks…

Posted On: December 11th, 2020