This performance has been written and performed by Matthew Seager, a graduate from University of Leeds who in his final year worked with people in an older person’s care home, using music and multi-sensory performance practices to stimulate memory. The project was highly successful and proved to be life-changing for Matt, and he has gone on to explore this in new writing. The play has received fantastic reviews, and is a great example of what can be produced when Arts and Health interests come together.
The event is at stage@leeds, a dedicated theatre space located just behind Leeds University Union on the University of Leeds campus. The building is well signposted from the Parkinson building steps on Woodhouse Lane, and you can also find it on our campus map: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/campusmap?location=5179.
There are now over 1 million people aged over 65 in the UK who have never been parents, and this will double to 2 million by 2030. There are many more not living near their children or who don’t have contact with them.
Understanding what it means to be ageing without children and how it affects people in later life is going to be crucial for individuals and for organisations who plan and commission and deliver services.
This short workshop will introduce you to the topic of ageing without children, the impact it has on individuals, services and the community and what changes need to be made.
‘Making Memories’ is a reminiscence documentary-making project being produced by Helen Brand and Michelle Vink with technical and creative help from students at Leeds Film School. The short film will illustrate the journey of friendship-building between older parishioners from both Keighley parishes and younger pupils from Holy Family School, Keighley over a 6 month period.
Helen Brand is the Development Worker for Catholic Care’s ‘Embrace’ initiative which is currently being piloted in the Keighley and Skipton Deanery. She reports on a recent social outing of the group involved in the filming:
On January 21st a group of ‘Making Memories’ participants both young and old met for a matinee performance of ‘The Jolly Postman’ at Victoria Hall in Keighley. The show was put on by The West Yorkshire Dance Academy which practises weekly at Keighley Catholic Centre – and it starred one of our younger team members from Holy Family School.
It was our first social outing together as a group and everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly, some of the older people were surprised and delighted that Keighley held such talent as the whole performance was extremely professional. We all vowed that we must make more of getting out and about together over the next few months!
Dementia Friendly Christmas Carol Service on Saturday 8th December 2018, 3.00pm at Leeds Cathedral Church of St Anne.
Mince pies and other refreshments will be served afterwards. All are welcome so please help spread the word using the flyer below. We hope to see you there.
All those involved in charitable activities/ social action are invited to this event.
After an opening liturgy led by Bishop Marcus Stock, there will be an introduction to Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (On the call to Holiness in the Modern World) followed by short period of personal reflection and small group discussions about the implications.
There will also be the opportunity to explore some topics in more detail in small group work with the help of a facilitator. The topics include families and young people, homelessness, ex-offenders and prisoners, disabled people, older people and asylum seekers and refugees. A vote will take place to determine which two groups would be taken forward for further consideration and action across our diocese.
After lunch the Diocesan Youth Service will showcase the ‘Faith in Action’ programme which has recently been introduced in this Diocese for young people. With some more opportunity for small group discussions around Faith in Action followed by the official launch of some diocesan initiatives, there will be some closing prayers and the event is expected to finish around 3pm, with time for networking at the end and during breaks.
ALL are welcome to come along. Please bring a packed lunch.
The Leeds Ageing Without Children group is hosting an information session about what happens when people being discharged from hospital need support, but don’t have it easily available.
About the event
People coming home from hospital, or who start to need help with personal care, often rely on their family for support and advocacy to stay independent. Key questions that worry people ageing without children are:
‘Who will help me when I’m no longer able to help myself?
‘What if I need help at home?’
This information session about what happens when people need that kind of support but don’t have it easily available and will include presentations from Leeds City Council Adult Social Care and the Red Cross’s Home from Hospital service. There will also be an opportunity share what you want from the Leeds Ageing Without Children group.
Background
One in five people over 50 in the UK don’t have any children and by 2030 there will be 2 million people over 65 without children. In Leeds there are 232,120 people over 50 which means there are likely to be approximately 46,000 people without children.
Ageing Without Children (AWOC) is a UK based organisation aimed at people over the age of 50 without children. This includes people who are without children in later life by choice, circumstance, infertility, bereavement, estrangement, distance or any other reason.
Join Leeds Irish Health & Homes and Leeds Beckett University for an afternoon of nostalgia, music and dance!
This is a drop-in information session on Thursday 21st June at Leeds Irish Centre for members of the Irish community who may be touched by memory loss.
The event is for carers, people with memory loss, relatives and concerned others who might want to know what to do and what is available when and if someone in the family is touched by memory loss.
Please feel free to come along, but more importantly pass the information on to anyone you think might benefit from attending. It’s going to be a very relaxed affair.
The Leeds Women and Girls Hub, which is part of the Leeds City Council Equality Assemblies, identified the need to develop a State of Women’s Health in Leeds Report to highlight the health challenges that women in our city face, their experiences of accessing and using services to improve and maintain their health. The aim of the report is that it will be used to inform service commissioning, design, development and delivery to ensure that women in our city are receiving better opportunities for their health needs.
They wish to collect the voices and experiences of women across Leeds to support the data in the report. The discussion will focus on how being an older woman in Leeds, and the issues you may face, impacts on your health and wellbeing. The discussion will take place on Thursday 11th July 10:30-12:30 at the John Lewis Community Hub in Leeds City Centre. Refreshments will be provided. This venue is fully accessible, if you have any additional access needs please get in touch.
This is a child-friendly event so feel free to bring any children along with you but please let them know if you plan to do so.
They can reimburse bus and parking tickets for you to attend this event, however if you need a taxi booking in order to attend please contact Camille Thomas on 0113 2884593 or camille@leedswomensaid.org.uk. Unfortunately they will not be able to reimburse you for any taxis that you book yourselves.
Growing Old Grace-fully, will be running a short Dementia Friends session on Thursday 28th June at 7.00pm-8.00pm in St Aelred’s Hall, Woodland Drive, Harrogate HG2 7BE to help give a better understanding of dementia and the small things we can all do that make a difference in our parishes.
This session is of particular interest to Eucharistic Ministers, hospital visitors and anyone wanting to understand more about living with dementia.
If you would like to discuss how Growing Old Grace-fully might help support older people in your parish then please visit our contact page here and get in touch.
This performance has been written and performed by Matthew Seager, a graduate from University of Leeds who in his final year worked with people in an older person’s care home, using music and multi-sensory performance practices to stimulate memory. The project was highly successful and proved to be life-changing for Matt, and he has gone on to explore this in new writing. The play has received fantastic reviews, and is a great example of what can be produced when Arts and Health interests come together.