A MONTHLY ‘Memory Café’ for dementia sufferers is to be opened by the newly formed Astwoods Bank Rotary Group.
Running from 2pm to 4pm it opens its doors for the first time on Thursday, October 4 at Astwood Bank Church Hall (St. Matthias & St. George Church), Church Road, Astwood Bank, B96 6EH.
The inspiration for the project comes from Rotary member, Carol Yates.
Carol said that the idea for wanting to set up a dementia café came from her own personal experience as she has lived in the village of Astwood Bank all her life and has seen the population ageing. For the past 4 years Carol has cared for her elderly mother and has found it difficult to find local places to take her to socialise, and for Carol to meet other carers herself, to share emotions and gather information and advice about navigating local services.
Now thanks to the members of the newly formed Astwood Bank Rotary Group and their supporters, this exciting new Memory Café, where local people can come and have a cup of tea and a chat with friends old and new in a safe friendly environment, is about to open!
The Café will be a place to connect with others in a safe and inclusive environment.
Ensuring the sustainability of this project is vital and that’s where you can help. If you believe you might be able to assist on the first Thursday of a month, 2pm – 4pm then pop in and say hello.
We need to invest in resources for visitors to enjoy such as memory boxes. Our programme is being designed to provide stimulating activities aimed at improving memory skills and will benefit from professional input and volunteer time. Partners and carers will be included with specialist advice available to the group, along with the development of a peer-support network.
We aim to have all our volunteers signed up as Dementia Friends or Champions with the Alzheimer’s Society.
The plan is to make the Astwood Bank Memory Café free at the point of need, but this is only possible with on-going community support. If you can help in any way, then please get in touch to help make Astwood Bank a dementia friendly community…
email: [email protected] web: astwoodbankrotary.org
