Category: Health & Wellbeing

Stirchley Baths – great example of good practice “Ageing Better”

Click on the above pages to open the newsletter  and have a read of some of the great opportunities and activities for over 50s that take place here at Stirchley Baths and find out a bit more about Ageing Better funded Selly Oak Constituency Neighbourhood Network Scheme.

You may also want to take a look at the Birmingham NNS blog site https://brumnns.wordpress.com

or www.birmingham.connecttosupport.org

 

 

A Visit To The Memory Cafe

On Tuesday 19th February I was invited to visit the Memory Café, a monthly event, initially set up as part of Stirchley Baths’ heritage programme in collaboration with Rachel Duggan and Carla Smith from Leaf Creative Arts. The event is held in the Cinema Room at Stirchley Baths. The Café provides a space for people with dementia, Alzheimer’s and other memory problems to engage with multi-sensory arts activities, to create and reminisce, with a steady supply of hot drinks and cakes.

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Stirchley (and much wider) – Investing in neighbourhoods and communities.

A day for 150 community activists, public servants and others to get the know each other better started with the cacophony of 75 simultaneous chats.   The speed dating started the morning by filling the main hall at the baths with a cacophony of conversation. What a racket….

Later the morning switched to feedback from a range of projects which had support from the Birmingham Community Safety Partnership Small Grants fund.

A number of people there talked about what they do and where they do it… simply to help people recognise what’s going on….

What does Springfield Project do?  Listen to Sarah Robbins on youtube.

Birmingham Community Matters runs surgeries to help small community groups and active citizens in the city – as Rhidi Kaleria explains…

Patricia Watson and Angela Field talk about the Brandwood Centre.

Birgit from Change Kitchen CIC Birmingham.

Ann Harkin and Dr Asha Patel of Innovating Minds CIC talk about their work supporting women and children who have experienced or witnessed.  This clip ends with a quite a wide range of how people can get involved – including volunteers.

Subah Rasab is chair of Balsall Heath Forum and talks here about their work.

Rebecca Debenham of the Northfield Community Partnership in South Birmingham on how starting with employment skills give them scope to provide a much wider range of help.

Sheila Hall of Allen’s Cross Community Association Birmingham on why they are their and what they do.

Oli Armstrong from Northfield Arts Forum.

https://youtu.be/8gUhqRjErPE

Helga Edstrom works for the Office for Civil Society – here she talks about finding better ways for funders, public servants and local people to work together.

John Grace recently set up Youth Work Europe in Birmingham, although he is starting in Bartley Green.

 

NEW for 2017: Stirchley Baths Memory Café & Creative Reminiscence Project

We are delighted to announce that from 24 April 2017 we will be holding a free monthly ‘Memory Cafe’ at Stirchley Baths. At our Memory Cafe we will be inviting people with dementia, Alzheimer’s and with memory problems along with a family member, friend or carer, to talk about the past in a relaxed and welcoming environment. We hope to trigger memories by using props, music, dance, film and the Baths building itself. This monthly activity is being developed as part of the Stirchley Baths Heritage Programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and we hope it becomes a regular feature in the Baths’ regular event programme, run with the support of volunteers.

We are working with Louise Deakin to develop the sessions here. Louise has set up a popular Memory Cafe at Soho House Museum and knows the history of the Baths and area well. Also joining us is local artist Rachel Duggan from Leaf Creative Arts, who will be running a small creative activity at each Memory Cafe session based around our themes.

Alongside, and as an extension of the Memory Cafe, Rachel will be running a project called Creative Reminiscence which includes a further two creative and inclusive workshops at the Baths each month.
For dates and further information about both new initiatives, please see the details on the posters below.

If you would like to book a place at the Memory Cafe, please contact us by email: hello@stirchleybaths.org or telephone: 0121 4649072.

If you would like to book a place at a Creative Reminiscence Workshop, please contact Rachel directly by phone: 07886 546639 or email: leafcreativearts@gmail.com

Any questions, please contact Rachel from Leaf Creative Arts, or ask for Suzanne Carter, the Community Heritage Coordinator, at Stirchley Baths.