Past Activities

The precise activities in each of our sessions are tailored to the people who attend, but there is general framework. A typical session involves 30 minutes’ greeting/social time, where participants are welcomed and enjoy chatting over tea/coffee/biscuits/cake, one hour of co-creation time, and 30 minutes’ more social time (and often more tea!).

Below you will find some examples of past projects and the activities undertaken during co-creation time, or you can click here to find an activity group near you.

Create Well Medway

A six-month multi-art, community engagement programme for people
living with a range of neurological conditions and social needs, family
carers and the wider community.

Aim:
To improve the quality of life of carers for people living with neurological
conditions and their family carers. For carers and their cared-for to
engage in mutually agreeable creative activities, irrespective of
cognitive function, that have positive meaning.

Example activities:

Singing and music-making with percussion, tone chimes and
handbells
Rhythm Not Blues Body percussion and rhythmic unison ball
work
Arts and crafts e.g., painting, woodwork

Story-telling and writing.

Benefits include improved:

mental health
physical health
social connections
sense of meaning, self-confidence and achievement
carer-cared-for relationships
broader community understanding of living with ill-health
conditions and social ill-being.

Far and Wide

A wintertime project in partnership with Golf Rd Community Centre,
Deal, combining weekly singing for wellbeing and physical exercises

Aim:
To provide a warm and welcoming place for participants to enjoy group
activities designed to avoid loneliness, to exercise our lungs, and keep
our bodies moving over the cold winter months

Example activities:

Singing and music- making, with percussion and drums.
Group octaband exercises.

Benefits include improved:

mental health
physical health
social connections
sense of belonging.

Carers Create

A three-year multi-art, community engagement programme for carers of
people with dementia, their cared-for and the wider community.

Aim:
To improve the quality of life of carers and their resilience to care
stressors.
To provide opportunities for carers and their cared-for to engage in
mutually agreeable creative activities, irrespective of cognitive function,
that have positive meaning individually and at a community level

Example activities:

Singing and music-making
Arts and crafts days
African djembe drumming circle
Suzuki Tone Chiming and handbell ringing
Story-writing
Tea and Symphony’, co-creation; music, lyric-writing,
photographs and artwork. Performance filmed for the BBC’s
Inside Out programme.

Benefits include improved:

mental health
physical health
social connections
sense of meaning, self
confidence
carer-cared-for relationships
community understanding of living with dementia.

SingUnited Dover

Intergenerational project, started in 2010. Network
of participants include children, young and older people, e.g., school
pupils, East Kent College students, Big Local Dover members, Kent
Wildlife Trust and Riverside Centre members.

Aim:
To support mixed-aged participants to better understand each other
and bond through the process of co-creating art and musical pieces
and at a community level.

Example activities:

Mixed-aged singing
Mixed-aged African djembe and ethnic instruments workshops
Photography
Song and lyric-writing, co-creating new music based on a
topic of collective participant interest, e.g., living well, and
nature in Dover.

Benefits include improved:

inter-community relationships
mental health
social connections
sense of meaning, self confidence, achievement

Friends Across Continents

Working with the Sahara Foundation, Medway, championing older
people from South Asia.

Aim:
To support socially cohesive, mutual learning experiences with people
from different ethnic backgrounds.

Example activities:

Sharing and learning songs of many languages from South
Asia, the British Isles and other parts of the world
Rhythmic and body percussion.

Benefits include improved:

cross-cultural appreciation
sense of assimilation
mental health
cultural identity
sense of self
confidence, achievement
knowledge exchange between older people from South Asia
and M4W practitioners (knowledge exchange.

Fancy Jamboree

Large-scale community celebration involving over 200 people from 20
countries, of a three-month programme of activities over summer 2019.
A partnership project conceived and delivered by Jodie Watson, former
Co-Director for M4W, and Sheila MacDonald, former Director of
Beyond the Page (BTP).

Aim:
To connect through a wide range of creative activities people of
different ages, social and ethnic backgrounds, e.g., older people from
Thanet, women refugees and asylum seekers (BTP’s United Mothers
project). The project was incorporated into the English language
programme for United Mothers

Example activities:

Communal fruit picking, jam/scone-making with the project’s
resident cook
Learning songs with positive messages about home and
belonging
Tone chime playing
Co-preparing other aspects of the Fancy Jamboree.

Benefits include improved:

inter-community and cross-cultural relationships
mental health
social connections
cultural identity
sense of self
confidence
shared achievement

What Members Say

“Well, you’re all in it together. Like a team.”

“You can see people who are exhausted caring every day are relieved of the stress and anxiety by fully engaging in the activities.”

“They’re smashing, the children, to sing with the children, oh yes!”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

Past Activities

Create Well Medway

Far and Wide

Carers Create

SingUnited Dover

Friends Across Continents

Fancy Jamboree

What Members Say

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