Holme Valley Sharing Memories Group is a unique arts & well being group which aims to help alleviate social isolation and loneliness amongst the elderly in the rural Holme Valley in Kirklees, West Yorkshire. It consist of about 10 elderly people (in their 70's - 90's) who meet weekly on a Thursday afternoon to work on arts projects which can vary in length from 6 weeks to 20 weeks+. The Group learn new arts skills ranging from silk painting, creating well dressings, to pottery, creative writing and musical projects. There are 3 freelance resident visual artists who work with the group, and visiting artists are also invited in when specialist skills are required. The group then share their skills with other community groups of all ages / generations - schools, care homes, day care centres, residential units etc to produce high quality artworks. The elderly people are collected and dropped off by taxi so that they do not have the worry of getting public transport or of driving and parking. For this and the session they pay just £3 per week so cost is not a barrier. For some members it can be the only time in the week that they get out and meet other people. New members are often referred by their GP (social prescribing) or they can just come along themselves to experience a session and find out more.
The Group is a non profit organisation, funded in the main by charitable and council grants and some internal fundraising. There is however very little core funding so new funds have to be sought for each and every project. For this project we have already raised over 70% of the funds, but still need £2,500.
We always try to have a celebration to end each project and produce an outcome be it a large artwork on display, an open day event to which the geneeral public are invited, with performances, a book or a film of the project. This gives the participants a sense of pride and accomplishment.
We always evaluate every project to understand the success of the project, to assess whether we have achieved our set outcomes and to help frame future projects. We elicit the views of the Sharing Memories Group members, the other organisations that we are working with, and the artists, both resident and visiting.