Daisy Coles is a Sixth Form student who wanted to do more for older people in Hammersmith. For a year and a half, every week at lunchtime she had been visiting the residents of a local care home when she read an article about the science behind how people with Dementia who take part in creative activities reduce their stress levels and experience greater feelings of well-being. So it was only natural that Daisy, who has 52 hours of volunteer time required to satisfy her Gold Duke of Edinburgh award , wanted to find a way to make it easy to access artistic stimulation such as painting and drawing. After attending a training seminar put on by the charity Arts 4 Dementia with Dementia Pathfinders, Daisy started organising small art workshops in neighbourhoods where there were few, if any, visual art activities available. She set about vetting venues, interviewing art facilitators, getting friends to join her and meeting an LBHF Councillor to discuss how the council services could support her idea to increase the provision of art for people with Early-Stage Dementia who live independently. To find out more click here.
The next series of workshops starts on Saturday, 13 January 2018 inside the Hammersmith & Fulham Town Hall.
