Inspiring Interactive Programme Connect Residents & Youth Community

Residents from two Yorkshire care homes and young members of the local community took part in a two-day creative, interactive programme aimed at sparking memory and building connections between the young and old. During their half-term, a dozen sixteen and seventeen year olds taking part in National Citizen Service (NCS), a voluntary personal and social development programme for young people, visited the residents to run memory and nostalgia sessions with them each day, using photography, storytelling, drama and performance. Over twenty residents from Lofthouse Grange in Wakefield and more from Nesfield Lodge in Leeds were involved in the innovative sessions. The sessions brought back memories of friendships and romances over the years and there was positive feedback from both those performing and those watching. One young person commented; “The people we met [at Lofthouse] taught us a life lesson: you are ‘never too old." Another said; “We were able to relate to the stories the residents told us and felt everything they said.” During October, over 280 young people from Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford took part in the NCS autumn programme. The activities programme was organised by The Challenge, a charity building a more integrated society and the largest provider of NCS in England. The Challenge connects and inspires people to strengthen their communities, something that resonates strongly with Orchard Care Homes.