On Wednesday 3rd September, the Hinckley & Rugby Building Society team headed to Coalville Day Centre, run by Age Uk – to deliver a team “social challenge” to their service users.
Social challenges are designed to bring volunteers’ skills and creativity to people who struggle to access social opportunities.
Age UK runs day centres across UK, including Leicester and Leicestershire, for people with age related health conditions including dementia – staffed by an incredible team of caring and compassionate individuals. The day centre identified that service users would benefit from a fun, group-based activity where volunteers could bring their skills and be on hand to help 1-1.
The theme of the day was one based on reminiscence, which is an important engagement tool for people living with dementia, and we thought about our favourite days at the seaside, summer sports days, Wimbledon and watching Royal Ascot. Whilst it would have been lovely to take the service users out for these days – accessibility and capacity made it unlikely.
The group settled on delivering “a day at the races” at the day centre and the team at HRBS began to devise how they could bring this to life for the service users. The day started with a “ladies’ day” hat making session (that became somwhat competitive among the staff ) – with service users and volunteers pairing up to decorate straw hats with ribbons, flowers, feathers and jewels – the fancier the better!
Following a picnic lunch the team played the classic racing game “Escalado” which whipped up a competitive spirit and no doubt bought back many happy memories for service users and volunteers alike
So… why would employee volunteers give up their valuable work time to deliver a social challenge? Working alongside people living with age related health conditions and dementia, their carers and centre staff creates a better understanding of the barriers to communication and the need for patience and compassion – which can become a valuable tool when working in customer facing roles or indeed with our own friends and family.
If you would like any further information about getting involved with our team and social challenges contact us
We’ve had a brilliant day today at Age Concern, everyone had an amazing time and the hat making went down a treat thank you😊
Denise Bradshaw , Hinckley & Rugby Building Society
Thank you for a fabulous day , it was great fun and everyone had a great time .
Tracey Gibson, Age UK - Coalville Day Centre