We are a group of people who enjoy supporting each other. We also like to be asked to comment, visit and support individuals, organisations and policy makers on getting things right for us – everyone is welcome.
We meet weekly and welcome people living with dementia.
Part of our remit from the DEEP grant was to work with leisure centres across Warwickshire. Buddies have been to three so far two more planned, carrying out some stress testing and awareness raising. One particularly relevant as a Buddies member actually attends and they were part of the visit….and discussion with leisure centre staff..
We have also thrown in a trip to Warwick Races planned for March where the members will stress test the venue, do some awareness raising with Jockey club staff and hopefully enjoy a great day out with the horses…report, winnings and photos to follow!!!!!
The other element was helping a local Theatre start a Dementia group. When Ken Howard stands in front of the RSC and says “why don’t they have a group here”…things seem to happen … so with Ken and other members offering support and guidance, the RSC visiting the Buddies and being inspired to set up their group The RSC launch their first group meeting on the 25th January 2019, meeting every Friday afternoon in The Swan Theatre bar/cafe.
March 2019 – “Ken from Buddies is working with Gaydon Motor Museum helping them to make people’s experience when visiting the best it can be”. Whilst Ken was their he also co – led a workshop with Jill another member of the Buddies about creating more dementia friendly work places and visitor centres”
January 2020: See The Buddies celebrating their third birthday in news: https://www.dementiavoices.org.uk/news-from-the-buddies-in-leamington-spa/
April 2020: Jill Turley Co-facilitator says: “Welcome to the Buddies film! We had such a fantastic time making it, although it took us over 6 months to put it together.The whole group played a big part in it and the amateur filming and recording was done with phones and a household camera, the pub opened especially for us to film parts of it, the local artist who also goes to the pub did the caricatures for those who wanted them and its been a really great time all of us.The editing , I must take my hat off to Ken (Howard) for this, he kept adapting, cutting ,pasting for weeks until he said “No more” , but by then the group all agreed it was fantastic, they have all seen it and have been made aware that once you have it we have no control over it and lots of other people may see it and this has been discussed several times in different formats and I have it on the first copy of the film so I believe we are good to go and show the world. Enjoy!” .
Latest news August 2020: https://www.dementiavoices.org.uk/ice-cream-news-from-buddies-in-sunny-leamington-spa/
Buddies consult with University of West London: https://www.dementiavoices.org.uk/the-buddies-consult-about-a-dementia-study-using-multi-sensory-boxes-to-address-covid-19-and-loneliness-university-of-west-london/
Buddies were busy taking lots of photographs in 2021, resulting in our beautiful Calendar for 2022 – it was a tough task short listing the winning 12 photos down from over two hundred brilliant snaps of the year we have just had.
The Buddies were also busy on the consultation front, getting the voice of people with dementia out there – which is of course at the heart of the groups philosophy, it also brought in some income to ensure that we can continue to offer members a complimentary drink at each meeting. The consultation included working with the University of Worcester, Exeter, West London as well as Vamos Theatre.
Roy was a prime influencer and driver for the national ‘Wednesday Wave’ initiative which included a radio interview with Radio Coventry & Warwickshire alongside David and Ken, created by Vamos Theatre
Ken Vamos Theatres influencer and Ambassador also worked alongside Rachael Savage Artistic Director of Vamos Theatre on ‘How hard is Waving’ a BBC Culture in Quarantine commission.
