Choices Project

Thanks to funding from the Henry Smith Foundation our Choices Project has been running since 2018. The main focus has been reducing loneliness and social isolation in people over the age of 50 from ethnically diverse communities in Leeds, who have one or more long term condition, through a range of activities including social activities at the weekend.

The following are some of the activities we have been working on which have been a positive platform for bringing people together.

Saturday Social Group. Service users found that there were activities and sessions from Feel Good Factor that they could access during the week but nothing during the weekend so this group was set up out of hours when there was no other provision available to suit or meet their needs. This has been a popular group with an average of 20 people attending every week.

To keep service users engaged we have a volunteer who works at the local school who leads the activities in the group. Activities include dominos, wordle, wordsearches, board and memory games, and service users have also introduced their own games to the group. We have had several service users who have developed the confidence to take the lead on activities and we offer free teas and coffees and light refreshments.

The Saturday Social Group has been a great platform for people to meet and make new friends. Service users have developed some really strong friendships over the course of the years and they regularly keep in touch with one another and meet outside of the social group.

Women’s Swimming. This weekly session, for ladies only, took a few months to take off but we now have up to 15 women attending regularly. Not everyone can swim, some participants just want to be in the pool because it is so relaxing, and those who can swim often support those who cannot.  Swimming lessons were organised for the group to learn different swimming strokes, and swimmers have reported they find swimming very therapeutic and relaxing and a great time to socialise with other ladies.

Arts and Crafts Group. This is another weekly group which service users find therapeutic and calming, helping them to focus on the task in hand. Many service users tell us about how the enjoy the hands-on nature of the workshops and the sense of achievement that comes from creating their own ornaments and cards.

Transport Group. This group has been running for over two years. Service users plan fortnightly trips visiting local towns, cities and museums. This has helped people develop their confidence in accessing local public transport and using their bus passes on trains. They have also learned various methods of getting cheap train tickets, e.g. via SplitSave. Since the group has been established service users have become confident travelling independently.

Choir. Another regular activity set up at the request of our service users. Service users would meet once every week to sing together, learning different songs, exercising their vocal chords and writing their own lyrics and poems. Service users have enjoyed performing and showing off their talent at our celebration events.

More information about these activities can be found on our What’s On page