Adults
We believe you never have to stop growing and learning, no matter your age.
Overview
We provide opportunities for people of all ages.
Our work with adults has grown and become particularly important since the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Through consultation, we were able to identify that older people felt isolated and lonely and were experiencing high levels of anxiety and poor mental health during and since the pandemic. We were able to identify a strong need and appetite for activities for older people and have since made this a priority area for the organisation. Since the pandemic we have established a befriending service which has had a positive impact for our older adults.
Our older adults programme is delivered across our accessible Community and Family Hubs and provides a welcoming and exciting range of social and creative activities that encourages older people to develop new networks of friends and explore new interests, including engaging with the digital world.
Weekly activities include: music and movement, sensory therapy, wellbeing days, coffee mornings, community bingo, knit and natter, quilting, art classes, friendship groups, arts and crafts, volunteering opportunities and more.
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The highlight of my weeks are the art groups as they are something to look forward to every week.
Art group member
How we help
We support adults in a variety of ways. We have our visual arts programmes led by our Artist in Residence, and encourage participants to use technology to socialise. We have dementia friendly activities and, most importantly, we are there to listen.
Visual Arts Programme
Valleys Kids’ Artist in Residence leads a vibrant programme of community visual arts for groups of adults which are delivered in our Community and Family Hubs. These groups provide a safe space for adults to be creative, try new things and develop their social network
Digital Inclusion
In the modern era, having a good quality of life depends upon having access to computers, smartphones and tablets. Not all the adults we work with have access to these. During the recent Covid-19 pandemic these adults were often isolated and lonely, so Valleys Kids secured funding to purchase iPads. Older and vulnerable adults were able to borrow an iPad and received tuition in how to use them. This created some challenges but, with lots of laughter everyone was soon technologically literate. Participants were able to join in activities, make new friends and communicate with grandchildren and other family members. These iPads are still available to loan today, making connectivity easier for the adults we support. In our Rhydyfelin Centre, we have recently launched a VR project for our adults, which is seen to have proven health benefits.
