Once again, I realised just how good it is to work with the guys at Open Door. On Monday I did supervision with Jill. It gave us the opportunity to look at Monday, Tuesday and Friday’s groups and how our project Music for Health and Wellbeing will be rolled out in the New Year. Kenny and I then did our session on Tuesday afternoon at Open Door. It was great and gave us the chance to hear and explore stories of those who attend.
We recently wrote a report for the Weir Trust as we have come to an end of their funding. During this last year we have consolidated three choirs and developed another two so that we now have five services that anyone can come to without a need for referral or waiting lists. The Weir Trust have put our photos and report on their website to show how grants can be used to develop services. It is quite a compliment.
On Thursday we were at Saughton Park learning a new song that we would be singing at an Edinburgh Winterfest event. It’s a great new song written by our friend Gus and will be released on the 2nd of December. The song was written by those who attend Capital Theatres Dementia support programme. Once it has been released, we will give you the details so you will be able to listen to it.
On Friday we held our Trustee meeting which was very productive and will lead to another exciting new development, which I can tell you about soon. I then had a meeting with a representative of Scottish Government. We will be singing in the parliament in March next year. We were discussing the practical issues that need to be addressed if we are to make the most of this opportunity.
Sunday came around and Singing at the Winterfest followed the snow we all got on Saturday. The snow had disappeared by Sunday so the event could go ahead. The Ross bandstand is situated in the middle of Princes Street Gardens so singing in such a high-profile place was great. To be a part of Edinburgh’s Winter Festival will not do us any harm at all. It was good to have so many people singing along to the songs we were singing and to see those shopping on Princes Street taking notice of what was happening. Raising the voices of those living with Dementia is a privilege and changing the world a step at time can become a reality.
Well, I listened to the weather report telling me it would calm down this week. It doesn’t sound very calm right now so take care and we can speak again next week.