It was great to open our garden gate again this year

and welcome in the friends and families of everyone

involved at The Red Shed.

We also had visits from various organisations and funders we work along with the Lady Mayor of Stevenage, the Lady Mayors and the Deputy Mayor.

A good time was enjoyed by all!

As part of the annual Stevenage Day event this month, local organisations were invited to get involved in creating flags to represent their work in the town.

It was great to be invited along to the Intro Evening where the initial plans were set out. The idea was to have a flag for older peoples services which included dementia but, at we always say at The Red Shed…. ‘dementia does not just affect older people and older people don’t all get affected by dementia’…Pleased to say our suggestion of a separate flag for dementia services went ahead and after getting in touch with other organisations – we created something special to highlight our presence in Stevenage.

Above is the wonderful outcome – it’s big and beautiful and contains the logos for Open ArtBox, Music 24, Imagination Dance, Hertswise and Hertswise Young Onset Dementia, GEMMS…and of course The Red Shed. It’s a good start to highlighting the presence of valuable and varied dementia friendly activities and services in the town.

We ran our first trip out into the community today, taking our Croquet players to visit the Letchworth Croquet Club.

It was a great evening and everyone enjoyed themselves very much – even the terrible weather didn’t dampen our spirits or drown our tallents!

For those effected by dementia it was an opportunity to go somewhere safe and relaxed with familiar faces. Thank you LCC for making us so very welcome!

Being the Founder of The Red Shed has been challenging and a joy. I have simply made the ideas in my head into a reality with lots of help and support from family, friends, colleagues and organisations. Hard work – yes. Sometimes scary – yes! But fundamentally a lot of fun, and with all the good feelings that come from achievement and purpose.

However, The Red Shed now very much exists with all the responsibilities and accountability that comes with a small organisation. Looking forward and with plans to grow it is the perfect time to get some training and insight on being a CEO and leading an effective business.

I am really pleased to have been accepted on the Hertfordshire Community Foundation’s Business Effectiveness course. It’s fully funded and includes the opportunity to work with a Mentor. I’m very much looking forward to it all and where it will take The Red Shed next.

We are so excited to add a carers café to the services at The Red Shed.

We have teamed up with Al’s Café who were originally based in the older peoples department at the local hospital. When older peoples services were relocated to another hospital, Al’s Cafe found a room at the local fire station. Then, when COVID hit, they became homeless.

The Red Shed Project has always planned to open a café on site and this is the perfect opportunity to provide a place for support, information and a little respite to those who care for people with dementia. We are using the church hall adjacent to our garden but look forward to the summer months where carers can enjoy cake and a cuppa in the sunshine on our patio.

We plan to invite other organisations to come along and provide details of their services so in addition to alleviating feelings of isolation we can ensure carers are well informed and have a tool kit to help them cope.

We asked Julie and her Dad to give us some feedback on their experience of coming along to The Red Shed Project and this is what they said……

The Red Shed from my perspective and also from my dad, Roger, is that it’s a sanctuary.

The Red Shed is somewhere we both know we can go to have some ‘time out’ in a safe, happy, friendly environment.  It gives dad time to be useful, do something positive and use up some of his negative energy.  Somewhere to feel like you are making a real contribution with the benefit of talking to other like minded people.  If you enjoy being outside, any amount of gardening, being a little bit physical then this safe haven will help nurture and nourish you and make you smile when you feel only tears and frustration.

From my point of view, I can let off steam, talk, find out really useful information, just lose myself and then share my experiences in a safe environment if I want to.  It actually saves my sanity and restores calm to my turmoil.  To say we love it is an understatement. Su and her volunteers are truly angels and the other members are amazing and lovely to be with.  We actually need more places like The Red Shed so all those people who need help can gain so much from all the health and mental health benefits this activity offers.

Diversity is a word we hear a lot about these days and at The Red Shed it’s something we take very seriously. It’s the understanding that each individual is unique, and recognising their individual differences. These differences can be around things like ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

Of course it’s easy to tick boxes, ✔ yes we have participants from different ethnic backgrounds, ✔ yes we roughly have a 50:50 split between men and women, ✔ yes we have same sex couples attending our groups – and we can add…..those with learning difficulties, physical disabilities and different age groups to the diversity of folk at The Red Shed.

We have an Equality and Diversity Policy in place so all in all we probably look pretty good on paper when it comes to this issue.

However – is that really enough?

While we have been looking into the subject of diversity and dementia we have spoken to lots of different organisations and found that there is a lot of research going on – which is excellent news. The Red Shed Project has offered itself as a resource to the University of Essex, so maybe we will be a part of some more serious stuff.

In the meantime, we have learned a lot about the importance of language and will be using this to try and ensure that our leaflets, social media, web page ….. and blogs….are inclusive and don’t make assumptions about people. For example, we often talk about memory triggers in the garden and in the years we have worked with people living with dementia we have heard

• how coriander is a reminder of selling herbs on the streets of Recife in Brazil,
• growing squashes bought back memories of working in fields of squash or ‘kaddu’ as a child in India
• collecting rose petals to make perfume for mum.

All very different and diverse memories and each one allowing the participant to enjoy a moment of reminiscence.

Our service is based on the principles of Horticultural Therapy and this includes ensuring that any activity is adapted to the individuals in the groups, so that they are able to engage to their full potential. This is basically going back to the beginning of this blog and understanding that each individual is unique, and recognising their individual differences.

As long as we keep that in the forefront of everything we do, diversity at The Red Shed Project will simply be everyday life……..

As The Red Shed Project grows in numbers we have needed to extend our garden space to accommodate the accommodate the increase in participants and be ready for more. We have increased the number of regular workshops, so it’s great to have more garden for the groups to maintain. With thanks do our regular donors through Local Giving, Stevenage Borough Council’s HPB Community Development funding and the National Lottery Community Fund

…..What’s the benefit??

With all the time, hard work and funds that go into the daily operation of The Red Shed Project, it is really important to be sure that the what we do is effective and achieves our mission to ‘alleviate isolation and promote wellbeing in people touched by dementia’

We can measure the impact our service by recording various numbers – a quantitative measurement that currently shows a steady increase in participants. We also need to take a qualitative measurement which is normally done through interview, observation and questionnaires. Both measurements are necessary to: – highlight the benefits our participants experience from their time with us. – show funders exactly how their grants and donations are making a difference. – to helps us review what we are doing, to ensure that our work is making a difference.

There are lots of different Impact Measuring tools available, from forms and templates of questions to choosing from a range of faces – 🙂smiley to 🙁glum! However, none of these are very dementia friendly. We needed a way of recording responses that was easy for everyone to engage with, even if your dementia affects your ability to read or your ability to express your feelings or even your capacity for facial recognition.

We have devised a way of using the 5 Ways to Wellbeing as part of the design of our workshops. The 5 Ways have been researched by The New Economics Foundation and is used by lots of organisations including the NHS. The 5 steps are Being Active, Connecting with others, Noticing your surroundings, Giving your time or small acts of kindness and learning. Now, after each session we can record if a participant has experienced any of the 5 Ways and we can do this by observing them if they are unable to articulate themselves.

A coloured disc can be chosen for each of the 5 Ways and we can then record the results in a pie chart to see how effective the workshops are. The chart below shows that our ‘Lets Get Going’ workshops were particularly effective in getting people connected and learning something new.

So far this has been really useful and a great way to underpin our work. If any other organisations working with people who have dementia would like to give it a go – they are very welcome!