Innovations in Dementia is a Community Interest Company (CIC).
Our work supports people with dementia to keep control of their lives and be happy. We do this by running innovative projects, by providing a training and consultancy service and by influencing how others work with people with dementia.
People with dementia are at the heart and start of all our work.
Specific projects for care settings
From October 2020, we will be working with our partner NAPA on a new project which will bring Craftivism into care homes. Dementia Craftivists are people who are living with dementia who are using their creations to make supportive and enjoyable links across communities. Our project is all about the pride in creating something yourself from scratch (whether it’s knitting, painting, song or play-writing, poetry, woodwork, or much more)… while sending, if you so choose, your own message to others.
In sharing the things we are producing with the wider world, we are demonstrating the talents, skills and resilience of people with dementia. Our overarching message is ‘We Can!’
Some of the Craftivists are helping others to learn new skills, through kits, demonstrations or tutorials. This too is sending out that message of ‘You Can Too’ loud and clear. We want to mobilise as many people as possible to get involved.
Some of the things we are making have our own messages on them too. In this way, the project can be seen as a very democratic process of ‘gentle protest’. Some of us are leaving them to be found by anyone… on a bench or on a beach. We will have labels with the Craftivists logo. These explain that this creation has been made by a person with dementia.