Performing arts students from Leicester College are taking part in a national, intergenerational project where they will work with people from the older community to create dementia friendly workshops and performances.

The ‘Innovating Knowledge Exchange: Student Involvement in Delivering Better Patient Experience in the NHS’ project is jointly funded by Research England and the Office for Students. It is a collaborative project between multiple care and healthcare partnerships and The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

This intergenerational project is about engaging the older community in fun interactive workshops that are dementia friendly. This means that they are multi-sensory, allowing the participants to become immersed in interactive activities and stories, and share little anecdotes of their lives with the learners. The learners will then take the idea of the workshop and expand that into a performance that is dementia friendly using some of the anecdotes from the older community within their pieces.

A video of the project can be viewed here.

Robin Winterton, Programme Lead Level 2 Performing Arts at Leicester College said: “We are privileged and honoured to be working with The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, especially in bringing communities together on this intergenerational project. We are excited that our students will get the opportunity to learn skills of developing and delivering a workshop to an older member of the community in London.”

Kirsty Munro, Work Experience Coordinator, Performing Arts and Music, Leicester College commented: “We are really proud of the maturity, creativity and teamwork our students have shown so far. We are pleased and excited to welcome guests to the sharing event of this project, where we hope we can develop links with the vibrant Leicester community.”

Dr Nicola Abraham, Senior Lecturer, Applied Theatre Practices, and Rachel Hudspith, Clinical Field Worker, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama added: “It has been a pleasure working with such talented young people who have been absolutely dedicated to the development of dementia-friendly practice. Their care, compassion, and commitment to the project has been outstanding. The participants they engaged with thoroughly enjoyed the experience, artistry and autonomy afforded to them in the workshops they took part in. We are very excited to see the performances.”

Leicester College offers a wide range of performing arts courses including acting, dance, musical theatre and musical performance. Further details on Leicester College’s performing arts courses can be found here.