Residents at HC-One’s Ferndale Court care home, in Widnes, Cheshire, have been part of a local campaign to facilitate intergenerational relationships with schoolchildren in the local community.
Following the highly successful initiative, they were invited to attend a celebration event, and resident Betty Evans made a tremendous speech about how much it has positively impacted the care home. As part of the ‘Halt on Loneliness’ campaign, the Health Improvement Team in Halton, Cheshire, started a project to help facilitate intergenerational engagement.
Eager to get involved, Ferndale Court care home were matched with the children of St Michael’s Primary School. The project involved 10 children from Year 5 visiting Ferndale Court on a Friday afternoon to complete different activities with the residents, to learn new things, communicate with new people and improve social skills.
Both the children and the residents of Ferndale Court really enjoyed these visits, and residents would often ask when they could next look forward to a visit from the schoolchildren. Residents who live at Ferndale Court had wonderful comments:
Margaret Reardon, resident at Ferndale Court, said:
“It made me feel happy to see how bright some of the children are, I’ve always said you can learn a lot from children and animals!”
Betty Evans, resident at Ferndale Court, added:
“I loved the kids coming, it made me feel happy. They were all lovely!”
In celebration of the project, Ferndale Court were invited to attend a presentation at the DCBL stadium in Widnes, where local schools joined together to celebrate wellbeing initiatives and share ideas. Ferndale Court residents Betty Evans, Margaret Reardon and Charlie Hall attended the presentation, and Betty was invited to make a short speech about her connection with the children of St Michael’s primary.
Betty spoke movingly of how much she enjoyed her time with them and couldn’t hold back the tears as she shared about how one of the students, Alfie, had approached on their final visit to give her a big hug and say, “I love you Betty”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Rachael Pettitt, Wellbeing Coordinator at Ferndale Court, commented:
“The initiative has had such a huge positive impact on everyone at Ferndale Court. Together residents and children played games, had sing-a-longs, shared meaningful conversations about their lives and their history and formed fast friendships. The project was most definitely a success!”
The project was initially for a school term, but with it being so successful and helping both children and residents, St Michael’s and Ferndale want to keep this going each year, with different projects being planned over the summer term. The residents of Ferndale Court very much look forward to more visits in the future!
