Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation have launched a new website https://singing.luminatescotland.org/ – and there are a couple of things that they are particularly keen to spread the word about.
1. There will soon be an online search tool and map to enable people to find a dementia inclusive singing group or choir near them (it’s not visible on the site yet as we want to get a few groups on it before we make it live). All the groups that sign up to join the network will appear on this map, and we’re really keen to encourage as many singing groups as possible to put themselves on there. Would you be able to encourage any of your network who run dementia inclusive choirs or singing groups to sign them up? You’ll see that there’s a short self-evaluation process to go through first – we worked with some singing leaders and also consulted people living with dementia, to identify 8 principles that any dementia inclusive group will need to be aligned with to some degree in order to sign up, and we hope that people find this a useful tool for reflection. The link to join the network is https://singing.luminatescotland.org/join-the-network/.
2. The other thing we’re really keen to promote is that we’re inviting applications for the first round (of two initial rounds) of grants to support dementia inclusive singing activities – see https://singing.luminatescotland.org/grants/. We want this pot to support the creation of new choirs and singing groups, as well as the development of existing ones.