Funding Update Summer 2024

We are delighted to receive recent grants from –

The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund awarded KiB £150,000 over three years to help us:

• build our Teaching Programme in Warwickshire and West Midlands
• consolidate our intergenerational work in the region, including training courses and volunteering projects for young people aged 15-25
• and expand our popular primary schools project ‘When Great Granny Came to Stay’.

The funding enables a real step change for KiB over the next three years and will help us reach thousands more isolated older people to reduce loneliness and bring the generations closer together.

The Garfield Weston Foundation: £25,000 towards our intergenerational training and volunteering programmes.

The Wesleyan Foundation: £9,000 towards developing our ‘Great Granny’ workshops and KiB Clubs in new areas.

The Coventry Building Society: £1,900 to support our ‘Great Granny’ workshops and KiB Clubs for primary schools in Coventry.

WPH Charitable Trust: £5000 towards our intergenerational work in Warwickshire and West Midlands

Shanly Foundation: £2000 towards our monthly Bishops Stortford ‘What’s On’ community calendar

A big shout out to students at Aylesford School who have raised an incredible £1200 for KiB, and King Edward VI High School for Girls Birmingham students for their recent fundraiser. Warm thanks also to regular supporters Warwick School and King’s High School, for their continued support.

Thank you Priors House Care Home (Care UK) in Leamington for their kind donation of £500.

And a huge thanks to all our long-term supporters, including Pargiter Trust and The Rank Foundation, and our private donors – every gift means so much to us.

Students played music (Beatles songs went down a storm!) and shared stories with patients and their families. They all said the experience opened their eyes to what life was really like on a hospital ward, especially for older people.

They spent valuable time with Dr Omar Khalil, (who volunteered with KiB when he was at school) and Emma Jones, Dementia Nurse Consultant.

Sixth former Emma said: “Thank you for giving me a place on the work experience. The time spent with patients and talking to the staff was invaluable, and highlighted the importance of communication, empathy, patience and being open-minded.”

Another student added: “Speaking to the dementia nurse consultants changed my perspective on the way people with dementia behave.”

Jashany and Sophie, KiB Ambassadors

Dr Omar Khalil and the group

Children from Camp Hill Primary in Nuneaton get excited about our Great Granny workshop.

KiB CEO Jill Fraser says: ‘The more that can be done to encourage young and old to share stories, the greater the chances of both age groups feeling more valued, better connected, kinder and more informed citizens in the future.’

Once children have taken part in the  workshops, they are supported to visit local care homes. Here, Kathleen, 96, is trying on her new Easter Bonnet, made by children from Gledhow Primary School in Leeds, who visit regularly to share stories, music and arts and crafts sessions.

‘Our oldest relatives and family friends are a fantastic source of wonderful stories about life in the past,’ says Jill Fraser. ‘Add to that their own special memories of key national and international moments and the wisdom they gained through living through those times, they not only have the ability to inform and entertain a much younger generation, they can also gain much satisfaction from sharing their often rich and sometimes unique sources of knowledge before they are lost forever.

‘With funding from local councils and other funders, membership of KiB clubs is free to schools and includes the workshop and access to online activity packs to help children engage with their own older relatives and, whenever possible, their local care home/day centre. We also offer packages to a range of out-of-school clubs.’

Contact Jill on 07831 136152 to get involved.

We offer a rich range of ways to volunteer:
-Supervised zooms into care homes, hospitals or the homes of people living on their own
-Training in a variety of different activities that you can use towards your volunteering hours
-Masterclasses, with guest speakers, for those interest in a career in healthcare and other careers linked to communication
-Direct connections to care homes, where you can make and create items that will be sent to the residents
…and so much more!

All our virtual volunteering sessions are designed to broaden your understanding of the many challenges of old age. We hope this will help you support and connect with older people in your community. And we know it will benefit you, especially if you’re keen to pursue a career in healthcare.

SIGN UP TO JOIN OUR PROGRAMME HERE: https://kissingitbetter.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=74c9d199e9b5f95cf6c6032fa&id=cff411ce4c

Once you sign up, you will be added to our mailing list and sent an email with what to expect next. Later that week, you will then be sent our weekly newsletter, with all the latest details and sessions we are running.  If you are not receiving our newsletter with the weekly timetable (many email systems reject all or part of them), please contact [email protected], and she will send it to you separately.

ASSESSORS: We ask your assessors within school to sign off on your volunteering experience. However, if this is not possible, contact [email protected].

ACTIVITY LOGS: You can find our activity log here: Kissing-it-Better-Volunteering-Activity-Log  If you are interested in medicine, we also recommend you use this log to take note of the medical related skills you have gained from this experience. Here’s the link: Evidence-of-Medical-related-Skills-Gained-Through-Volunteering-1-2

PHONE GUIDELINES: For guidelines for phoning an older person, click: Guidelines for phoning an older person revised 10th Feb 2022

OTHER FAQs: If you have any questions about the Kissing it Better Programme, please check our FAQs Volunteering from Home or get in touch with [email protected]

Our latest drama production, A Cut Above the Rest by Claire Demmer, was funded by the University of York. Four drama students helped our players tackle a tricky knockabout farce about a diamond heist. The university is now running a research study into the benefits of Zoom drama for older people.

Unlike regular drama groups, ours is completely inclusive: we never come off script, so you don’t need to learn lines; and it’s all done sitting-down, which is great for older people with mobility challenges. Most of all, it’s a lot of fun.

You can watch a clip here

Or if you’d like to see the whole play, click here

Our next Zoom production will also be sponsored by the University of York. It’s a 40s film-noir-style production called Who Killed Santa. If you know an older person who might like to get involved, please contact [email protected].

We offer a rich range of ways to volunteer:
-Supervised zooms into care homes, hospitals or the homes of people living on their own
-Training in a variety of different activities that you can use towards your volunteering hours
-Masterclasses, with guest speakers, for those interest in a career in healthcare and other careers linked to communication
-Direct connections to care homes, where you can make and create items that will be sent to the residents
…and so much more!

All our virtual volunteering sessions are designed to broaden your understanding of the many challenges of old age. We hope this will help you support and connect with older people in your community. And we know it will benefit you, especially if you’re keen to pursue a career in healthcare.

SIGN UP TO JOIN OUR PROGRAMME HERE: https://kissingitbetter.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=74c9d199e9b5f95cf6c6032fa&id=cff411ce4c

Once you sign up, you will be added to our mailing list and sent an email with what to expect next. Later that week, you will then be sent our weekly newsletter, with all the latest details and sessions we are running.  If you are not receiving our newsletter with the weekly timetable (many email systems reject all or part of them), please contact [email protected], and she will send it to you separately.

ASSESSORS: We ask your assessors within school to sign off on your volunteering experience. However, if this is not possible, contact [email protected].

ACTIVITY LOGS: You can find our activity log here: Kissing-it-Better-Volunteering-Activity-Log  If you are interested in medicine, we also recommend you use this log to take note of the medical related skills you have gained from this experience. Here’s the link: Evidence-of-Medical-related-Skills-Gained-Through-Volunteering-1-2

PHONE GUIDELINES: For guidelines for phoning an older person, click: Guidelines for phoning an older person revised 10th Feb 2022

OTHER FAQs: If you have any questions about the Kissing it Better Programme, please check our FAQs Volunteering from Home or get in touch with [email protected]

Before Christmas, we launched a children’s art project to help Warwick Hospital patients feel connected to the outside world during their stay. As the pictures were set to decorate Castle Ward, the challenge was to create a piece of artwork on the theme of ‘castles’.

“There’s growing evidence that having access to inspirational art can support the mental and physical wellbeing of older patients,” says Caty Oates, KiB Project Director in Warwickshire. “And it’s lovely for patients to know that children in their community are thinking about them and want to do something to help.”

Hundreds of children entered. When Warwick Castle heard about the idea, they stepped in and offered free tickets to the winners. One lucky winner’s picture will be turned into a notelet to be sold at the castle; all proceeds to go to KiB.

Left: a  Knight at Warwick castle is holding artwork by Matilda Long, North Leamington School

Below: Puroshini Pather and Carla Lea with pictures from Oscar and Maisie Hotten from Aylesford School

In January, Judi Dench sent us a video to share with you all, featuring her pet parrot Sweetie (that’s Dame Judi Dench – we were so excited!).

Dame Judi was inspired to share the clip by a BBC News story about our intergenerational zoom sessions, where children showed off their pets…

In 2021, we gave more than 3,000 young people the chance to volunteer virtually and make a difference to isolated older people who live alone, or in care. June, one of the older people we work with, told us what these Zoom connections have meant to her since she moved to her new care home…

We asked our young volunteers how they had benefited, and a whopping 91% said that Kissing it Better Zooms had positively changed their attitudes towards older people; 86% of volunteers surveyed said KiB Zooms had a positive impact on their mood and sense of self-value, and helped them to feel like part of a community.

We also connected with students in education: we taught our KiB Enrichment and Volunteering Programme in schools across the country during term time, and we even ran our first KiB Virtual Summer School. Here’s what Elena said about her experience…

So here’s to 2022. Let’s make it a fantastic one!

During the pandemic, we had to find new ways of bringing the generations together safely. So we created a unique mix of virtual and real-life projects to bring compassion and companionship to isolated older people – and give students the chance to make a real difference. Here’s a short film about how we did it…

The Lottery-funded project is a unique mix of interactive Zoom drama workshops and music sessions that older people can enjoy in their own homes – plus real-life socially distanced outdoor performances. All our session are led by brilliant young local musicians, dramatists and singers.

One of the highlights of the scheme is the Huddersfield Hopefuls Digital Drama Group: We’re working on a comedy script called The Retirement of the Witches of Ipswich, about some very naughty witches. It’s like Harry Potter, but in a care home.

We also offer weekly Pop Choirs – we learn a new vintage pop song every week, then belt it out together. Zoom lag means we have to mute our mics, so this choir is great for people who can’t sing! You can watch a clip of one of our pop choirs here:  Zoom also makes us look out of sync (honest…)

As well as combating social isolation and loneliness, our  creative project is helping older people in Yorkshire to:

• learn new creative skills
• stretch their knowledge
• make new friends
• bond with old friends through new activities
• enjoy the wellbeing benefits of doing something creative and ‘a bit different’
• build confidence with digital skills
• feel connected to a community

For more information, contact Susan Walls [email protected]