Recently Cllr Mary Rudd was invited to spend some time with our Chief Executive Julie Stokes to find out about the work of ActivLives, here’s what she had to say about her experience:
“I was invited by Julie Stokes to spend some time with her to see the work of ActivLives.
We visited their gardens to start with, the staff were very friendly and I could see what benefits this would bring to people as I know that this sort of activity is very good for mental health etc.
We then visited a centre for older people and as with my other visit the difference it made to these people was very noticeable. In the morning there were seated / standing exercises, everyone joined in with every thing asked of them. When I spoke to them they all agreed it was really great for them to see other people and have a chat as lockdown had left several of them very lonely.
Many of them stayed for lunch, some left and others arrived for an afternoon session which was singing. It was quite unbelievable how they all seem to come to life when they were singing, fortunately for them I had to leave before I could be asked to join in as apparently I cannot sing in tune!
Sometimes it is quite small things which make a huge difference.”