ABOUT LIVING WORDS
Living Words is an arts and literature organisation, created by Susanna Howard in 2007.
We conduct residencies in care and nursing homes, community settings, arts centres, day centres, libraries, theatres and hospitals. Our writers and artists work one-to-one in creative partnership with people experiencing a dementia, as well as other isolated, and disempowered people. We run workshops to support creative expression, embedding the use of our Living Words books.
Living Words acts to enable participants in communicating their experience, and being heard by others in the moment. At the end of Living Words projects, participants have assembled a book of their own "Living Words" as an expression of their feelings about life. The main part of our work is care home residencies, taking place over 8 to 15 weeks.
Our original exploratory process at St.Thomas’ Hospital has been honed over time, becoming our "Listen Out Loud" methodology; a person-centred approach and programme we are taking throughout the UK and beyond.
As we all continue to live alongside this pandemic, Living Words will be offering courses for professional care home staff to learn and implement our ‘Listen Out Loud’ methodology.
Beginning in May 2022, the courses will be six weeks long, with attendees committing to one weekly group session, with homework between groups. From June, the courses will be CPD accredited.
An article about the courses, including findings from our Culture Cubed evaluation, has now been published in the January 2022 of the Journal of Dementia Care
If this is of interest to you, or you know someone who would benefit from taking part, email us at info@livingwords.org.uk to start the conversation. We’re all ears.
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Our nationwide project is out in the world as a book!
Bringing The Inside Out
Bringing The Inside Out worked with carers, residents, and relatives to pilot working remotely with carers/activity coordinators, and for them to trial our way of working one to one with residents with a dementia.
You can purchase the book Bringing The Inside Out – the words of people with a dementia, professional care staff, and relatives, about the impact of the pandemic on them all.
We are so grateful to our funders – Arts Council England, Kent Community Foundation, FHCLCT, Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Coronavirus Community Support Fund, and The National Lottery for this.
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For more information on our courses for professional carers in 2022, click here to send us an email.
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Watch & find out more about the Living Warriors films & Living Warriors: Covid Project HERE.
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For more information on the Bringing the Inside Out care home project, click here to send us an email.
FACTS & FIGURES
Places our work has appeared, includes:
Local
BBC Radio Kent
Folkestone Libraries
Folkestone Living Advent Calendar
Folkestone Fringe events
KCC, County Hall Maidstone
Normal? Festival of the Brain
Quarterhouse Folkestone
National
Alzheimer’s Society
BBC Ideas
BBC Radio 3
British Library
Central School of Speech and Drama
Central St. Martins
Cockpit Theatre
Free Word Centre
Gallery @OXO South Bank
Middlesex University - Improbable’s 'Global Improvisation Initiative'
National Youth Choirs of Great Britain
NHS AGMs
Norwich Theatre
Nottingham University
Queen Elizabeth Hall (South Bank Centre)
Royal Academy of Music
Royal Society of Public Health conference
Salford University
Stratford Literary Festival
Tabernacle London
Toynbee
UK Dementia Congress
Wellcome Collection
Westminster Council House
International
British Council, Taiwan
National Theatre of Taiwan (NTCH)
AIN at Alan Alda’s Centre for Communicating Science, New York
Our partners and funders have included:
Local
Alzheimer's Society Ashford, Creative Folkestone, Folkestone Fringe, Folkestone Libraries, Folkestone Town Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Hythe Dementia Awareness Forum, Kent County Council, Kent Community Foundation, KMPT NHS, Medway Council, Martello Fund, Profound Sound Festival, Walker Construction
National
Arts Council, Arts 4 Dementia, Created Out of Mind - UCL Dementia Research Centre/Wellcome, Danuta Lipinska, English PEN, FHCLCT, Mandy Barnet Associates, Resonate Arts, The Sick of The Fringe (now Something To Aim For), Wellcome, Westminster Memory Service
International
British Council, East Side Institute, New York
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365+ Living Words Books
People who work one-to-one with one of our Living Words writers will co-create and receive a copy of their own Living Words book. Staff and family also receive a copy, and we are able to share the book with family and friends, as a pdf. Plus we have so far published 2 anthologies - 'The Things Between Us', and 'Living Warriors'.
34+ Productions, Films, Podcasts...
Helping our participants’ words reach a wider audience, we take their words and place them centre stage in our productions in theatre, performance, film, radio, installation and through our upcoming podcast venture. Check out our most recent set of films - Living Warriors.
250+ Live Events
Co-creating ‘Normal? Festival of the Brain’, we’re proud to work alongside Creative Folkestone and Folkestone Fringe to bring this festival to Kent. Watch this space for more info about the new 2020/21 programme.
What Else?
In 2018 we formed a partnership with East Kent arts organisations Ideas Test, Folkestone Fringe, Future Foundry and Moving Memory. Their work is also focussed on social impact and so, led by Mandy Barnet Associates, we explored the best way for us all to evaluate our own work, in a way that also speaks to commissioners. Initially funded by KCC, this work became Culture Cubed evaluation guidelines. We look forward to sharing this way of working with organisations across the UK. #IsYourCultureCubed?
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About us
Arts and literature charity working with people experiencing dementia and isolated people.
Call us: +44 (0)7967 502 506
Call us: +44 (0)7967 502 506
Email: info@livingwords.org.uk
Email: info@livingwords.org.uk
