Wellbeing and Older People
Projects that aim to improve older people’s wellbeing through interaction with heritage.
Worcester Life Stories
'Worcester Life Stories' is a developing, collaborative project between Worcester City Historic Environment Record and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust’s Older Adult Inpatient Services working together with a number of partners, funded by Historic England and the NLHF.
The project launched in June 2020 and it has been awarded £79,400 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a number of initiatives, including development of 'Know Your Place Worcester'- an online historic map and photograph resource, giving people access to material from Worcester City Council’s Historic Environment Record never seen before, as well as being able to share their own stories and images of the city.
The project will also see development of the 'Worcester Life Stories' platform hosted by the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, where people will be able to produce a free Life Story booklet of memories from their own lives, for reminiscence, general interest and especially for those living with dementia, as a link to the past with therapeutic benefits.
The aims of the research project are to:
- Gain a better and more practical understanding of how heritage contributes to wellbeing, sense of place and identity, using the Worcester Life Stories
- Understand the most effective ways to link heritage with dementia and community mental health outcomes
- Gain a better understanding of how heritage is meaningful to people in their everyday surroundings and why they engage with or feel excluded from their heritage
