Push to make Halesowen dementia-friendly is backed by musicians
Two musicians in the Black Country are helping to promote a charity's project to turn Halesowen into a dementia-friendly town.
Leaps and Bounds had originally planned to run a series of events around the condition to demonstrate the "real impact" of it.
But the project – designed to help people express themselves creatively – was put on hold in March this year due to coronavirus.
Now it has been restarted with a focus on producing a booklet and a short film to help showcase the message amid the pandemic.
Keith Horsfall, CEO of Leaps and Bounds, said Billy Spakemon and Tom Stanton have been involved in the project since the start.
He said: "The initial push was toward Halesowen becoming a dementia-friendly town and Vicky Rogers – from the town's Business Improvement District – had the idea of doing a dementia choir.
"We expanded that idea to include a series of dementia events – dance, spoken word, singing – and a lot of events in Halesowen town centre.
"We were about to start in March but then it ground to a halt because of coronavirus. But now we've got a filmmaker and we're doing a video.
"Getting people living with dementia is difficult [due to restrictions] so we're leaning toward relatives and carers of those affected now."
Mr Horsfall added they were now looking to produce a 60 page booklet which will include poetry and people's inspirational stories.
