By Alice Jones

“The Amity Project” was a concept designed to combat loneliness within old people’s homes across the UK. This was produced by myself and 6 other BA students from various courses within the Nottingham School of Art and Design including photography, graphics and illustration. 

The Idea: 

The Amity Project is a concept in which care homes will sign up and receive ‘pen pal’ boxes for each resident. Each box will contain items to be able to write, paint, draw etc, to their penpal so that whatever their ability they can take part. As well as this, it will include small activities each month to keep it fun and engaging. This is to help connect the elderly community, combating loneliness as well as improving the mental and physical health of residents.

How would it work?
 

• The Amity Project would be in partnership with the charity Age Uk 

• Care homes will sign up to the programme for all of their residents and verify them for safety

• There will be an initial welcome pack delivery including all of the essentials for the programme, including a ‘get to know you’ sheet to match the residents with similar participants

• Residents are paired with people from other care homes or other people in the programme depending on their preferences

• There will be a delivery exchange every 2 weeks between participants

The project was designed to prevent cognitive decline in dementia patients. The idea was that this would really help residents who do not have any close friends and family keep engaged.