Independent Arts has been selected from charities across the South East as the regional winner of the Lloyds Bank Foundation Outstanding Impact Award after they impressed the judges for they way in which they have transformed the lives of isolated older people and those with Dementia on the Isle of Wight.
The charity has received £1000 and will now compete against charities from across England and Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for six overall prizes which will be announced at the UK Final awards ceremony on 8th October 2015.
The Charity Achievement Awards have been created to recognise the amazing, life changing work of small and medium sized charities. Independent Arts won the Outstanding Impact Award in the South East.
Established in 1987, Independent Arts is a registered charity dedicated to improve the quality of life for people living on the Isle of Wight, particularly those with special needs, the disadvantaged and the elderly, by providing access to exciting and stimulating creative activities.
Through their arts projects, this very small team reaches out to a huge number of older people, running activity groups for as many as 1600 people per month. One of the most popular initiatives is the 200 strong weekly singing group, SingAbout, for dementia sufferers and their carers, which allows those with impaired memory to connect with people around them through the medium of music.
The daughter of one of the participants praised the service by saying:
“Mum has vascular dementia and had become depressed and lacked motivation to leave the house but since attending SingAbout she is a new person, she talks about SingAbout all the time”.
The charity also uses innovative techniques based on international research into dementia to inform a wide range of projects and approaches.
Guy Eades, Director of associate organisation, Healing Arts said of their work:
“They are proof of the contribution the arts can make to transforming their [the older people’s] quality of life – through singing, making/ playing music, painting and engaging with digital technology such as iPads”.
Kate Ball, Chief Executive of Independent Arts said of the award:
“Winning the Outstanding Impact Award is a fantastic acknowledgement of the work delivered by the team at Independent Arts. We are delighted to have been recognised in the South East region, and this will drive us on to deliver high quality community arts projects going forward.”
Chief Executive of the Foundation, Paul Streets OBE, said of the awards:
“We are delighted to celebrate the winners of our Charity Achievement Awards. Independent Arts has demonstrated excellent and inspiring practice, and have set the standard high; not just surviving in these tough times, but thriving, delivering vital services and literally transforming lives.
“For over 30 years the Foundation has supported thousands of such small and medium sized charities to tackle disadvantage in communities right across the South East and we look forward to doing much more in the years to come”.
For more information about Independent Arts visit our website www.independentarts.org.uk
