New home secures future for community dementia hub

17 Oct 2024

Memories Are Golden Community Hub was facing possible closure due to their previous accommodation being sold.
 
It was weeks away from having to close its doors because it couldn’t find a suitable long-term base in Haverhill, when a positive conversation with Abbeycroft’s Operations Manager Tracey Loynds, led to the group now being located at Haverhill Leisure Centre, which Abbeycroft run on behalf of West Suffolk Council.
 
Memories are Golden specialises in offering day care services to individuals living with dementia and suffering from heart conditions, diabetes, and other long-term physical challenges and they also support people in their journey towards combating loneliness and isolation. 
 
They provide delicious hot, nutritious meals and a range of person-centred, meaningful activities, in which everyone is encouraged to actively participate. These include singing, arts and crafts and physical activities.
 
As the Community Hub is run by trained care workers, the individual’s carers or family members do not need to be in attendance, so this offers some respite for them also.
 
The Hub is led by Kelly Kennedy-Smith who was instrumental in its opening in 2019 and she has been the one tirelessly looking for a new home for the much needed services they offer. Kelly said: 
“I am so pleased that we have finally found a safe place for our community hub. It’s been a very turbulent time for the past two and a half years and I would like to thank Abbeycroft, West Suffolk Council, Suffolk County Council and Haverhill Town Council for their help which has allowed us to stay open. We have settled in very well and our attendees love it! I would also like to thank Unity Schools Partnership for all their help over the past six years because without them there would be no hub for our community. Thank you from us all.
 
Tracey Loynds from Abbeycroft said: 
“We are so glad to be able to provide the space for Kelly and her team to continue with the amazing service they offer vulnerable people in Haverhill”. There is a lot of synergy between our organisations and we’re happy that they are settling in well.”
 
The invaluable work of the charity has previously been supported through West Suffolk Council’s Community Chest scheme, now the Thriving Communities Fund. 

Cllr Donna Higgins, West Suffolk’s Cabinet Member for Families and Communities said: “I am delighted that together with Abbeycroft we have been able to help find Memories are Golden a new home from which it can continue its amazing work which benefits and supports the local community.”

The charity has also been supported with close to £500 from West Suffolk Cllr Andrew Martin from his locality budget which will be used to support its day care activities while funding has also been given from Suffolk County Councillors Joe Mason, David Roach and Heike Sowa.

Cllr Martin who represents Haverhill West, said: “This charity provides invaluable support to the community – not just to the people that attend its day care services, but the husbands and wives, sons and daughters and other carers that it provides respite to. Through their services and activities, they are helping support people and make them feel less isolated and lonely, and so I was delighted to be able to support them with funding from my locality budget. The relocation to Haverhill Leisure Centre gives this charity a solid permanent foundation to continue providing an excellent community service, which I am extremely grateful for.”

Cllr Mason said: "Over the last few years I have been keen to offer whatever support I could to Memories are Golden. It has been immensely difficult for the group to find a new home so I am delighted with this solution. The Leisure Centre seems like a perfect fit and when I visited recently, it was clear how happy and very much at home everybody was. This move, with improved provision and accessibility to facilities will provide the stability that this wonderful charity needs and deserves. I have worked closely with Kelly and I am thrilled her search for a new home is over.”
 
Eileen from Haverhill, aged 94, attends the day care service three days a week and commented:
“Everyone is so friendly and we all get on so well here, it’s lovely. I live alone and there are a lot of lonely people about so it’s important for these types of organisations to exist”.
“I’ve made friends with several of the other ladies and we now do lots of things together outside of this group as well”.
“I can’t say how lovely this new venue is, it’s absolutely perfect and we all had faith that Kelly would find us somewhere new because she’s amazing”.
 
Find out more at the Memories Are Golden website.

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