Goldies should be on prescription

29/11/2011

“When I started telling people in Wales about Goldies they thought I was an upstart from across the Bridge that wanted to start a new choir.
 
“It took a while for the penny to drop but after our first fun singing session on a Cardiff housing estate attracted over 150 people who sang their hearts out to the hits of the 50s and 60s and got up to do the twist, people realised that Goldies is about encouraging isolated folk to get out and have fun.
 
“Singing is the catalyst for making friends and beating loneliness.”
 
Grenville Jones from Bath is the founder of the Golden Oldies Charity. Four years ago he started by taking his first three fun singing sessions himself in Bath in sheltered housing community rooms.
 
He is a choir leader with 8 choirs under his belt, including the Bath Male Choir that reached the finals of the BBC’s Last Choir Standing. Another of his music projects is the Good Afternoon Choirs. People coming together in the afternoons to sing. The idea came for a conversation with Ralph Allwood who told Grenville about retirement choirs in Estonia. These now take place  in Bath and Devizes with a 100 singers in each. The next starting in Weston super Mare in January. 
 
Grenville is the only UK member of a EU consortium that is looking at how new communications technology can deliver music and exercise to those living  in isolation. The project is led by the influential Fraunhofer Institute and the Austrian Technology Board.
 
Goldies weekly get together numbers have now reached over 50 across the West of England taken by 22 paid freelance session leaders. Goldies, as it has fondly become known, is making a huge difference to hundreds of lives. This week, it launches new sessions across Wiltshire and also takes its first step into new territory with four Cardiff-based sessions under the Goldies Cymru banner.
 
Sir Cliff Richard is the charity patron and actively supports its work.
 
Goldies IS good for you. This has been proven in an independent research study by the university of Bath. In her conclusion to the study, Dr Barbra Teater called the Goldies effect “quite remarkable.”
 
People of all ages now attend the sessions. For many, it is their only outing of the week. Goldies attracts many with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Many people with learning difficulties also attend with their carers.
 
Goldies sessions encourage stretching and movement. An exercise song will be introduced in 2012 in conjunction with Dr Afroditi Stathi, a specialist in exercise for the elderly. Goldies session leaders will also learn more about nutrition and how they can guide people towards a more healthy lifestyle in their old age.
 
The charity has attracted widespread support. Minister for Care Services Paul Burstow is a Goldies champion. He says;
 
“I have seen for myself how the Golden-Oldies Charity touches people’s lives. I visited Bath at the invitation of Don Foster, Member of Parliament for Bath, to officially open an age-awareness event which brought together the elderly and young people in schools called Time after Time.
 
“I can only say it was an amazing experience: hundreds of elderly people interacting and enjoying each other’s company through singing and other community projects. It is quite remarkable that a charity that only started four years ago has made such forward steps largely due to its own efforts and the sheer energy of its founder Grenville Jones.
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“This is an organization that has the drive and passion to reach out across the United Kingdom and make a lasting difference to the lives of thousands. I wholeheartedly support the aims and objectives of the trustees of Golden-Oldies and the vision of its founder to make the charity.”
 
Earlier this year Goldies won a £60,000 Big Lottery People’s Millions grant to run its Jubilee Time after Time project celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 in schools. Over 100 schools have already signed up for this inter-generational project that encourages them to open their doors to the elderly in their communities.
 
School projects will not just feature singing, but include activities such as drama and portrait painting, and looking at how life has changed down the ages with themes such as traditional playground games or changing fashions. 
 
Grenville Jones is looks ahead to the day when his charity will reach out to elderly and isolated people right across the nation .He says;
 
 “ Goldies should be on prescription.”