t’s been a while since we’ve given an update on what’s going on with Meeting Centres, so here goes!
As mentioned in a previous blog, two projects focusing on Meeting Centres are coming to an end soon, but that doesn’t mean our work will be ending – far from it! After the end of the ‘Embed’ phase of our Meeting Centres work we’ll be continuing to work on Meeting Centres, primarily focusing on keeping our existing Meeting Centre network going and continuing to support new Meeting Centres to get up and running. Also, once we’ve got our findings and outputs from the Get Real with Meeting Centres project we’ll be looking to disseminate them to different audiences.
We’re very pleased to announce that we now have two new videos about Meeting Centres, created as part of the work we’re doing with the Worcestershire Meeting Centres. They’re aimed at two different audiences to give a flavour of what goes on at Meeting Centres and how they can benefit those who attend.
There’s been a lot of action in Scotland, with the Scottish Meeting Centre Network getting up and going with regular meetings.
- Graham from Kirrie Connections showcased Meeting Centres recently as part of an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament.
- Dementia Friendly East Lothian are recruiting for their new Musselburgh Meeting Centre.
- About Dementia has awarded Seedcorn funding to help set up five new Meeting Centres in Scotland.
We’re hearing about new Meeting Centres about to open in various parts of England, but we can’t tell you about all of them yet! A couple that we can mention are in Totton, Hampshire and Tipton. Needless to say, our blog from a few months ago is well and truly out of date!
We’re trying to keep a list of Meeting Centres on our blog site, so wish us luck with that. (If you’ve been missed off the list, please contact j.bray@worc.ac.uk with the relevant details and we can get your Meeting Centre on there)
The next cohort of our online Meeting Centres training starts in April, and we’ve already had quite a few people registering for it. We’re also exploring various options around training, so we’ll let you know about those in due course.
Several Meeting Centres are hosting or have hosted student placements, linking up with local universities and colleges, and these seem to be working well for all involved.
New funding bids are being written and submitted to look at different aspects either focusing on or relating to Meeting Centres, so hopefully there will be a lot more to report on in the future.
There are probably lots of other things that I’ve missed (or can’t say just yet!), but that’s probably enough to be going on with for now.
Connect with Meeting Centres on twitter @MeetingCentres
UK Meeting Centres Support Programme Blog 