Keeping community groups and activities going - Sustainable Community Interventions for people affected by Dementia: Recommendations for practice from the SCI-Dem Project

Running a community-based group or activity for people affected by dementia can be challenging. Keeping a group or activity going long-term can be even more so – especially in a climate where community awareness and resources can vary dramatically from place to place; where funding is hard to come by and often short term; and where there is no standard model of formal support for such groups, applied consistently, across the country.
The SCI-Dem review has gathered together information from various sources about the common problems that face regularly-meeting groups and activities for people living with dementia (or people supporting someone who is). By doing so, we can share possible tips, strategies and good practices from this review that might help a community group or activity to keep going long-term, after getting established.
This booklet outlines recommendations, built upon the information we have found. This booklet aims to help those in practice (whether that’s planning for a group or activity, managing one, running one day-to-day or supporting one through volunteering). There is a separate booklet of recommendations aimed at funders/commissioners and policy makers.
The information these recommendations are based upon was gathered and put together from dozens of sources of all types: research studies and papers, evaluation reports, magazine articles, info guides and how-to booklets, conference talks, even videos and artistic output from some groups. All examples given are fictional, but based upon what we found.
We hope that what we have found resonates with your group or activity and that you find something useful and informative in these pages, so that the important and much-needed work of such groups can be better helped to sustain long term.