Who would have thought the humble button could bring together a community as well as pieces of clothing! The Button Project begun as part of craft group activities at the Meath Kingsley aged care home. Catch up on how our Advocare volunteers got involved.
The craft group was started around 2023 after one of our Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme (ACVVS) volunteers, Helen, joined up and was assigned to support two fellow craft-loving ladies at the Meath Kingsley aged care home.
It’s a wonderful example of how to create connections, friendship, community through craft and creativity. Over the years the group has grown and last year we introduced a new volunteer Patricia to the program who came to us after making contact with Advocare.
Patricia indicated she would love to join the craft group, but more as a volunteer rather than as a client. Even though Patricia admitted she was not that crafty herself, she was still very keen to help in other ways by providing support and encouragement to the residents involved. With the ongoing dedication from Helen, Patricia and valued support of the facility’s Lifestyle Coordinator, Fifi, the group has flourished.
The Button Project is just one of the projects that this enthusiastic crafting group has worked on. It’s an art-based collaborative project, that once completed, will take pride of place hanging on a wall within the Meath Kingsley facility. Residents, along with Helen and Trish are creating individual picture segments of a lady in a ball gown – the gown decorated with random buttons donated to the project. Once enough patches are finished they will be sewn together to make a colourful wall hanging art piece for the residents and staff to enjoy and admire for years to come.
Care packs for the homeless
Another project the Meath Kingsley craft group has worked on is putting together personal care packs for the homeless at Christmas. These packs contain essential personal care items like soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes to support people in need. The group have made almost 200 of these with all the personal care items donated that have since been distributed to not-for-profit organisations in Perth that support people experiencing homelessness.
This craft group in a wonderful example of how Advocare Volunteers help build meaningful community connections to reduce social isolation for many of the clients they visit. More importantly, it’s not just the clients who benefit from connection but the volunteers as well. By creating a sense of purpose and something to look forward to each week, we see not just creativity come to life, but the volunteers’ feelings of self-worth – a great boost to their mental health, too.
Watch this space to see how the wall hanging comes together when its finished!
Find out more about the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme (ACVVS) as a volunteer by visiting our website: https://advocare.org.au/interested-in-volunteering/
