Sunrise Of Chorleywood Wins Prestigious NAPA Award For Their Commitment To The Arts
Sunrise of Chorleywood has won the National Activity Provider Association (NAPA) Award for ‘Arts in a Care Home’. This Award recognises a care setting that has demonstrated a commitment and passion for embedding arts-based activities. The dedicated Activities Team at Sunrise of Chorleywood is led by Activity and Volunteer Coordinator, Patrick Maher.
NAPA is a national registered charity and membership organisation, that promotes activity provision in care settings, encouraging residents to live, love and laugh. Each year, the NAPA Awards celebrate individuals who are innovative and creative in the way they meet the needs of people they support.
Sunrise of Chorleywood’s Activities Team give residents the opportunity to express creativity through art, revisit former passions and experience new hobbies. The care home offers a variety of creative activities for their residents to take part in. Patrick started a ‘Writers Circle’ club, where residents join together each week to write short stories and share them with the group. For residents who do not want to write a story beforehand, they can instead attend ‘Tea and Tales’, where they can share a story with a group in a more casual and chatty session.
The home also offers a poetry club, script reading club and a choir. Outside of the clubs on offer, residents are also given the space to be creative in their own way. For example, there is an art corner set up in the activity room, which includes paints, canvases, easels, pencils and paper that residents can access throughout the day. Many pieces of art that have been created here are now on display around the care home, particularly in the bistro, where residents can appreciate the artwork while chatting with friends over a cup of coffee.
In late 2019, the Activities Team organised a huge art project called ‘Hearts of the Ocean’. Over a two-and-a-half-month period, over 60 residents and many team members contributed to a large 3D artwork, featuring turtles, fish and coral.
Patrick Maher, Activity and Volunteer Coordinator at Sunrise of Chorleywood said:
“We are delighted to have won this prestigious award; it is wonderful to have our Activities Team recognised like this. Throughout my time as Activity and Volunteer Coordinator, I have seen so much growth in residents from engaging with all the creative arts we have on offer at Sunrise of Chorleywood.
“Two residents, Gill and Yvonne, had to overcome the effects of a stroke to be involved in ‘Hearts of the Ocean’. They led on the making of the sea turtles, using only one hand and with limited mobility, this was incredible to watch. We will continue to enhance the creativity of all our residents through many more collaborative art projects and activities.”
