A project that combines nostalgia with helping old folk to improve their lives today is looking for volunteers.Great Yarmouth-based Memory Joggers has been awarded �5000 from Comeunity to take their reminiscence work into local residential homes.

A project that combines nostalgia with helping old folk to improve their lives today is looking for volunteers.

Great Yarmouth-based Memory Joggers has been awarded �5000 from Comeunity to take their reminiscence work into local residential homes.

Run as a social enterprise by Bob Warnes and Sheena Ashford the part therapy/part entertainment service stimulates elderly people who can become bored in care homes, helping them to reconnect with their past and share memories with other residents.

It works by using everyday objects and sensations, like music and bread-making, stimulating all fives senses. Objects may include Bakelite radios, old soaps maybe even bike handlebars, helping them to remember what it is like to whoosh down a hill.

The couple have been working for around five years all over East Anglia from Wisbech to Woodbridge but rarely around the borough. Mr Warnes said he hoped the grant funding would mean they would be able to work locally charging a nominal fee.

The aim of the sessions was to put old folk “back in charge” again, he added.

He said the money meant they could pass their skills on to other people. Initially volunteers would need to commit to a training schedule of one day a week for ten weeks, and probably less after that. Ideally they should be “people” orientated and have qualities including empathy.

Anyone interested can contact Bob Warnes on 01493 740018 or Sheena Ashford on 01493 859417.