Brighten your Autumn Days
Around the corner from Mowbray Square Medical Centre, Community House on East Parade is a hive of activity for many community groups.
As well as being HADCA HQ, we are home to another 15 charities covering activities from Fair Trade to Walking Football. Our newest tenant, Sensory Days, has even created a sensory room here. If you’re not sure what help is out there, it’s a great place to start and we can signpost you to all sorts of different support in the community.
We have been talking to the Macmillan team at Harrogate Hospital recently so that we can link people with activities in the community that support their recovery. You can now pick up Macmillan’s information leaflets from our hub, as well as finding out what else you might fancy trying.
We introduced the Macmillan team to Dancing for Wellbeing, a great charity based at Community House, who told them: “In later life, keeping active and involved in the community isn’t always easy if you have health or mobility problems, are coping with bereavement, or caring for your partner. Dancing for Well-Being is a not-for-profit community organisation which was set up in 2015 to support people in these situations.
“As the season shifts to Autumn, Dancing for Well-Being groups continue to bring colour and joy to the shorter, cooler days, and ensure older people can improve their physical, emotional and social well-being.
“Dancing for Well-Being runs groups in accessible community venues across the area. Sessions are designed to be done seated or standing: group leaders offer options that suit your body and your ability, meaning that anyone can dance with us. It’s gentle exercise, helps to release tension and stress, and it’s incredibly uplifting! Sessions take place in a circle, where not only movement is shared, but smiles, eye contact, and laughter too. We make the time to connect with, and to see, each other: to come together and enjoy one another’s company. Each group finishes with a warm drink and biscuits, so there’s time to talk, to make friends or to catch up with old friends.
“One member puts it wonderfully: Dancing for Well-Being sessions make me feel light. I just get lost in the music and the dancing.
“Groups last for 90 minutes and cost £6 per person – though if money is ever a worry, please do contact the team on the details below.”
Dancing for Well-Being have spaces across their groups and are actively welcoming new members. To find out more or to book a place, contact Jax, Administrator, on 07453 564 983 or email [email protected].
You can also visit their website: www.dancingforwellbeing.org or their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/dancingforwellbeing.
If dancing isn’t your thing, there are a whole host of local groups that you can join, covering a wide range of interests. Why not brighten your Autumn days and try something new? See hadca.org.uk/wheretoturn, drop in to Community House or call us on 01423 504074.