Like many community organisations, we are facing an increasingly challenging funding landscape. Unfortunately, despite the success of our older people’s programme and the clear benefits it brings in reducing loneliness, improving wellbeing, building confidence and celebrating creativity later in life, we have not managed to secure funding to continue this work at the present time.

For many years, we have been fortunate to receive support from a range of funding organisations, enabling us to deliver theatre and performance projects for older people at The Cab and within Hedyn Housing outreach locations.

Today, we continue to run three weekly groups at The Cab, Westgate Court in Caerleon and Stelvio Community Hall, with around ten participants in each group, ranging in age from 55 to their mid-80s. Together, they create and perform around two productions each year, entertaining full audiences with everything from festive pantomimes and murder mysteries to original drama tackling important social issues.

Older people have so much to contribute creatively, yet opportunities for them to participate in the arts can too often be overlooked. At a time when Wales is committed to creating a more equal, healthier and connected future through the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we believe that ensuring older people have meaningful opportunities to create, perform and be heard is more important than ever. Challenging ageism means recognising that creativity does not diminish with age, it continues to enrich individuals, communities and society as a whole.

We remain committed to our participants and will continue delivering our older people’s programme for as long as we possibly can, despite it currently being unfunded. Our community has supported us for many years, and we are determined to continue supporting them while we seek new funding opportunities to secure the future of this much-loved programme.