Award-winning charity Create has concluded its creativity:revealed creative arts project with older people at Jewish Care’s Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Campus in North London.

creativity:revealed, carefully designed to meet the participants’ needs and interests, brought together residents of Otto Schiff and Rela Goldhill home, Selig Court independent living apartments and members of Michael Sobell Jewish Community Centre to take part in multi-arts workshops which included photography, ceramics and music as part of the Jewish Care community.

A paper by Marcus Rand of the Campaign to End Loneliness (CtEL) states that one in 10 people over 65 feel chronically lonely all or most of the time. Age UK research shows that two fifths of all older people in the UK (almost four million) say that television is their main companion. Increasingly, organisations such as CtEL consider isolation as having a seriously damaging impact on health. CtEL’s website says a lack of social connections is “a risk factor for early death”.

Through Create’s collaborative creative activities, led by its professional photographer Adele Watts, ceramicist Irene Reach and musician Noga Ritter, creativity:revealed gave older people the opportunity to develop new friendships, build creative and social skills, and grow in confidence and self-esteem.

Create’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Nicky Goulder said: “It is so important for older people to feel supported by a network of friends, and these collaborative arts workshops provide a perfect environment for friendships to blossom.”

Daniel Carmel Brown, Jewish Care’s Chief Executive, said: “Jewish Care community centre members and residents benefit enormously from participating in the Create programme. It’s clear from their enthusiasm and from the ceramics, photography and songs they have shared, how much they enjoyed taking part.”