HICA Partners With Hull Dance
The HICA Group are delighted to announce a new partnership with Hull Dance, a Hull City Council initiative. The partnership will begin with the delivery of a special pilot project called ‘Wellness Through Movement”. The project provides staff with a unique opportunity to explore new ways to support the wellbeing of their service users and to also inspire a model that could in future benefit both staff and service users in a range of care settings.
At its core, the aim is to bring exciting, engaging and enjoyable movement activities to their care homes by training all the company’s Activity Coordinators through a 2-day training session. These sessions will equip them with necessary skills to lead classes based on dance and other physical activities. This specialist training will also give the Coordinators the ability to cater for all manner of physical and cognitive abilities and to be able to judge body language in order to engage more fully with each individual leading to enhanced health and wellbeing.
Director of Operations for the HICA Group Heather Joy said, “We are delighted to be starting out on this partnership with Hull Dance. HICA and Hull Dance share common values in the aim of bringing wellness to the service users in our homes and enhancing and improving their lives. Once the Activity Coordinators have the training under their belt, they will be able to provide our service users some innovative and exciting classes while improving their physical wellbeing through active engagement in movement exercises and creative dance – strengthening mobility, balance, and coordination as well as increasing social interaction amongst service users and care staff, helping to reduce anxiety and promoting a sense of community.
Heading up the training sessions is Artistic Director for Hull dance Keyna Paul. Keyna said, “At Hull Dance we are passionate about helping people to experience the positive benefits of dancing and movement. We are really looking forward to working with all the Coordinators. The classes are fun and I’m sure that all involved will get a great deal out of the experience. Communication is not limited to words only, as movement is an important factor in expressing ourselves.”
The classes will begin in July, and these are just the first stage of a bigger plan that hopes eventually to be able to open areas within the homes where service users’ friends and relatives will be able to join in for Wellness Through Movement Classes.
