With the success of COGS and the number of women who currently enjoy learning to play football (as well as our COGS who come to play for fun and enjoyment), it was felt with all the good feeling that goes with it, that we would like to use some of that resource and energy to volunteer in the local Community.  To this end, we thought about the possibility of going into Residential Care Homes to provide an hour’s football related activity, specifically with Dementia patients.

It was thought that we could maybe get some more of the “older” generation more active, even if it is in a very small way.  Physical activity and interaction is so important for anyone and we also thought, with regards to the residents it may even bring back good memories of when they used to play or watch football, themselves.

We recently met with Crawley Borough Council’s Dementia Care team, discussed the project and from that meeting we now have a training evening to become a “Dementia Friend” set up.  This will give us valuable information on what dementia does to a person and how we can make a difference.  The session will be held on Tuesday 13th November, at the Council Offices at the Town Hall, in Crawley.  If anyone else would like to join in the training, please contact Carol Bates at cogscrawley@gmail.com.  It’s always good to learn!

Once our training has been completed, we will be looking at organising visits on a Sunday morning, to a local Residential Care Home.  We already have over 15 women who have said they want to be involved, which is amazing!

This is a very exciting project for us to start up and there will be further updates once we have everything in place.

We would like to thank all the lovely COGS who will be involved and both Julie Kalsi and Kathryn Ripley, at Crawley Borough Council, for their help in getting this project underway.