Partnering Supports People with Dementia and their Carers

In 2017, as part of our Community Services program the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central (RCBHC) decided to offer a free breakfast seminar on current issues facing NFP Charitable organisations presented by a Commissioner from the Australian Charities & NFP Commission (ACNC). The breakfast was sponsored by the Blackburn South Community Bank (BSCB), Bendigo Bank. At the breakfast we discussed our desire to make a greater impact with our Grants program and this resonated with BSCB who were looking at exactly the same idea for their grants program.

The outcome was the formation of a Community Grant Program, overseen by a joint governance committee, which has been running for six years with matching contributions generating $180,000.

RCBHC and BSCBB sought proposals from a small number of targeted community not-for -profit (NFP) organisations in the Whitehorse and surrounding communities for meaningful projects which may be undertaken over a 1 to 3 year time-frame.

Projects supported needed to be practical, community based initiatives supporting and facilitating development of programs that focus on new and emerging social issues affecting vulnerable, “at risk” and those living in disadvantaged circumstances in our local region. Project outcomes were expected to demonstrate measurable improvement on the lives and health and wellbeing of the beneficiaries.

One of the organisations to receive funding is Umbrella Dementia Café (UDC).

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UDC has a vision to improve and advance the social health and wellbeing of individuals, couples and families living at home with dementia and believes individuals living with dementia can be better supported with access to localised, purpose-driven social hubs called ‘dementia cafés’. UDC has established and sustained five community dementia cafes in Blackburn, Box Hill South, Blackburn North, Rosebud and Sorrento. They also have three ‘co-design’ cafés emerging in Beechworth, Kyabram and Diamond Creek under the leadership of UDC.

UDC’s purpose is to create inclusive, localised, welcoming dementia-friendly social environments for people living with dementia and their care partner to safely meet other people in their own community that are experiencing similar challenges. Together with volunteer teams, the café groups offer support, share knowledge and enable learning from one another about how to live a full life while living with dementia. participants have a place to turn for help in challenging times.

Their first community grant in 2019 was named the Port-Bell Community Grant after two RCBHC club Rotarian families who lived with dementia. The Port-Bell Community Grant allowed UDC to implement a dedicated dementia café coordinator at their Box Hill South dementia café, called Café of Connections.

Through this social care model, UDC’s longterm goal is to enable people to live at home longer, delaying the need for full-time residential care and to create a culture where

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However, when the COVID lockdowns were implemented in early 2020, with agreement from the Community Grants Committee the Port-Bell Grant was converted into project that delivered critical and nutritious food (supplied by the Moving Feast charity) to isolated families experiencing dementia across the Whitehorse region. Through this grant, support was provided to 26 couples and 10 elderly volunteers every week, over a 10 -week period.

For those who are in the caring role, UDC offers an evidence-based carers support program, called “Care & Share”, which is facilitated during the café by a trained volunteer with lived experience. Care & Share allows carers to privately share practical caring ideas while supporting each other emotionally. Held for 45 minutes in an adjoining room, the session aims to build confidence and resilience, increase awareness about dementia, share local knowledge of café service and provide overall peer to- peer support while caring for someone with dementia.

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When asked about the impact of the multiyear grants on the Umbrella Dementia Café CEO Kirsty Porter provided this response.

“This grant not only allowed us to stay better connected to our couples living with dementia, but through this consistent weekly contact we reduced their impact of social isolation and reduced mounting fear surrounding the initial pandemic lockdown. Most importantly, this grant deployed our technically savvy volunteers to better support our members get online while they were delivering food packages. This was an outcome we didn’t expect we needed in early 2020, but because of this foresight, we moved to facilitate over 175 online zoom cafés over a 2year period which kept our couples connected to each other over the entire 300 days of COVID lockdowns. Consequently, when we returned to the café at the end of 2020 and 2021, we brought our café groups back together quicker because of our effective communication and online connections. We didn’t lose a single volunteer and, out of the 25 families, only 2 went into aged care. The most recognisable community grant we have received from Rotary Club of Box Hill Central and Blackburn South Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) was also born from COVID-19 lockdowns when we succumb to the dramatic and immediate impact of reduced income. We approached the Rotary president at the time with an idea to create our own commercial and online

dementia-friendly products, and trial them with for our own members living with dementia. From this project, we recognised a huge gap in the marketplace for dementia-friendly products that were age appropriate, meaningful, user-friendly and recognisable. Through this Rotary supported ‘sustainability grant’, we now have own on dementia friendly UDC products online which we sell Australia wide. These products now provide us with addition funding and has opened the door to more innovative products, and most importantly, we can reach more people with dementia Australia wide. This sustainability grant demonstrated our potential towards a greater, broader and more innovative financial environment in years to come. Our volunteers are the true heroes of Umbrella Dementia Cafes. In 2022 alone, our 35 volunteers have already donated over 3000 hours in 2022 across all five cafes. Now, with the help of Rotary again in 2022 -2023, we are enthusiastically developing a dementia café specific Volunteer Training and Support Pilot Program for the volunteers who give so much of themselves every week. We anticipate the success of this training program will steer us toward supporting other dementia cafes in Australia by the second half of 2023.

It is obvious that the impact the joint committee of Rotary Club of Box Hill Central and Blackburn South Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) has had on UDC has been far reaching.”

From the above response it is also obvious that the Rotary Club of Box Hill Central, in partnership with Blackburn Community Bank Bendigo Bank, is achieving its goals of strategically supporting worthy not-for-profit community service providers to improve the lives of vulnerable people and their carers in the city of Whitehorse and surrounding municipalities.