Ringwood care home launches men’s club for residents to share skills

Residents at a Ringwood care home are putting their woodworking skills to good use through a new men’s club.

The team at St Ives House care home, on Horton Road in Ashley Heath, which is run by not-for-profit charity Care South, have created their own St Ives House Men’s Club. It aims to bring residents together to work on projects and share skills from their time at school, as well as in their working lives.

The group, which meets every month, has already built a bench for the care home’s grounds, a ‘busy board’ for residents living with dementia, and hedgehog houses and bird boxes for the wildlife that visits the home’s garden. The meetings also give them the chance to talk to other residents about projects they’ve previously worked on over the years, while sharing some drinks and snacks.

Ken, who lives in St Ives House, said: “It’s nice making things together, having never done anything like that before. We’ve previously put together a bench, which I now sit on every morning.”

Mike, who also lives at the home, said: “I do enjoy getting together at the club, where I can chat about when I was ‘on the tools’ building houses in my job.”

Meanwhile, David, another resident, said: “The club reminds me of when I made a bedside table at school. I find the club interesting and think it might inspire me to make something again in the future.”

Emma Cotton, Home Manager at St Ives House, said: “It’s wonderful to hear our residents chatting and realising how much they have in common from their working lives and their woodworking skills learned at school. The room becomes a hive of activity when the club meets and it’s a joy to see them feeling a sense of accomplishment when they complete their projects. At St Ives House, we are keen to enable our residents to keep enjoying their own hobbies, while creating opportunities for them to build new friendships over shared interests.”