“Meeting Places has made me reminisce to when I first lived in Newham and all the changes. I wasn’t happy about all the changes, I thought I won’t know anyone, people will moved, but I still see them sometimes and I’m fine here.”

- Older Participant

Meeting Places was run for older people in Newham in conjunction with Stratford Arts Circus.

The idea for the project was created through consultation with a group of older Newham residents who suggested that it would like to explore the idea of various meeting places people might gather once lockdown eased.

The project was run on Zoom and used performing arts, reminiscence and creative writing to engage participants.

Through this, they created short scenes, both real and imagined, and spoken word pieces about characters you might meet in various meeting places across Newham.

Participants then filmed themselves the pieces were then edited and shared on Zoom.

The aim of the project was to:

Connect older people across the borough to reduce isolation.
Support older people to begin to use social media in order to take part in group activities.
Give older people a voice to create new work.
Create a sense of belonging and connectivity to each other and the borough.