Oxford Reminiscence Project (MOOR)

Renaissance South East: Case study

Title of the project: The Museum of Oxford Reminiscence Project (MOOR)

Institutes conducting the project: Oxford City Council, Oxford Museums Partnership (hosted by the Museum of Oxford in partnership with Oxford University Museums and the Oxfordshire County Council Museum Service).

Funding: Renaissance South East

Project dates: October 2009 – March 2011 (extended to February 2012)

Project aims: For the museum and the partnership:  Increase Oxford Museums Partnership’s community engagement capacity and deliver against Oxford City Council’s key priorities  Make the Museum Service and collections, including museum objects and photographs, more accessible to members of the community in Oxford who would not usually consider using them either due to frailty or a belief that it has nothing of interest to them  Expand the service delivered by Hands on Oxfordshire’s Heritage (HOOH) into Oxford City.

For the older people:  Encourage older people in the City of Oxford, predominantly in day- care and sheltered housing settings, to communicate with each other by sharing memories and stories in a fun way  Help build a sense of community identity through social interaction and shared histories  Help improve the use of memory and enhance the wellbeing of older people in Oxford  Increase the participation in museum related activities amongst BME communities in Oxford  Increase the sense of ownership of the heritage service to the wider Oxford community

Target audience: Older people, especially non-traditional museum visitors

Project summary: In 2009, the Oxford Museums Partnership was set up to facilitate the planning and delivery of a reminiscence service, called the Museum of Oxford Reminiscence Project (MOOR), to groups of older people in the City of Oxford who were predominantly in day-care and sheltered housing settings. MOOR takes the Museum Service out to the community and delivers reminiscence sessions using museum objects, photographs and audio in order to stimulate memories, encourage discussion within the group and strengthen community identity. A monthly reminiscence session called Memory Lane also takes place at the Museum of Oxford.

Process Helen Fountain was appointed as Reminiscence Officer in October 2009. She used the Hands on Oxfordshire’s Heritage (HOOH) cross-county scheme as a model for service delivery of the MOOR project.

The MOOR project began in January 2010, after a three month lead in period spent identifying suitable groups (with the help of Age UK and the Oxfordshire Social Services Department) and promoting the scheme. Suitable objects for the handling collection were also purchased and session plans devised for the themed sessions: Made in Oxford, Mystery Box, Fun, Games and Entertainment, A Trip to the Seaside, All Dressed Up, Going Back to School, Food Glorious Food, Landmarks of Life, and Make Do and Mend.

Due to the popularity of the reminiscence outreach sessions it was decided to set up a reminiscence group called Memory Lane. It meets monthly in the Museum of Oxford. The Reminiscence Officer used the ‘Times Gone By’ Banbury Museum reminiscence group as a blueprint for the Memory Lane sessions. Memory Lane is a popular group and meetings are filled to capacity (25 participants) with 61 people on the mailing list to date. The group selected a programme of topics for the first six months, including The Radcliffe Infirmary and Industry in Oxford. The Community Engagement Officer from the Oxford Playhouse attended these sessions and the Playhouse hopes to develop some drama work from the stories that came out of the sessions in collaboration with the participants. The sessions were also recorded and copies of the material shared with the group and the Oxfordshire History Centre. It is hoped that podcasts will be produced from the recordings and posted on the Museum of Oxford website.

Key achievements  In the first six months of project delivery, 51 sessions were delivered to 681 people. The total number of people who have participated in both outreach and Memory Lane reminiscence sessions from January 2010 - April 2011 is 1,717.  The sessions have proved popular: according to a comprehensive evaluation six months into the project 88% of groups booked a repeat session.  Exciting partnerships have been formed with key organisations in the City of Oxford, such as Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust who run groups for older people with mental health problems. The Reminiscence Officer has now entered into an honorary contract with the Trust.

Reminiscence sessions are delivered in partnership with Occupational Therapists to these groups, including in-patients at the Fulbrook Centre at the Churchill Hospital. A number of sessions took place at sheltered housing schemes run by the Oxford Citizens Housing Association (OCHA) and links were established with community groups organised by OCHA Community Workers. Age UK and Daybreak both run lunch clubs that take place daily across Oxford and a regular programme of sessions are delivered to these groups. Oxfordshire County Council Social Services Department day centres for older people in Oxford have received a total of 35 sessions to date. The MOOR project delivered reminiscence sessions as part of the Fusion Arts Heritage Lottery funded I-Cowley project. These drop-in sessions took place in the month-long History Shop residence at Templars Square Shopping Centre and at the Ark-T centre in Cowley. The monthly Memory Lane group is delivered in partnership with the Oxfordshire Playhouse. Future Memory Lane collaborations will involve the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Children at War project and the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter Public Art Programme.  Output from the MOOR project formed part of the ‘Museum of Oxford & You’ exhibition in March 2011 and included audio recordings from the reminiscence sessions. 1,420 visitors were recorded.  As a result of the MOOR project, the Reminiscence Officer delivered a workshop at the Dementia Awareness Day 2010 organised by Oxfordshire Social Services and will also deliver a workshop at the Arts and Dementia Conference at St Hilda’s College, Oxford in June 2011.  A radio broadcast with BBC Radio Oxford from a MOOR reminiscence session and articles in the Oxfordshire Age UK newsletter and Oxford Health Insight newsletter are being planned.

Evaluation The aim when designing the evaluation forms was to collect data that demonstrated how the project was delivering against the following priorities:  Generic Social Outcomes (GSO): health and wellbeing, strengthening public life and stronger, safer communities.  Generic Learning Outcomes (GLO): knowledge and understanding; skills; attitudes and values; enjoyment, inspiration and creativity and activity, behaviour and progression.  The Oxfordshire Partnership Local Area Agreement 2008-2011 priorities.  The Oxford City Council Cultural Strategy 2010.

The participant evaluation forms had to be clear and easy to read due to the vulnerability and frailty of some of the reminiscence session participants. A short form on one side of A4 paper was produced. No personal details were included and participants were asked to score the questions between 1-5 with 1 being a low or negative score and 5 being a high or positive score. This format facilitated the option of measurement of improvement over time when more than one session had been delivered to the same group.

A high level of participant satisfaction with the sessions was indicated in the evaluation findings and suggests that priorities were being met:  Responses to questions about how interesting and enjoyable they found the sessions to be were very positive; 70% of participants gave a 4 or 5.  70% of participants also responded with a 4 or 5 to the question: Have you learnt something today?  76% of respondents answered 4 or 5 to the question: How much have you learnt about the Museum of Oxford?  68% of participants gave a 4 or 5 to the question asking them if they would visit the Museum of Oxford. Reasons given for not visiting were based on restricted mobility and transport issues. This suggests the important role the MOOR project plays in taking the Museum Service out to members of the community who would be unable to access it otherwise. This is especially significant when 48% of participants in the evaluation do not take part in any other social groups.

Here are some participants’ comments from the feedback forms:

“People like to chat to each other and that’s good. Anything telling us about past and present.”

“It was nice looking back on things that were used and old times.”

“It keeps one mentally alert and enhances the day.”

“I am interested in discussing all sorts of things about life in general and am grateful that people like Helen take the time and trouble to come out and do this.”

“Everyone remembered something from their youth which made it very interesting.”

“Thanks a lot. It is really nice to know something about old Morris and marmalade factories.”

“I hope to remember quite a lot of what I’ve seen and heard this morning.”

“I am sure that we will arrange another visit from the Museum.”

Feedback comments taken from the Reminiscence Officer observation forms:

“The session was very participative with all members making a contribution. Talked about collars and had a go at tying a bow tie! The dress was popular and a lady indentified the fabric as georgette. There was a seamstress in the group. Hats were tried on creating some laughter. The music worked well, group recommended Chopin.”

“Members reminisced about shops in Oxford, and buying small amounts of butter wrapped in greaseproof paper. They liked the apron and overall and discussed who had worn similar. Discussed favourite food. Top dish was roast beef. One man had worked at Morris Motor. One woman born and brought up in the same street in Cowley. Lively discussion included carers. Some were deaf and tended to talk over each other.”

“The group were chatty but didn’t sit close together. Some did share memories with the group and the person sitting next to them. One lady translated for a lady sitting next to her. One lady had worked in the MM factory assembling dashboards. One lady had owned a Morris Minor for many years. One lady had worked at the jam factory. The telegram generated some discussion and there were memories of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and street parties. Hats also stimulated conversation and one lady could remember coming to England from Jamaica on a plane, very dressed up, wearing a pill box hat. The African objects from Pitt Rivers Museum created interest and some discussion.”

Lessons learned The project was successful in many ways, not least in its ability to be flexible to participants’ needs. For example, it was soon discovered that the more generic a discussion topic, the more popular it was with groups. This was then factored into subsequent session programming. A topic on local geography had limited value for older people who had moved into the area to be near family whereas the more generic topic of Food Glorious Food was more inclusive and thus more popular with participants. Humour and objects that participants could try on or wear and have fun with, such as a Tommy Cooper-style fez hat, were also discovered to be key aspects to participants’ enjoyment of the sessions.

Allowing the participants to steer the programme, in the case of Memory Lane, and be the experts on the objects in the MOOR sessions as a whole, gave groups a genuine sense of empowerment and justified the approach of the sessions.

Whilst allowing venues to be as flexible as possible with the sessions, it was found that the stipulation of a side-room or quiet alcove away from other activities or background noise was vital in order for participants, particularly those with hearing difficulties, to be able to hear discussions.

Despite the success of the project, the evaluation findings showed that BME groups were slightly underrepresented and it is an ongoing aim of the MOOR project to redress this balance, possibly in the form of a one-off project.

Contact Helen Fountain, City of Oxford Reminiscence Officer, Museum of Oxford. Tel: 01865 252795 Email: [email protected]