Sheltered Housing HeraldWinter 2025 · Cambridge City Council
Creative Health in Practice
What the work looks like from the other side of the conversation — and who's seen it.
Cambridge City Council's Sheltered Housing Herald featured the Ditchburn Place project in their Winter 2025 edition, under "Staying Active Together." Teresa Hurrell, Independent Living Supervisor, supported the work from the start and arranged for it to be written up across the council's Independent Living Service.
Staying Active Together
For several weeks, For the Record worked with the residents on a project that's simple but powerful. It turns residents' conversations and life-stories into something they can hold in their hands, as a personal record of their experience.
On what matters most
The finished magazine isn't the main goal. The part that matters most is the process: the time spent together, the chatting, the value of taking time, and patiently creating the resident's magazine with them, without any hurry.
On what happens in practice
It's in these unhurried conversations that the magic happens. You see one small memory spark another. You hear how talking about a caravan holiday uncovers deep feelings of freedom and friendship. You learn how discussing a concert connects to fashion, music, and an entire era of someone's life.
Sheltered Housing Herald, Winter 2025 — Cambridge City Council Independent Living Service.
Resident Feedback · collected by Teresa · names are pseudonyms
Ann
Enjoyed the approach David took in explaining the project.
He was engaging and I felt listened to. Enjoyed drawing and made to feel confident in my ability. A lot of fun, allowed me time to reminisce about the good times I had.
Would recommend the project to others.
Lisa
Unsure about this at the beginning. After a few sessions
I felt that I could share my thoughts and memories — not something I'd reflected on before or felt comfortable to do.
Listening to other people's stories helped me to talk about my own.
Safe space.
Marvin
Didn't know what to expect.
David explained very well. Found it easy to talk about my interests and experience. Felt listened to, not talked at.
Went very well — looking forward to the result. Allowed time to reflect.
How the sessions work
Equal conversation between two people. No one talks down to anyone else. We listen, draw, review what we've heard, and figure out next steps together.In thiis setting it sometime tooks a month until other would enage in the converastion , memories are not produce on the spot and theact being there and drawing allows individual the opportunity to make a choice to join
The activity is gentle. There's no pressure. Some residents prefer to just chat while I draw beside them. Others want to be involved in the whole process — editing words, choosing images, folding the pages.
The conversations taking form in text and story boarding which then allow for other conversation to take place .One involed Aswad and them playing live in the Corn Exchange . whent text and the drawing with colour take shape they create something official. A document that says: this conversation has a record it has become an object and my memories still matter.
For The Record CIC · Company No. 16630605 · 19 Holland Street, Cambridge, CB4 3DL
When something doesn't work we take time to talk out loud and work through it together.
07754016940
info@davidmanuell.com