Hayling care home joins with Reading Force charity

Wimborne is very proud to have been the first Barchester Care Home awarded ‘Veteran Friendly Status’ and to also host a monthly local veterans ‘Bacon Butty Breakfast’, Every second Tuesday of the month over tasty bacon rolls there is decent chat, shared company, enjoyment and relationships have grown and developed.

When Wimborne’s Senior Activities lead Zoe Freeman was approached by ‘Reading Force’ she took their concept to the Bacon Butty gang. The proposal was to find a group who would test out ‘ the Reading and Wellbeing Journal’. The mission of Reading Force is to facilitate a love of reading and shared enjoyment and connection through books. Reading Force supply books to military families and now veterans groups; participants then read them that month (like a book club) and come back and having filled in a reading and wellbeing journal, feedback on their experiences. Individuals can read the same book or share their impressions of different books,

Reading Force is a charity who’s mission is to encourage military families of all ages to share books, bond over reading and have fun.

Wimborne could certainly see the value in that and so at the next meeting on Tuesday 10th February Reading Force will be attending to distribute a range of titles and journals. Then this new source of shared fun can commence.

Stephen Stace, Peri General Manager of Wimborne commented: “We want to thank the wonderful Reading Force team for inviting Wimborne to take part in this pilot programme, we look forward to sharing the stories and the enjoyment with our residents and visiting veterans!’

Wimborne care home is run by Barchester Healthcare, one of the UK’s largest care providers, which is committed to delivering personalised care across its care homes and hospitals. Wimborne provides residential and dementia care for 47 residents from respite care to long term stays.