Supporting creativity in later life

Aim: Autumn Voices wants older people to love later life! We support, empower and improve the wellbeing of older people through creativity.

£5,000 was our fundraising goal without the matched National Emergencies Trust Local Action Fund but it appears to be added automatically to the total. We are extremely grateful for any and all donations and hope to reach a total target of £10,000 with your exceedingly kind support!

Autumn Voices started out in 2017 as a book about creativity in later life. Since then, the book’s editor, Robin Lloyd-Jones, has expanded the concept into an organisation for the over 60s with the ambition and vision to encourage and support people in growing old creatively. It now has a small part-time staff team, a volunteer Steering Group and is on its way to becoming a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).

We work to challenge many of the negative stereotypes associated with getting older and promote positive and creative ageing through our active online community. We embrace old age rather than resist it, and we are growing a diverse community to do that. 

We use our lively website (with free membership!) and social media channels to support this community and showcase a growing body of content, activities and creative pursuits that champion ageing and empower older people to feel good about later life. 

We work with community partners and deliver special online projects, and we are developing and delivering in-person events and workshops within Scotland for the over 60s.

We share wisdom on writing, creating, ageing and living. We love reading, writing, nature, food, creative hobbies and discussing social issues. We publish newsletters, blogs, photographs, art and video content and invite our community to share their thoughts, get involved in our projects and enter our competitions. We engage with people from all over the world to share their skills, interests and lived experiences through both fun and serious content.

Autumn Voices was established and is overseen by eighty-seven-year-old Robin Lloyd-Jones. We’ve created part-time employment specifically for people aged 60 and over who still wish to work and earn money – a critical issue in a society living and working longer. More than 50% of our staff and 100% of our Steering Group are aged 60 or over and contribute their lived experience to Autumn Voices’ development.

We support and celebrate inclusion and try to engage with and represent people from all communities and identities. All older people and their stories are important to us.

We support older people living in any setting and work hard to develop new relationships and partnerships with community groups and other organisations dedicated to supporting older people. Our work also addresses the challenges faced by older people during Covid by continuing to develop safe creative and social outlets through an online community.

Older people deserve a space in which to share their unique experiences, tell their stories and showcase their creative skills and interests – without stereotypes or assumptions.

Funding bodies agree, and we have been fortunate enough to receive help from Creative Scotland to create this online space, as well as money for particular projects from National Lottery Awards For All, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Robertson Trust and DG Unlimited. 

That funding has allowed us to do great things: running competitions, organising events and workshops, and creating innovative projects to support and encourage the oldest people in our society. To do all that takes time and effort, and we’ve built a great team of committed individuals to make that work happen.

For Autumn Voices to thrive, we need to retain – and expand – our core team. But, the nature of our funding means that we are unfortunately in danger of running out of funds to sustain our everyday running costs and it will be hard to develop our specialised project work without a firm base to administer it.

Once we become a SCIO, we will be able to apply for a much wider range of funding. This takes time however, and right now we need bridging funds for core costs. Your support will allow us build on the excellent foundations we have put down in recent years while planning and developing new partnerships.

Love life, love ageing,
Love,
Autumn Voices.