About Us

THE DEMENTIA FRIENDLY OAKWOOD TEAM

Liz & Pauline

Peter

Michele

Kim

Liz

Jean

Sharon

Jean

Jackie

What we do

The team work together with all the businesses and organisations they can in Oakwood to raise awareness of dementia and ask people to think about the challenges faced. We encourage individuals and businesses to become more aware and to consider small changes which could help people live well with dementia.

We encourage everyone in our community to become Dementia Friends and we work closely with our fantastic team of volunteers to deliver a great programme and important social engagement at the Forget Me Not Cafe.

How we got here

The Oakwood Dementia Friendly Community was officially recognised by The Alzheimers Society in August 2018. This was accomplished by working towards the criteria laid down to achieve this status. We are one of only 24 DFCs in the Midlands and were very proud that Oakwood has this claim.

From there, we worked hard spreading awareness amongst our local communities via social media, leaflets, posters and knocking on doors! We attended events like Oakfest and shared our news with the local radio, press and at the Oakwood Community Cafe.

As word about the initiative spread, we started to receive unexpected donations. This enabled us to set up the Forget Me Not Cafe and to make it free of charge for guests and their carers to attend. The cafe is flourishing (see separate page) but our main focus of raising awareness and making the whole of Oakwood more welcoming to those living with dementia continues alongside.

In late 2023, the Alzheimer's Society took the decision to end the Dementia Friendly Communities initiative. For us, the only practical impact of this was that, as of 1 January 2024, we will be known as simply Dementia Friendly Oakwood. We now have our own logo as seen on the home page and have removed Alzheimer's Society branding from all media. We will continue to support Alzheimer's Society in the work that they do but are no longer, as a group, have affiliation. The work that we do will continue exactly as before.

Please get in touch if you feel you can help us in any capacity or if you are a local business (big or small) who would like to get on board and get your sticker!