Early Insights from Phase 1 of the Impact Launchpad Pilots

The StorySharing® (Professor Nicola Grove, The University of East London)

Storysharing is a communication approach that was originally developed for people with multiple and profound disabilities. It helps people co-create and share personal stories using simple scaffolds and supportive techniques. With this pilot, we are working with Nicola Grove to apply it to care home settings, to improve communication and connection amongst residents who have communication difficulties, are nonverbal or are experiencing the effects of dementia

The end of our first training session with the lovely staff at Rose Lock Ltd

1. Build responsiveness into the structure from the start

As part of this pilot, we are working with care homes that represent a variety of contexts including nursing homes working with residents for shorter periods and , care homes where residents live almost permanently, each of whom serve residents with different needs ( including dementia and learning disabilities) and life experiences. We know that this is the case for many care homes and nursing homes, each with a very different set of circumstances.

The pilot is able to work with this variation because we were able to be clear from the start about the core elements that must remain (Storysharing® principles and techniques, resident focus, session purpose) and the elements that could shift (session count, pacing, content of the Storysharing® sessions). This balance allowed us to be responsive while keeping the solution coherent.

2. Strengthen what homes already do

In one home, staff already run picture-based storytelling sessions. Through the design session, Nicola helped uncover that nonverbal residents often struggled to take part equally. They might sometimes need longer to process and respond to prompts, and this meant that they would sometimes be overshadowed by residents who do communicate verbally. Staff shared that they tried as far as possible to manage these sessions in ways that gave nonverbal residents opportunities to engage, but found it quite challenging.

Nicola was able to use the Storysharing® approach to offer a way to support these residents more deliberately. By focusing the pilot on nonverbal residents and using Storysharing® scaffolds, we can help these residents build stories they can take back into their wider activities.

A question we’re holding

The care homes that opted in had one thing in common: They were already thinking about (or even practicing) storytelling and communication with their residents, and were able to envision and appreciate the value of the Storysharing approach. As we look ahead, we’re asking: how do we shape Storysharing so that it is appealing and practical for homes that don’t yet use storytelling approaches?

What’s next?

After we complete training, we will be starting with a few Storysharing sessions before the holiday break.

Connect with Care (Dr Faiza Durrani, Queen Mary’s University London)

Connect with Care is a dementia awareness programme designed by Faiza Durrani for South Asian communities. It combines storytelling, hands-on activities and short videos to make conversations about dementia more relatable and culturally grounded. Through this pilot, we are working with community groups to test and refine the toolkit so volunteers feel confident delivering it within their own settings.

Avi, Faiza, and Yue in our rehearsal and recording session at Queen Mary’s University.

1. A hypothesis is just that – testing is the only way to know for sure

The dementia awareness sessions that Faiza has designed consist of three parts: a narrative introduction, a hands-on activity and a set of short YouTube videos. Before running the session, we assumed the activity might be the hardest part for groups to adopt because it involves materials and setup – and marked it as an ‘optional’ part of the session. The training sessions proved us wrong! Volunteers connected most strongly with the activity. It gave them a concrete, tactile way to communicate how Alzheimer’s affects the brain, and they described it as the part they were most likely to use with their communities. 

2. Start with ‘good enough’ – and iterate

Faiza came to the pilot with an initial idea of how she would run the training, and we used this as our starting point. As we delivered the first live training session, we made notes on what worked well, where volunteers needed more clarity and what needed to be changed for future training sessions. Rather than waiting until the pilot was further along, we used these early insights to refine the structure immediately. Will, who had also attended the session as a participant, suggested that we try to record the session when we rehearsed it.

This recorded version solved the challenges we faced from doing the training live, which means the training is now easier for volunteers to grasp. Importantly, it also means the pilot is no longer dependent on arranging live sessions around Faiza’s availability, allowing us to reach more volunteers from community groups. 

A question we’re holding

Most groups plan to deliver their community sessions in early 2026. This gap means we’re asking: How do we help volunteers stay confident, enthusiastic and connected between the training and when they actually deliver sessions?

What’s next?

Next, we’ll support groups to schedule their sessions in 2026, keep momentum and confidence up through simple touchpoints, and begin to gather feedback from participants of the sessions.

If you know a care home or community group who might want to be involved in Storysharing® or Connect with Care, please get in touch. We’re keen to widen the network as the pilots grow. You can find more background in our earlier blog here, or drop us a line by clicking here and we’ll connect you.

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