Introducing the

Disruption Awards

Our vision is a world where people with dementia and their carers thrive, supported by innovative solutions and empowered by our grants and dedicated support to make meaningful change happen.

What Are the Disruption Awards?

The Dementia Trust Disruption Awards are an opportunity for individuals, groups or organisations to make a difference for and with people with dementia that could have local, national or international impact. 

After funding successful projects in previous years, Trustees of the Dementia Trust are looking for new projects to support in 2024, with a grant of up to £10,000.

How Do the Projects Benefit People LIVING with Dementia & THEIR CARERS?

The projects supported by the Disruption Awards are diverse and impactful. They range from cultural initiatives to technological advancements, each designed to improve the quality of life for those with dementia.

Recent awards

Dementia Carers Count

Focused on empowering caregivers, this project offered coaching and support to help carers recognize and utilize their skills in the workplace. It provided valuable resources for carers looking to transition back to work or explore new career opportunities​.

Culturally Appropriate Resources

In collaboration with SACMHA, this project developed resources to address racial disparities in dementia care, creating a supportive community hub for people of diverse backgrounds.

Carers Support West Sussex

This project saw the short film ‘Only One Six’ created through discussion between the filmmaker and local people who are carers from South Asian backgrounds living in the Crawley area.  The aim was to disrupt thinking about how to care for someone living with dementia or memory loss so that no one is left to care alone or in isolation.

FEATURED

Past PROJECTS

“We have been able to reframe and disrupt the way people think about dementia. By bringing people living with dementia and service providers TOGETHER”

Andy Hyde, from 'Go Upstream' talks about the ambition for the project and how it helped the public and service providers better understand the needs of people living with dementia in accessing public transport.

Drawing from experience

This project was led by Andy Hyde from Go Upstream, an organisation already funded by the Life Changes Trust and the European Foundations’ Initiative on Dementia.

This new idea was that students from the University of Dundee Masters’ programme in Comics and Graphic Novels would produce artwork to disseminate information gathered with the help of people with dementia.

They produced this novel, Stories of Travelling with Dementia

Reframing dementia

Reframing Dementia was a collaborative audiovisual project between documentary photographer, Keith Lloyd Davenport, and composer, Shona Mackay.

The first stages of the project involved a weekly camera club, where Keith provided guidance on basic camera techniques, encouraging participants to explore photography as a means of documenting their day-to-day lives in whichever way they see fit.

Shona created a corresponding sonic element which including sound recordings made from conversations with participants, focusing on the personal narrative therein.

There were early benefits from taking this camera/conversation club approach, including socialisation, companionship and engagement.

“the idea was to give participants living with dementia a camera, so they could document their ‘everyday lives’. Telling their stories through photographs and highlighting their experiences. ”

Keith Lloyd Davenport, a documentary photographer, describes the first stages of the project, which involved a weekly camera club. Keith provided guidance on basic camera techniques, encouraging participants to explore photography.

Applications for 2024 now closed

ApplyING for a 2024 Award

The 2024 Dementia Disruption Awards opened for applications on 27th August (2024). There is a dedicated application page available for you to find out more information and apply for an award.

You can also check out questions we are often asked about the awards in the FAQs below. These will help you get a better idea what the trustees look for in applications.

Disruption Awards FAQs

  • The Trust is looking for anything that will disrupt the ideas that people have about people affected by dementia, including their carers and people who work with him. 

  • If you look at the website, you will see that previous awards have been given to organisations, individuals, and charities.  Awards are not given for research. You will have to provide some basic information on the application form. 

  • Yes

  • You will only know if your idea is disruptive after looking round to see if anyone else is doing the same thing. Be ambitious and look at projects in other places.

    We encourage you to consider creative and impactful projects. We are always looking for ideas that can disrupt or diversify thinking, engage the public imagination and attract funders so that we can give out more funds to individuals and groups in future awards.

  • If your existing project is very innovative and you want to do something that goes beyond that level, the Trustees will certainly be interested.

  • If you look at the previous projects, you will see that some were funded to completion and others were given initial funding.

  • Previous projects have been awarded to individuals. If you are applying as a charity, you will need to be registered. If the application is from a partnership the Trustees will require details of the lead partner and may ask to see a partnership agreement. The Trustees require individuals to provide references in support of the application.

  • You cannot apply for pure research, but Trustees will be very interested in new ideas that haven’t been tried before which help us discover new things about Dementia.

  • If you are applying as a charity, you will need to be registered.

  • No.

  • Yes, you can!

  • Only one application per organisation is allowed for each funding tranche. 

  • All applications must be submitted via the form (.docx) on our website.

  • Please stay as close to the word count as you can.  However, you will not be excluded if you go over by a small number of words (as a guide this could be anything up to 10% of the word count).

  • You may do this if your updated or new application is received by the deadline.

  • Please contact Advisor@dementiatrust.org to discuss what may have changed from your previous thinking, project or idea.

  • Yes, but consider whether your project for this tranche is sufficiently different to your previous project.

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