We take care homes seriously as unique, creative places. Homemade Circus trains care settings to run their own circus sessions, putting the skills and benefits permanently into the hands of the people who live and work there.
Homemade Circus brings circus, connection and imagination into care homes. It follows on from our previous work bringing circus skills to older people. To learn more about the different ways we’ve done this in the past, click here.
Our lead Artist Charlene Low and a team of workshop leaders spent 2023–24 taking Homemade Circus into care homes across the UK. The sessions were hands-on and built to fit the people in the room, with a focus on helping to build trust, confidence and abilities. We also trained care staff as we went, so the sessions could carry on after we’d left.
What we learnt was that whether they were there to care or to be cared for, people kept surprising themselves with what they could do.
“It’s just so much fun. I always say to people – I can do a 12 hour shift on that day because it just takes me somewhere else…It gives you that excitement, you have so much extra oxygen. So, so much creativity.” – Care Home Staff after a Homemade Circus workshop
Homemade Circus and Parkinsons UK
In March 2026 we will begin a new pilot project, bringing Homemade Circus to people living with Parkinson’s at the University Hospitals of North Midlands in Stoke-on-Trent, in partnership with Parkinson’s UK.
This will be our first step into hospital settings, and we’re curious to see where it goes – adapting the same circus approach to the specific needs of people living with Parkinson’s. The team we’re training looks different too, this time we’ll be working with hospital staff and volunteers who bring their own skills and knowledge of patients to the work.
Through this pilot, we want to learn whether this project can work in hospital settings, and whether it could grow into more NHS spaces, or other places beyond the ward where people living with Parkinson’s can access this kind of movement work.
Learn to lead your own circus activity sessions:
Built from our learnings, the Homemade Circus Digital Toolkit is designed to arm anyone working with older people with the knowledge and confidence needed to run accessible circus activities in their own care settings.
Whether you’re a care provider looking for meaningful activities, an artist/facilitator interested in working in care settings, or someone who supports older adults, sign up to our toolkit to unlock the transformative impact of circus activities with older people.
What have we discovered so far?
In the first year of running Homemade Circus we trained over 50 care home staff to deliver interactive circus activities to over 130 residents. We followed each step closely so that we could see what was working, here’s what we learnt:
The training itself was a teambuilding experience. Both staff and residents found that learning together through play and practice really valuable. As one staff member told us, “It was freeing trying activities ourselves, messing up, cheering each other on, and trying again.”
This gave people who worked in the care homes a better outlook on these kinds of programmes, and changed perceptions of what ‘circus’ is too.
Through the activities, residents bonded over achieving more than they thought they could.“I liked how everyone was in it together. I liked doing the activities with other people I’ve seen around before. We were all doing the same thing together as if we’d been doing it forever.”, commented one resident. Not only are people bonding more, but balance, coordination and movement have improved.
Homemade Circus and Creative Ageing Webinar
In June 2025 Upswing’s Executive Director Camille Ben-Soussan presented Homemade Circus at a webinar with Arts Council England on how to engage older people living in care in meaningful creative opportunities:
Partners
Homemade Circus is made in partnership with Anchor Hanover Care Homes, Excelcare Homes and Bupa. Funded by City Bridge Trust and The Rayne Foundation.