A COMMUNITY support charity has launched a new project in Dursley and Stroud using nostalgic images on postcards to spark memories and conversations.

Fair Shares started the Chance to Chat project to help dementia sufferers and people with other memory problems to communicate with their carers and one another – though everyone is encouraged to get involved.

The postcards – including a picture of a classic Ford Anglia and the Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare – are placed in cafes and social hotspots in the hope they will help forge relationships between strangers and strengthen bonds between friends and family.

Su Chard is a project worker for Fair Shares and helps stock the charity’s chosen locations with the cards.

She said: “There’s all sorts of dimensions to the project. The obvious one is for someone who is a carer for somebody with dementia.

“But it isn’t dementia specific. Anybody can use the cards to get chatting and sharing stories.”

Fair Shares coordinator Chris Moore gave the Gazette an example of the power of the postcard images.

“I went to the Full of Life Fair [in Dursley’s Chantry Centre] and a woman there took one of the postcards of the pier in Weston.

“The picture reminded her of childhood holidays and so she took it away and was going to send it to her sister in Australia.”

The postcards are on an ever-changing cycle which will recur in waves of eight new images. They can be found in the Bank Cafe, The King’s Head, the Chantry Centre and The Hollies Care Centre in Dursley, and The Cafe Above in Stroud.

Members of the public are encouraged to send the postcards to friends and relatives or back to Fair Shares using the information found on the card to offer any thoughts on the project.

Fair Shares is a community support charity which encourages people to help others.