ARTISTS and singing tutors have teamed up with North Yorkshire County Council to hold a programme of workshops for older and disabled people to make sure their voices are heard, to be creative and have fun.

Resident Voice has been designed to get older and disabled people who live in the council’s Extra Care to join the workshops and enjoy the chance to be creative and share their life stories in the process.

They can enjoy ceramics, textiles, block printing, drawing and painting well as singing at the almost 200 workshops - ten in each of 18 Extra Care schemes from Scarborough to Settle and Stokesley to Selby.

County Hall has committed £40,000 to the project in collaboration with Rural Arts, the first time such an intensive programme has been created.

Richard Webb, North Yorkshire’s director of health and adult services, said: "It is proving highly successful in tackling isolation, getting people to discover new interests and rekindle memories."