The laughter and conversation rises as fast as the coffee cups empty when the Social Connections groups get together at the Andrew Kerr Care AgeWell Centre.

Today is the Tuesday’s Ladies Group, and they’re being pampered with hand massages. But it’s none of the soulful Zen-stuff: they laugh and chat the whole way through. They’ve all become good friends, and they’ve each got a week’s worth of news to share with each other.

The ladies also do light chair exercises, limbering up to keep fit. Once again this is a lot of fun as they get into the swing of a range of upper-body stretches designed to promote core fitness. There’s also bingo, table tennis, art and crafts, trivia quizzes and a whole lot more.

The art lessons are taken by local artist Betty Cooper, 95, who has been a customer at the centre for the last ten years and who exhibited her work at the Oak Hill Gallery in Mornington mid last year. Betty loves coming to the centre and gets great joy in helping foster artistic talent. “It gives me a great deal of pleasure to watch them gain confidence and produce lovely works of art,” she says.

Pam Julicher who lives in Mt Martha has been coming to the centre for the last two years and says, “It’s lovely here. The company is good and I’ve made some very good friends. The lunch is always great too!”

Groups run from 9.30am to 2.30pm five days a week and Centre Coordinator Alison Lay prides herself on getting the right people to fit into the groups she thinks they’ll enjoy the most. The groups range in size from seven to a dozen people, with space for up to 15. They need a referral to join after being assessed by My Aged Care. The time spent at the centre also doubles up as respite care for those family members caring for their loved ones who attend.

“I get great joy in seeing the customers thoroughly enjoy themselves,” explains Alison. “Over the years I’ve seen older people come in quite shy and reserved, and I’ve watched them blossom as they make friends and find themselves having fun.”

The Ladies Group is on Tuesday while the Men’s Group is on Thursday. Alison says the members of the men’s group are all just as close. “Someone will share a dad-joke, then they’ll laugh and start swapping hilarious parenting stories. Then they’ll chat about their past careers, the trips they’ve been on and everything else in between.”

The Friday Group is a bit different. It’s bus outing day. Clients are picked up at their homes and they head out to iconic spots on the peninsula. There are trips locally or further afield to Seaford, Chelsea, Dromana or Rye where there’s coffee at the beach followed by lunch at a local restaurant or pub.

“The group often decides where we go, and sometimes it’s on the spur of the moment,” explains Alison. “One day a trip was planned to the strawberry farm, but the ladies wanted a bit of retail therapy and chose to go op-shopping instead. They had a fabulous day and spent lunch chatting about what they’d seen or bought.”

Find out more about Uniting AgeWell’s social connection groups.