BIGGER Hearts Ballarat founders Anne Tudor and Edie Mayhew are praising a push for Australia’s first dementia-friendly village in central Victoria.

The couple has led a gradual cultural change to make Ballarat a dementia-friendly city and said that ultimately, the village model was a smaller, more specialised version of what they were trying to achieve.

Based on a Dutch concept, the Heathcote village proposal has been about for three years but gained traction in the past month when deemed a high priority for federal funding by City of Greater Bendigo.

Plans for the facility would include accommodation for about 150 residents with shops, cafes and parkland, designed to be both safe and stimulating from people living with dementia.

“It would be an outstanding feat in the town,” Ms Tudor said. “This is more aimed at residential care, compared with what we’re doing in Ballarat, but it’s still introducing a city-wide positive attitude for dementia...It’s such a boom for (Heathcote) – there are so many economic benefits.”

Ms Tudor said the village model was specially designed aged care for people living with dementia, often designed to remind residents of what life was like when they were younger. All who work in the village are specially trained to work in dementia care.

As a dementia-friendly city, the Bigger Hearts campaign has worked to raise awareness in the community  and to form an alliance for dementia-friendly places about Ballarat, like cafes. Both promote inclusiveness and confidence for people living with dementia.

Ballarat has hosted a National Symposium on Dementia and Love in February and key arts-based initiatives to break perceived notions of people who live with dementia.

Celebrate Ageing will host an information session for its ambitious 100 stories, collecting experiences of people living with dementia in Ballarat, at Ballarat North Community House on Wednesday afternoon.