Spring 2023 Age Friendly Chorlton and Whalley Brochure FINAL JUNE 2023
Category: Age-Friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton
Annual Report for Age-friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton
We updated our Age-friendly Whalley Range and Chorlton Constitution in July 2022.
See the revised version here: Updated AFWR Ch Constitution June 2022 (2) https://www.whalleyrange.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Updated-AFWR-Ch-Constitution-June-2022-2.pdf
Age friendly Whalley Range and Chorlton Constitution April 2016
Very cold weather: NHS Tips to keep Warm
Follow these tips to keep you, your family and those around you warm and well in extremely cold weather.
To keep warm and well during spells of cold weather:
- Draw your curtains at dusk and keep your doors closed to block out draughts.
- Have regular hot drinks and eat at least one hot meal a day if possible. Eating regularly helps keep energy levels up during winter.
- Wear several light layers of warm clothes (rather than one chunky layer).
- Keep as active in your home as possible.
- Wrap up warm and wear shoes with a good grip if you need to go outside on cold days.
- If you have reduced mobility, are 65 or over, or have a health condition such as heart or lung disease, you should heat your home to at least 18C and make sure you wear enough clothes to stay warm. It’s a good idea to keep your bedroom at this temperature all night.
- If you’re under 65 and healthy, you can safely have your house cooler than 18C, if you’re comfortable.
Protect your health in the cold
Public Health England’s cold weather plan – https://tinyurl.com/y77ty3a8 – has tips on how to protect your health during cold weather.
Make sure you are receiving any benefits you are entitled to, such as the Winter Fuel Payment and Cold Weather Payment.
The Met Office has advice on getting ready for winter and some suggestions for practical things you can do to prepare for winter weather, including cold, ice and snow, high winds and flooding. The advice also tells you ways you can save money.
Travel carefully in icy weather
Icy pavements and roads can be extremely slippery. Take extra care if you go out, and wear boots or shoes with good grip on the soles. The Met Office advises putting grit or cat litter on paths and driveways to lessen the risk of slipping. It adds you should wait until the roads have been gritted if you’re travelling by car.
Bear in mind that black ice on pavements or roads might not be clearly visible, and compacted snow may turn to ice and become slippery.
How to find weather warnings
The Met Office provides the weather forecasts for broadcasts on radio and TV, so listen in to these bulletins regularly to keep up-to-date with the weather. Severe weather warnings are also issued on the Met Office website, through the Met Office Twitter feed, or you can ring the Weather Desk on 0870 900 0100.
Look in on vulnerable neighbours and relatives
Check up on friends, relatives and neighbours who may be more vulnerable to cold weather. Cold weather is especially dangerous for older people or people with serious illnesses, so check in on them if you can. Read about how to spot and treat hypothermia.
People with heart or respiratory (breathing) problems may have worse symptoms during a cold spell and for several days after temperatures return to normal.
You can find more information and advice on staying healthy in periods of cold weather in Winter health.
Older people: events, news, health, seminars and information sharing
Manchester Care and Repair: Big Energy Saving Week 2020 – 20 Ways to Save
Save in the kitchen
- Use a bowl to wash-up rather than running a tap, reduce your washing machine use by one cycle a week, and only fill the kettle with the water you need and you could save around £36 a year in the kitchen.
- A dripping tap can waste more than 5,300 litres of water a year, so make sure your taps are properly turned off and change washers promptly when taps start to drip.
- Save in the bathroom
- Spend one minute less in the shower each day and a family of four could save £75 a year on energy and water bills.
- A running tap wastes more than 6 litres of water every minute, so turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, shaving, or washing your face.
- Replacing an inefficient shower head with a water efficient one could save a household of four people around £70 a year off gas bills and around £115 a year off water bills.
Save on lighting - Turn your lights off when you’re not using them. If you switch a light off for just a few seconds, you will save more energy than it takes for the light to start up again. This will save you around £14 a year on your annual energy bills.
- Replace your bulbs as and when you can with energy efficient LEDs – on average it could save about £35 a year on bills.
Save on appliances - Turning your appliances off standby mode can save you £30 a year and remember not to leave laptops and mobile phones on charge unnecessarily.
Save on heating - If you have a timer on your central heating system, set the heating and hot water to come on only when required.
- If you turn down your main thermostat by 1 degree, you can around 10% on your energy bill. But make sure your home is warm enough during cold weather. Cold homes can damage your health.
- Installing a room thermostat, a programmer and thermostatic radiator valves and using these controls efficiently could save you around £75 a year.
- Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows and check for draughts around windows and doors.
- Draught-proofing of window and doors and blocking cracks in floors and skirting boards can save around £20 a year on energy bills.
Save by switching - Use the Citizens Advice energy price comparison tool to see if you can save money by switching energy tariff or supplier.
Save by getting extra support - Do a home energy check to find out about savings of up to £130 a year on household energy bills. Visit the Simple Energy Advice website and get personalised energy savings advice.
Visit your local Citizens Advice office to get advice in person about how to reduce your energy bills.
If anyone in your household is receiving benefits, contact your energy supplier and see what support they can provide. They should be able to tell you what help is available through the Energy Company Obligation.
If you need a little extra help from your energy company – including large print bills or more support during a power cut – you can apply to be added to your electricity network priority services register.
Check if you are eligible for the Warm Home Discount. Energy suppliers can provide rebates to households on certain benefits. The rebate is £140 for 2019/20 and you should contact your electricity supplier directly to see if you qualify.
If you live in Wales, contact the Welsh Government’s Nest scheme on 0808 808 2244 to see if you are eligible for a package of free home energy efficiency improvements such as a new boiler, central heating or insulation. If you are aged 60 or over and live in Manchester, you can also contact Manchester Care & Repair for help support with your energy costs. Or come and visit us at one of our upcoming events this Big Energy Saving Week, to see how we can help you.
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News from Manchester Cares
MCR Cares – February Programme
Winter Wellbeing Flyer (updated for 2019_20)
Computer Classes
News, meetings, courses and events
Latest Newsletter from Age-friendly Manchester
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Winter Wellbeing Flyer (updated for 2019_20)
Latest news and events from Manchester Cares:
https://manchestercares.org.uk/blog
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Archive news about Transport…
Are we getting there?
Age-friendly transport across Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester Older People Network Conference Report – Liz Jones, Macc
The following 23 questions were raised by participants during the course of the morning workshop.
Some were posed to Andy Burnham and the expert panel in the afternoon. The rest have now been submitted to Transport for Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub for responses.
- How will we prioritise investment and coordination of community transport schemes (such as Ring and Ride)?
- How do we get a complimentary, localised, fully accessible, funded, door to door transport service?
- How can the design of transport be improved? This can include better information, bus stops, seating, interchanges, training etc.
- How can we ensure that there is a consistent good level of training for understanding various needs across all transport?
- How can we expand and better tap into existing community assets, such as volunteer schemes, minibuses, taxi sharing etc?
- How are you going to better involve older people in decision-making around public transport? Are bus drivers currently given training run by older people/people with disabilities? If not, could they be in future?
- How do we involve older people in designing new provision For example, there are issues with the new Bolton interchange which could potentially have been avoided with a better commitment to co-design.
- Why cant free bus pass be used before 9:30am when a lot of hospital and health appointments are made before 9:30 am?
- Can we develop a more comprehensive network for Park and Ride?
- It is difficult to access toilets at main transport stations/interchanges. Can transport maps highlight local toilets and flag up community toilet schemes and/or publicise other nearby toilets?
11.Why isnt parking on pavements illegal in Greater Manchester?
12.Is a congestion charge for Manchester a consideration looking ahead?
13.How do we propose to make community transport more age-friendly, along the lines of the Ring and Ride scheme?
14.When is re-regulation of buses going to happen?
15.Can transport links/routes be linked or better integrated with hospital and health care locations? For example, having maps on display of bus, tram and train routes, indicating stops and routes for local hospitals and health centres.
16.Promotion what currently available, such as taxi vouchers, hailer cards etc. While these are available, they are not sufficiently known about. How do people find out about these? Can they be promoted more widely and at relevant times?
17.Are you surveying older people satisfaction of public transport? If so, can you share the results with the GMOPN?
18.Do you think it is right to ask people to surrender their bus pass in order to qualify for the taxi voucher scheme? Could both offers be flexible?
19.How do we help people not on main routes? Even a five-minute walk can be a real challenge.
20.Who can we can communicate with to get answers to questions and to be able to feed our ongoing concerns into transport planning?
21.Can we have real-time information displays at bus stops, as the case with trams and trains?
22.How are you going to better synchronise the bus, tram and train services?
Once we have received responses, we will publish a set of replies on our website at
www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/policy-and-influence/gm-older-peoples-network
Read the report below:
Staying cool in a heatwave: Advice from Age UK
Advice from NHS:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Summerhealth/Pages/Heatwave.aspx
Advice from Age UK
The sun and skin health
It very important to ensure that your skin isnt exposed to the sun for long periods, as this can lead to sunburn and make you more susceptible to skin cancer. Anyone can develop skin cancer, so it important to protect yourself whatever your skin type.
Protecting your skin
- Use sunscreen of at least sun protection factor (SPF) 15 with four or five stars. Apply it generously and top up at least every two hours and if you’ve been in water, reapply when you are dry. The sunscreen star rating shows its ability to protect your skin from damage and premature ageing.
- Apply sunscreen to any uncovered parts of your body. A hat will protect your head, face, ears and eyes.
- Choose sunglasses that have a CE mark, UV400 label or a statement that they offer 100 per cent UV (ultraviolet) protection.
- When the weather is hot, your skin may also feel drier than usual. Using moisturiser can help keep your skin healthy.
- If you have moles or brown patches on your skin, they usually remain harmless. But if they bleed, or change size, shape or colour, show them to your GP without delay. For more information visit the Cancer Research UK website.
Sun exposure and vitamin D
Although it important to protect your skin, some direct exposure to the sun is essential for the production of vitamin D.
Dont let your skin burn, but try to go outside once or twice every day without sunscreen for short periods from March to October. The more of your skin that is exposed, the better your chance of making enough vitamin D.
There are some food sources of vitamin D – salmon, sardines and other oily fish, eggs and fortified spreads – but sunshine is the major source.
The Government recommends vitamin D supplements for some groups of the population, including people aged 65 and over.
If you think you could be at risk of not getting enough vitamin D, particularly if you are housebound or cover your skin for cultural reasons, raise this with your GP. Always speak to your GP before starting to take a vitamin supplement or over-the-counter medicine on a daily basis.
Dehydration and overheating
Extreme heat and dry conditions can cause you to dehydrate and your body to overheat.
It important to eat a balanced diet to help your body replace any salt you lose by sweating. Aim to drink 6 – 8 glasses of liquid a day, and more if it hot.
You may also need to be careful if youre taking some types of medication that affect water retention. Speak to your GP if youre concerned.
Watch out for certain signs – particularly for muscle cramps in your arms, legs or stomach, mild confusion, weakness or sleep problems. If you have any of these, rest in a cool place and drink plenty of fluids. Seek medical advice if your symptoms persist or worsen.
Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
Heat exhaustion
The symptoms of heat exhaustion include headaches, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, intense thirst, heavy sweating and a fast pulse.
If you have any of these symptoms you must, if at all possible:
- find a cool place and loosen tight clothes
- drink plenty of water or fruit juice
- sponge yourself with cool water or have a cool shower.
Your symptoms should improve within 30 minutes. If you’re feeling better but still have any concerns, call your GP or NHS 111 for advice.
Heatstroke
Heatstroke can develop if heat exhaustion is left untreated – it can also develop suddenly and without warning.
The symptoms of heatstroke include confusion, disorientation, seizures and loss of consciousness.
Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition. If you or someone else shows symptoms:
- call 999 immediately, or 112 if you are in the European Union (you can call 112 from a mobile for free)
- if you have a community alarm, press the button on your pendant to call for help
- while waiting for the ambulance, follow the advice given for heat exhaustion but do not try to give fluids to anyone who is unconscious.
More information: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Summerhealth/Pages/Heatwave.aspx
WRCF News and Events: January 2019 Edition
Coming soon to Manley Park…
STOP PRESS: CHANGE OF DATE FOR CELEBRATE FESTIVAL!!!!
We’ve had to reschedule Celebrate to Saturday 15th June!
More info to follow!
https://www.whalleyrange.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Newsletter-Winter-18-19.pdf
Read the latest issue of our Whalley Range News & Events – featuring local news, activities and reports
Click the link below:
Generate our Kitchen: proposed health & wellbeing centre at JNR8
We now have a fabulous shiny new community kitchen for our existing groups – and to start up some exciting new ones!
https://www.facebook.com/hungryJNR8/videos/447197002738525/
https://www.facebook.com/hungryJNR8/videos/614239952395107/
https://www.facebook.com/hungryJNR8/videos/355136871857307/
How it all began…
The work has begun at JNR8…
Many thanks to Mick for organising the work from the ISG construction company who have been supporting our project.
The team have knocked down the redundant chimney above the kitchen so that the work can commence…wet rot caused a few problems – but moving forward we are working with local building teams to get on with the work!
Many thanks to the team from Hyde Demolition who removed the chimney
Crescent Roofing who have patched up the roof ready for the next stage
Timberwise – roofing experts who came along to check out the roof for any issues
Watch this space for updates!
https://www.facebook.com/hungryJNR8/
We are well on our way to realising our dream for our community kitchen!
We have now secured grants for a new energy efficient boiler from the Manchester City Council’s Neighbourhood Investment Fund…
and a new commercial cooker thanks to a grant from the Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund!
We have received a fantastic donation of ‘pre-loved’ stainless steel kitchen equipment and an offer to carry out some of our building work – from ISG – a dynamic construction company currently working in schools across Greater Manchester…
The Whiz project young people who are working towards their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award have recorded interviews with building users to find out their thoughts about the current facilities and the benefits of a new kitchen.
Listen to some of the interviews here:
Please Help!
We are struggling to feed and support our hungry community.
Our kitchen is a shambles and weve had to suspend lots of our vital cooking activities!
Food has always been a very important aspect of our work in terms of bringing people together, cook and eat: we have produced cookery guides and recipe books: our under 12 cookery class appeared on Ready Steady Cook!
We love Whalley Range and talked to residents about what they want – and this is what they said:
Cookery lessons, Meal budgeting advice, Catering courses, Cook & Taste sessions, Community Meals
Healthy meal ideas, Cheap nutritious meal plans, Heritage & ESOL food courses, Intergenerational cooking
Learning about vitamins & food sources, Healthy nutritious meals for one, Family cooking sessions,
With a fully accessible professional kitchen we know we could meet these priorities – and more!
Since 1998 we have been based at the JNR8 Youth & Community Centre – the leased community rooms of
Manley Park Church – providing a range of inclusive projects for our richly diverse community.
There are 2 main charitable organisations based here.
Whalley Range Community Forum (WRCF) sources funding and facilitates daytime activities for the community and a weekly social and cooking group for people experiencing mental ill health.
Whalley Range Youth Opportunities Association (WRYOA) runs an evening Youth Club and holiday play schemes.
The Church has made major improvements over the past years: a new hall floor, energy efficient boiler and new double glazed windows and doors. WRCF has sourced funding for furniture, laptops and storage for the many groups who provide activities/classes.
We have decided to all come together to fundraise for a new professional, accessible kitchen to improve health & wellbeing. We named our project: Generate our Kitchen – as our building – JNR8 – is pronounced Generate!
With one part-time member of staff and a voluntary committee for WRCF and WRYOA – along with fantastic teams of volunteers and sessional youth workers – we are the only local centre serving the community with activities for all ages and cultures, providing crisis support and celebrating the area by bringing people together to improve mental and physical health and wellbeing and raising aspirations.
Based on consultations at our events we aim to:
Help reduce isolation by providing social groups,
Encourage people to engage with others: Coffee mornings, Afternoon Tea, Support groups
Improve employability and confidence/self-esteem building
Provide ESOL support with English speaking and writing
Provide basic and improvers computer skills with internet access
Run Work clubs and Computer classes
Provide Youth provision and Play schemes including Duke of Edinburgh Award, Girls Night
Promote Healthy eating Health & Wellbeing and Fitness classes
Reduce the stigma around mental ill health
Provide crisis support including Hate Crime reporting centre and Foodbank voucher distribution
Thai Boxing
Tai Chi
Women Health
Age-friendly
Child Friendly
Hate Crime Awareness and International Women Day events
Debates
Book and film launches
Babies & toddlers groups
Meetings
Advice sessions
Something for the youngest to the oldest, the Celebrate festival at our community centre – along with a wide range of other activities for everyone of all ages in our richly diverse community!
We love living in Whalley Range and as a Community Forum we have talked to residents about what they want!
- Cookery lessons
- Meal budgeting advice
- Catering courses
- Cook & Taste sessions
- Community Meals
- Healthy meal ideas
- Cheap nutritious meal plans
- Heritage food courses
- Intergenerational cooking
- Learning about vitamins & food sources
- Healthy nutritious meals for one
- Family cooking sessions
- A fully accessible professional kitchen
- Practical ESOL cookery sessions
- Production of a tried & tested cook book
And much more!
The JNR8 Youth & Community Centre is the base for the Whalley Range Community Forum, Whalley Range Youth Opportunities Association Whiz Youth Project, Celebrate, Age-friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton and Whalley Range Mental Health & Wellbeing.
We lease the building from Manley Park Methodist Church from Monday to Friday providing a range of classes, events and activities including an evening week-day youth club and holiday play for children.
On Friday evenings the volunteer-led wellbeing group Time to Change meet up offering support and removing the stigma around mental ill health by running a social group with pool, music, Tai Chi, bike repairs and to prepare, cook and eat a meal together.
The Church provides regular fundraising coffee mornings and soup lunches for the community and they let the building out on Saturday evenings to Youth on Solid Ground for their weekly youth club.
Our groups love to cook and want to promote and share cooking and eating together to reduce isolation, improve skills and employability and to improve their health.
We could provide so much more if our currently inadequate and practically unusable kitchen was updated and fit for purpose!
Representatives of the groups who share the building are applying for funding under the banner
Generate our Kitchen
Please could you help us by completing our survey to support our request for funding?
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5P3BN82
The survey is anonymous but you can add your details if you are interested in getting involved.
Visit the Age-friendly and well-being marquee to read more and to collect a hard copy of the survey.
Thanks for your support!
Email us at generateourkitchen@gmail.com to get involved
Generate our Kitchen – All about us!
The JNR8 (pronounced ‘Generate) Youth & Community Centre is the weekly base for the Whalley Range Community Forum, Whalley Range Youth Opportunities Association (WRYOA) Whiz Youth Project, Celebrate, Age-friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton and Whalley Range Mental Health & Wellbeing.
The JNR8 centre is a fantastic community resource – and we run a wide range of activities during the week for all ages, including ESOL, fitness, confidence building and social and self-help groups for people to come together to reduce isolation/encourage participation and friendships.
Cookery has always been a big part of our community engagement at JNR8 (our under 12 group even featured on Ready Steady Cook!) and we have a long history of providing community meals and food projects including the Food 4 Us cookery toolkit, Heritage cookery projects and intergenerational recipe sharing.
We are currently fundraising to improve our kitchen – as many of our cookery and nutrition classes have had to be put on hold as the kitchen is not fit for purpose.
Please find the link to our short survey here:
Our exciting plan is to access funding to turn our current inadequate facilities into a professional kitchen so we can resume all the regular classes – and provide so much more!
We run a work club under the banner Generating Opportunities: a professional kitchen will enable us to provide catering, cooking and nutrition classes to improve skills and employability and projects that use cookery to improve English
In addition we want to resume our shared community meals – such as the successful Come 4 Tea, Festive Feasts and share recipes from around the world.
The Building is lovely – fantastic multi-use hall, storage for our projects, a chill out room, an IT room for computer beginners and improvers, a classroom for learning, teaching, presenting, planning and meeting.
Now look at our existing kitchen…
And look at some of the fantastic projects that go on here:
Imagine what we will all be able to do when we –
Generate our Kitchen!
Please find the link to our short survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/5P3BN82
Generate our Kitchen JustGiving Page: www.justgiving.com
Local resident Chris Williams is the Creator of the Anne Frank Project…
Local resident Chris Williams is the Creator of the Anne Frank Project…
‘a chronicled storyboard in words and music called: ‘six million voices – one girl – and a diary’
“Having 2 minutes to talk about the Anne Frank project, made me think about the concept of ‘time’. 25 years ago, the Diary of Anne Frank was planted into my mind and gave me the idea to compose a short piece of music which I called a ‘Trilogy’.
It saved the day by supplying the impetus for the 1st music assignment required on a 4-year Degree program.
25 years later I picked the ‘Trilogy’ back off the shelf and began working on it as a project.
It took 2 years to compose enough music, create Synopsis’ wordage, gather extracts from the Diary, and gain permission from the Anne Frank Family Trust in Switzerland, to complete the writing of one C.D.
One year ago I launched the Music Disc and one month ago produced a companion audio ‘Talking Book’.
Anne spent 2 years writing her detailed Diary. She died 2 months before the Concentration Camps were liberated.
Anne’s story pierced my heart, because of the inhumane atrocities to which she was subjected; Anne’s story also strengthened my heart, because of the courage and tenacity with which she endured the horrors of her persecution.
Through this journey of the Diary of Anne Frank, I have been liberated from my own struggles as a victim of abuse and have found my own voice. The result is a chronicled storyboard in words and music called: ‘six million voices – one girl – and a diary’. The story will not end there as I continue to write and compose the Anne Frank Project, because Anne’s life is unsinkable. Thank you for listening.
chris williams
anne frank project
soundcloud
Anne Frank was a 13 year old girl, living an ordinary life in Amsterdam, Holland.
Caught up in World War Two, Anne lost her life, but left behind an enduring legacy in the writing of her Diary.
During those turbulent times, Anne examined through words and in her thinking, to rationalise everything – the behaviours of other people, and in the party of hideaways with whom she was trapped inside a secret annexe for two years; and the actions of Hitler and his army of followers, of their attempt to wipe out the Jewish population.
Anne own personal feelings towards others, her adolescent mood swings, the daily grinding routines within the secret annexe, her love of nature, God and music, her fears of the unknown, the joy of love as she became aware of her fluctuating emotions for boys, her own self-recognition of developing from a child into a young woman; all of these aspects were recorded into the detailed expressions of Anne two years of Diary writing.
Although Anne was physically trapped and immobilised within the square footage of the secret annexe, she was always moving forward in her mind, through her rigorous and continued education; reading and learning were keenly structured into her two years of enforced hiding from the world. Through contemplation and reflection, dreaming and forward thinking, Anne was constantly maturing.
This ethos I have hoped to incorporate into the music, to make it a travelling music, a travelling experience for the listener, a progressive journey for and in the mind of the audience, encapsulating two predominant years of Anne life.
I advocate that the content and impact of Anne illuminating Diary gives cause to the expression of many manners of musical composition to be explored and displayed.
As for the profound significance of this abominable subject on victimisation, I have intended to produce a sincere and honest music biography of The Diary of Anne Frank.
And through my music, to remind the cause for peace, tolerance, and non-violence amongst all peoples, past, present and future.
Thanks for reading
Chris Williams – Creator of the Anne Frank Project
A Synopsis for each track is available. Be sure to click on the track or its photo.
About Age-friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton
Read the Age-friendly Whalley Range & Chorlton constitution here:
https://www.whalleyrange.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Age-friendly-Whalley-Range-and-Chorlton-Constitution-April-2016.pdf
Read more in the Report
All Aboard for Cromwell Community Cuppa and the Creative Conversation group!
On Wednesday 13th of September our two JNR8 over 50’s groups went on an adventure aboard the Prince Henry narrow boat to Boothstown from Stretford Marina.
The trip was paid for thanks to a donation we’d received last year from our local pharmacy, Well Whalley Range.
7 of us: Chris, Margaret, Sue, Joyce, Audrey, Sheila and her friend Kay – booked onto the trip and invited 4 of the members of the Live Well Make Art group: Lotte, Carol, Gail and Jasmine to join us.
The Art group actually took part in an iPad masterclass with Lotte!
The trip was a real success and a great experience – and we would all recommend it to any groups who are looking for a day trip with a difference!
Read more about the project who organises the trips below – and see more of our photos here: https://www.whalleyrange.org/8785-2/
All Aboard is Emma, Claire, Richard, Liz and Julie, a group of parents who were regular users of Trafford Council’s Openlock Project. When the project came to an end earlier this year, we put in a successful bid to take on one of the narrow boats, ‘Prince Henry,’ for local community use for the next three years.
The canal is the fastest way to slow down and our aim is bring you a variety of workshops and events to help steer away from the pace and pressure of everyday life and promote well being, relaxation and learning in a calm and peaceful environment.
We also offer a range of standard skippered day-hire trips plus themed and seasonal days out.
All are welcome aboard. We offer subsidised rates for charities, CICs and community groups, including children and young people with SEN and learning differences; carers; the elderly, and people with disabilities. Please contact us directly to discuss individual access requirements due to the space and layout of the boat.
Henry is moored at Stretford Marina on the Bridgewater canal. Free car parking is available. Alternatively we are a 10 minute walk from Trafford Park railway station or a 15 minute walk, along the canal towpath, from Stretford Metrolink station.
For bookings and enquiries please e-mail: allaboardmcr@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/AllAboardManchester/
Befriending, connecting and more: Age-friendly news
Members of Age-friendly Whalley Range and Chorlton were happy to welcome a group of delegates from the Standing Committee for Health and Social Welfare from Oslo City Council to our community centre recently.
We received a message from the group upon their return to Oslo:
Good morning 🙂
On behalf of The Standing Committee on Health and Social Welfare in Oslo I want to thank you a lot for hosting us last Monday.
You have a very inspiring place, attitude and experiences and the group visiting you expressed that in plenum.
We have arrived safely in Oslo after interesting and great days in Manchester and Leeds.
Good luck with your future work.
Yours sincerely
Hans–Olav Toft
Secretary of The Standing Committee on Health and Social Welfare
(Thanks to Russell and Dave for letting us use the the church as it was enrolment day in the JNR8 hall for our ESOL learners!)
Manchester Cares is a brand new community network of young professionals and older neighbours hanging out and helping one another in our rapidly changing city.
We do this because our home town of Manchester is a wonderful place, with innovation and influence, history and heart at its core. There’s always so much going on, from new music to new businesses to new people arriving all the time.
But the city we love is now growing and changing at double speed, and that leaves some people feeling anonymous, isolated and left behind.
For our older neighbours in particular, many of whom have spent a lifetime in their home neighbourhoods, the rush and pace of the city can often now feel too much. Getting around can be difficult, and trends including globalisation, gentrification, migration and digitisation are transforming communities faster than ever before.
The multiplying effect of those pressures is that many older people have deep roots – from Ancoats to Ardwick, Longsight to Levenshulme – but few connections. Meanwhile, young professionals – often graduates from across the country and around the world – can have hundreds of connectionsin the social media age, but often no roots in their communities.
The separation of those parallel worlds wastes human potential, entrenches loneliness and isolation, perpetuates social division and is ultimately corrosive for our society.
Manchester Cares seeks to address this modern blight of disconnection by harnessing the people and places around us for the benefit of all.
Our objectives are to:
- Reduce isolation and loneliness amongst older people and young professionals alike
- Improve the connection, confidence, skills, resilience and power of all participants so neighbours can feel part of our changing city rather than left behind by it
- Bring people together to reduce the gaps across social, generational, digital, cultural and attitudinal divides.
Find out more: https://manchestercares.org.uk/about-us
ABOUT CYRIL FLINT BEFRIENDERS
With over 5 million elderly people living on their own, and 50% citing television as their main source of company, loneliness is an ever-present problem within our community (Campaign To End Loneliness).
Cyril Flint, an elderly pensioner living on his own in the Trafford area, was a classic example of one such individual. Having spent 20 lonely Christmas holidays on his own, since the passing of his wife, Cyril story not only evoked a wave of compassion within the community, but it also made us want to do something to help. Setting up an informal befriending service, designed to help prevent social isolation, seemed like the perfect solution. Since its creation, our scheme has grown throughout the Manchester area and we now have an increasing number of active volunteers throughout the community. https://www.cyrilflint.org
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