On Wednesday, charity Inspiring Communities Together brought the community of Charlestown and Lower Kersal under one roof at Salford’s Sport Village to celebrate the festive period with food, drinks and a Christmas singalong.
Inspiring Communities Together’s aim is to ensure that children in Charlestown and Lower Kersal have access to the best possible start in life by offering child care. They also offer other care schemes such as ‘Live Well’ and ‘Age Well’ for different ages.
This annual festive event was attended by children, parents, local police officers and even Father Christmas himself.
In attendance at the event was PC Jones of Greater Manchester Police, who said “It’s a good way for us to widen our profile within the community and to talk to anybody about any issues that they might have or anything they might wish to report.”
Bringing the community together is vital, and event organiser Gerry Stone spoke of how popular the celebration is; “It’s really good to bring people together as a community, especially at Christmas and it’s a nice opportunity for the children to get a bit of a present and the children can get their tea so they don’t have to worry about that.”
“It’s ran by local people and we employ all local people.
“It really is a grass root organisation working at grass root level and also at a strategic level to change people’s lives for the better.”
CEO of the charity Bernadette Elder explained where the money raised on the evening would be going; “Whatever is raised goes to the food bank.
“We encourage the who attend to interact and try to give back, if they can, to those who perhaps don’t have as much as we all do for Christmas.”
“‘We work with other charities, and we like to make sure we give something back.
“We decided this year for the food bank as we realised obviously there is a problem in the Salford area for people who just haven’t got the money at the moment for food.”
The Salford community came together to support those in need, and the event proved popular with residents of the Salix Homes estate, which was built to provide affordable homes to the people of Salford.
Residents of the estate who attended this event, were given free gifts for their children, alongside free hot pot and mince pies.
Nicola Johns, a volunteer at Inspiring Communities Together said “‘Without the community support we would not have been able to do this, it’s popular because people can get together, chat and have something to eat. Sometimes the local councils turn up and sing together too. It’s a nice open friendly space. We want it to be bigger and better every year”
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