Brentwood Middleton Day Centre opens its doors to the community

Brentwood Middleton Day Centre

Brentwood Middleton Day Centre and the Enhance Project opened its doors to the local community on Saturday.

The event was attended by 25 residents who were given a guided tour of the facilities available at the centre, together with an explanation of the advice and guidance provided by a highly trained team of staff and volunteers. Visitors also enjoyed hot and cold refreshments and drinks.

A local resident commented: “Even though I knew the centre was there, I had no idea of the range of help and support available to the people of Middleton from welfare rights and benefits, housing and homelessness, debt management, social inclusion and 340 referrals to the Middleton Central Foodbank.”

John Crosby, centre manager, commented: “We would like to thank all the volunteers and people who have donated their time and provided food and clothes to help us work with the issues that working with the disadvantaged present, we would also like to thank Strategic Housing Homelessness section and the Big Lottery Fund and help through crisis fund for providing the funding that has kept our service open.”

Another local resident knew many people who attend the centre for help and support, but had never been inside and met the staff and volunteers personally.

She was highly impressed when given statistics about the numbers of people using the centre, which from April 2016 to March 2017 totalled 5,338 attendances. Of these 1,925 total referrals were assisted for a variety of problems including homelessness and housing, medical, benefits, criminal justice and employment and education.

In addition, 4,848 took advantage of the provisions at the centre, which include breakfast and dinner, bath/shower/shave, laundry and haircuts.

In addition, 320 people have accessed services provided by other partners, e.g. Pathways and the Community Drug and Alcohol Outreach Team.

This year has seen provision at the centre grow even further with the introduction of holistic therapist Gayna Pendle who has delivered Crystal Healing & Chakra Balancing and Indian Head Massage to 60 people since starting at the centre on 11 July.

A Stand Tall Group has also been developed and is progressing well with assisting each other with their problems, being “Champions” for the Centre by learning from other organisations e.g. Recovery Republic and Mustard Tree Projects.

Other activities have been trips out to Alkrington Woods, Jubilee Park and a day trip to York with a guided tour of York Minster, followed by a fish and chip dinner.

Partner organisations are also delivering a Living Well educational programme based around the Five Ways to Wellbeing and Rochdale Borough User Forum are facilitating Colour Me Calm sessions on a weekly basis.

Petrus continue to host guitar sessions with professional tutors.

All activities and facilities at the centre are provided free of charge.

For more information on how to access the services, see the Brentwood community page on Rochdale Online:

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/sites/brentwood-day-centre