B & Q Community Grant for Pure Innovations

Emma Birkett (Day Service Assistant) working with Zaffer Hussein and Paul Pratt in Queens Park

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Alkrington Day Centre has Celebrated success in gaining a community grant of £500 from Sandbrook Park Rochdale B amp; Q store.

A park warden scheme had been established at Queens Park, Heywood, and schools’ projects at Little Heaton and St John Fisher Primary Schools in Middleton.  But tools and equipment were in short supply. A visit by Day Service Assistant Tony Cox to the B amp; Q store at Sandbrook Park to price up and select tools provided a happy solution.

A park warden scheme had been established at Queens Park, Heywood, and schools’ projects at Little Heaton and St John Fisher Primary Schools in Middleton. But tools and equipment were in short supply. A visit by Day Service Assistant Tony Cox to the B amp; Q store at Sandbrook Park to price up and select tools provided a happy solution. When he told a member of the staff there, June Barron, what he wanted the tools for, she suggested an application to the store for a 'better neighbour grant' – and it was successful.

“It was marvellous news,” enthused Mr Cox. “The grant has enabled us to buy a wide range of tools so that our service users have equipment at all three sites. The ergonomically designed cultivating tools specially suited to their needs have been particularly welcomed. The grant from B amp; Q Rochdale has enabled us to raise the profile of the service users in the community and the work they have done had been particularly appreciated”.

The Warden at Queens Park John Watkin said: “The team’s work in the park has been invaluable. They help to keep the newly restored park in all its glory. And they are a great group to work with."

Dorothy Hicks, the bursar at Little Heaton School, said: “Thank you Pure Innovations for the wonderful job you are doing at the school. The garden has been transformed from a derelict patch to a lovely rockery, which  looks beautiful this summer." 

And the head teacher at St Joseph Fisher RC Primary School Mrs Kenny was equally enthusiastic about the work of Assistant Anita Robinson and her team of service users at the school: “Thank you to all the Pure Innovations team for your lovely sunny dispositions which transmit through everyone in our school!”

Pure Innovations Ltd, a not for profit organisation, took over in Rochdale a year ago, working with people in Rochdale and Middleton to offer opportunities to service users to develop skills which they could use in voluntary work in the local community.