Friends of Infirmary Area, voluntary group created in 2015 by local resident Hannah Goldthorpe MBE, are celebrating their 10th anniversary this month.
Run completely by volunteers, the group connects with vulnerable adults and the elderly across the borough of Blackburn with Darwen, and aspires to bring people together reducing loneliness and social isolation through their many grassroot projects.
Their initial project was a weekly coffee morning. Driven by its success, Hannah introduced a local newsletter reaching out to thousands of local residents. By the end of the first year Hannah and her team had successfully held a number of “Afternoon Tea” events engaging with over a thousand elderly residents.
In 2018 the group wanted to create an older people’s lunch club, looking for somewhere central they decided to approach Blackburn College, the catering department embraced the idea and Scholars Senior Lunch Club was created, hugely popular. It now runs on a fortnightly basis within college term times.
During the Covid pandemic the group’s volunteers delivered multiple community projects directly to people’s homes. They started a weekly ‘meals on wheels’ project for older and vulnerable people, preparing and delivering meals.
Not wanting to stop there, the volunteers organised a shopping service and helped over five hundred residents over a 14-month period. Hannah and her team distributed emergency food parcels, prescriptions, and care packages.
During the Christmas lockdowns the group organised two Christmas ‘meals on wheels’ projects and cooked over 300 meals on both occasions, which were then delivered directly to families, vulnerable people and the elderly across Blackburn and Darwen.
In recent years and at the request of BwD neighbourhood services the group setup another weekly coffee group at the Albion Mill Integrated Care facility for both the residents and local community to enjoy. The group also organises periodically environmental clean-up’s, maintains two community flowerbeds in Blackburn and runs a seasonal gardening club at Albion Mill, furthermore they also support individual residents and families where needed.
Now ten years on they hold a number of coffee groups, lunches in a number of locations, a fortnightly lunch club, lots of different activities and continue to engage with hundreds of residents. Recently recognised for this work when they were finalist at the Community Volunteer Awards.
Hannah Goldthorpe received an MBE in 2022 for services to vulnerable people and the community of Blackburn, Lancashire. Hannah saw this as a great honour.
“The positive benefits that social groups have are endless not only improving individuals mental well-being but assisting with reducing loneliness and isolation in daily life, this voluntary group over the past ten years has helped thousands of local people and improved residents daily lives and wellbeing through actively offering established community projects while making positive improvements at local level. I am excited to see what the future may hold.”
