Parent & Carer Sessions

Running for ten years, our parents' cooking sessions evolved from the need of local parents to learn about cooking on a budget, whilst receiving a little extra support in their everyday lives. We cooked and ate a meal together, and the sessions provided a place to meet, to talk and to share problems, providing an escape from day-to-day stresses and issues.

Through building trusting relationships with all those who engaged, we were able to identify needs and issues for individuals as well as the whole family, working alongside the family unit to help them with a range of skills such as budgeting, health & nutrition, job applications, benefits advice, behaviour management strategies for dealing with their children, and any relevant signposting to specific or appropriate agencies that can offer specialist support. Being an advocate for families in this matter makes a marked difference in confidence, cohesion, communication, and the independence of each of the members within the family unit.

Belonging to a group can give a real sense of ownership & achievement, and together the group even made their own cookbook. This group evolved into our current cooking group, Make A Meal Of It, which is open to all ages and backgrounds whilst still keeping the core ethos of our original group.

After School Clubs

From 2014-2018, we ran an after school club at Holy Trinity Community Centre in Colne, for pupils at Primet Primary School.

This project was funded by our friends at Pendle Housing, who shared our concerns regarding the need for more intensive support for the borough's children. The area sadly faces multiple issues that impact negatively on our children, and one of them is food poverty. The impact this has on children’s ability to function and progress at school cannot be underestimated.

At each session, we provided a hot meal for each child, as well as arts and crafts activities and targeted group workshops looking some of the issues that the children faced - mental health, internet safety, firework safety, bullying & friendships, etc. The project was hugely successful in providing a warm and nurturing environment for the children to attend after school, engaging them in fun activities to develop skills and enable them to thrive and be happy.

We are eternally grateful for the support of Holy Trinity Church, Primet Academy & Park High School for their support in delivering this project.

Happy & Proud

The ‘Happy and Proud’ project by Calico Homes and Participation Works supported 13 young girls of primary and secondary school age from the South West Burnley area, helping them to boost their self-esteem and teaching them the importance of developing themselves outside of the school environment.

This involved working with heritage partners Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, visiting various museums in the region to learn more about topics such as equality, social justice and democracy. From this, they then created their own bespoke fabrics and textile banners to reflect their own individual personalities, views and values and gave the girls the chance to interview inspirational women from across the town.

The project received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to provide opportunities for young girls to develop their confidence, learn more about important women throughout history, and to learn new skills with a view to instilling a sense of pride in their home town and raising aspirations. The project was a great success and was even recognised with an award at the Northern Housing Awards 2019 ceremony held at Old Trafford.

Gannow Youth Cafe

The Gannow Holiday Club ran for four years from 2016-2019 in the majority of the school holidays across the year, tackling hunger and supporting young people with informal learning through games, interactive workshops and 1:1 support.

This project was funded by Gannow Big Local, and provided a vital place to go for hundreds of children over the years. We were supported by Burnley Youth Theatre, NCS, Children's Society and the Police to deliver activities covering topics such as: ASB, road safety, care for our communities, bullying, healthy eating, team building, resilience, confidence and self esteem and being positive citizens.

As well as providing enrichment activities and healthy, filling meals, we were also able to treat the children to sports days and trips out to local farms and outdoor activities.

Brierfield Spoken Word Project

This project ran in May 2015 and gave the opportunity for Muslim girls aged 11-16 to attend workshops exploring positive careers in broadcasting, production and performance based art.

Female artists who are Muslim can face enormous challenges in bringing their work to the public space. Led by two prominent female Muslim artists, this masterclass highlighted positive paths, stories and works of Muslim women who don’t compromise their faith or identity in order to achieve a strong identity, successful career and modest lifestyle.

The project was well attended and really well received, giving the girls a unique opportunity to meet & learn from two well-respected artists, Arfa Butt & Amerah Saleh.

Belgium WW1 Trip

This fantastic project enabled young people within the Asian heritage community to research their family’s connections to WW1, and also the community connections to WW1 within Brierfield & Nelson, Lancashire.

We found that local young people with Asian heritage did not have much concept of the sacrifice and bravery that their ancestors contributed to WW1 and had little respect for the Cenotaphs and the importance of remembering them. They also didn’t fully understand the historical significance and how that has enabled their families to live their lives in the Western World.

The project involved researching and collecting personal stories linked to our towns, learning about the impact the war had on local Asian culture, families and community. We researched specific names on our Cenotaph as well as the young people’s own family connections. We held community events in various venues to collect stories, memories and photos.

The highlight of the project was being able to take the young people to Belgium to see the war memorials & graves to help them understand the scale and impact of the war, and the importance of their ancestors’ contribution to the British Empire war effort. Throughout the project we worked alongside the Royal British Legion, Marsden Heights Community College & the communities of Brierfield & Nelson. We brought everything together in a celebration event at the end of the project.