Residents put their trust in community group for wellbeing

A cost-of-living grant is helping one community group with people’s physical and mental wellbeing.

Trust House has grown from a small charity providing a community café in Whitefield to an organisation delivering a range of much needed support across the borough.

The charity is using a £2000 Cost of living Community Fund grant to add wellbeing sessions to its programme of support, which include support discussing individual’s wellbeing, exercise sessions, mindfulness and craft activities.

The challenges of living with the cost of living crisis is having an effect on residents’’ health. The Cost of Living Community Fund provided by Bury Council and Bury Voluntary Community and Faith Alliance (Bury VCFA), aims to support community groups to tackle a range of issues.

Trust House is a community centre based at the Metro Christian Centre just outside Bury town centre. It’s open to everybody, offering free support, advice, and guidance to those in need. This includes support discussing individual’s wellbeing, exercise sessions, mindfulness and craft activities.

As well as a community café offering free refreshments and a warm meal, it runs a food pantry, where for a small fee, members can get fresh fruit and vegetables, kitchen essentials and other goods. There’s a wide .range of groceries available including items used by Bury’s diverse cultures.

It also provides advice from help with understanding bills and household finances to support with family disputes, tackling loneliness, domestic violence as well as drug and alcohol abuse.

Katie Jenkinson, Centre Manager said: “Most of our visitors come to us, to the food pantry, through word of mouth, because they find they need to need help with their weekly shop.

“But that first step through the door is often the opportunity for us to talk to them about what is happening in their lives and how we can provide support. Our visitors come to us with an immediate need, and this enables us to have a conversation with them, to provide the help and support they need to get back on their feet.

“We’re not an alternative to a supermarket, and if people are coming to us week after week there are longer term issues in their lives which we try to help and support.

“A big issue for many people is isolation and feeling alone which has a severe effect on their mental wellbeing. We provide a safe space where people can come along and take place in activities and meet people while getting other support.”

Trust House first opened as a community café in Whitefield in 2019 and quickly grew to start an education programme. During Covid it took services out on the road, providing regular food and doorstep deliveries as well as advice and guidance and signposting taking place over the phone. That led to the development of the food pantry in September 2020 to provide a sustainable way of providing goods and services. In 2022 it moved to larger premises at the Metro Christian Centre.

“The community and voluntary sector is key to providing support during the cost-of-living crisis that we are all living through,” added Councillor Richard Gold, Cabinet Member for Finance and Communities.

“Groups such as Trust House are working directly with people in local areas and have detailed knowledge of the issues people are facing.

“It’s why we’ve set up our Cost of Living Community Fun, using the money from the government’s Household Support Fund, to help our volunteers help others. It’s only by working together to provide immediate support and tackling the longer-term issues that make people vulnerable that we will come through the crisis together.”

Trust House is open four days per week at the Metro Christian Centre, Parkhills Road, Bury (Mon, Tue, Thurs, Friday - from 10am-2pm).

If you are struggling with the cost of living go to Bury Council’s website for support – www.bury.gov.uk/benefits or call 0161 253 5400.

Pictured – Katie Jenkinson from the Trust House shows Cllr Gold how the food pantry works and explains about the other services Trust House provides

Hayley (left) and Susan take part in one of the wellbeing activities at Trust House