The Curzon Ashton Community Foundation has been operating as a charity for three years, working in Tameside. This part of the Greater Manchester area has been particularly affected by COVID-19 restrictions. In partnership with 0161 Community, they designed and published fitness activity and art therapy books aimed at families. They distributed these including a skipping rope and a pack of felt pens to over 500 families in Tameside during the beginning of lockdown. These books were very well received, and they are now in the process of designing something similar on a much larger scale.
“The packs have made a huge difference to families in this area during lockdown as it’s given the kids something to do and learn new activities at the same time. It’s exactly the kind of stuff we needed from local authorities that wasn’t provided. For families to learn the fitness exercises together was great, really kept us going during the last months.” said local resident Denise Baker.
“We were inundated with requests for the packs and it became abundantly clear that they were desperately needed across the community. People were struggling with being under lockdown and to be able to provide them with something to do which they could continue to use and learn from was fantastic. You could see how much of a difference it was making to people of all ages from across the community.” Jozef Chlebik, from 0161 Community