PRESS RELEASE 24/3/16

Community Compass to help Malpas residents ‘find a way out of loneliness’

Community Compass, a new, Brightlife-funded social enterprise helping to reduce loneliness, is celebrating its arrival in Malpas with a free Community Event at Jubilee Hall on Saturday 2nd April.

Over the coming months, Community Compass will be running a series of ‘Compass Clubs’ in Malpas, providing community-based activities designed to help people of all ages find a way out of loneliness. Joining a Compass Club gives older peoplethe opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills and enjoy new things whilst staying active, independent and involved.

The free Community Event, held at Jubilee Hall from 10am-2pm on Saturday 2nd April 2016,will feature Compass Club taster sessions for everything from poetry and creative writing to knitting and badminton.

There will be a chance to chat to Community Compass founders Yvonne Boyle and Simone Cobbold, and to meet representatives from Cheshire Wildlife Trust and Brio Leisure (owners of Malpas Sports Centre). There will also be free refreshments, including afternoon tea.

“We are proud to be launching Community Compass in Malpas,” says co-founder Simone Cobbold. “It is a wonderful community and we hope that our free Community Event will be a great opportunity for residents to come and find out more about us and what we are doing to tackle loneliness in the area.”

Community Compass is an official ‘Champion’ for Get Creative, the new BBC campaign to encourage participation in creative activities. The Malpas Community Event on 2nd April coincides with Get Creative Day, when Get Creative Champions across the UK will be holding free events to bring people together and celebrate creativity in all its forms.

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Contact:

Simone Cobbold ‪‪

Yvonne Boyle

01606 827131

Notes to Editors:

  • Community Compass CIC is a Brightlife-funded social enterprise (Company number09913662), set up to support communities in delivering sustainable, creative and active social groups or ‘Compass Clubs’.
  • Brightlife is a partnership led by Age UK Cheshire (Registered Charity Number 1091608). It has been awarded £5m as part of the Big Lottery’s Fulfilling Lives, Ageing Better fund, which has given a total of £82m to 15 areas throughout England in order to improve the lives of up to 200,000 older people
  • The Brightlife partnership includes: Age UK Cheshire, Older People’s Network, Cheshire West and Chester Council, West Cheshire CCG, Vale Royal CCG, Cheshire and Warrington Social Enterprise Partnership, Chester Voluntary Action, Deafness Support Network, Rural Community Services, Sanctuary Housing and West Cheshire Inter Faith Forum.
  • Over the next five years, Brightlife aims towork closely with older people to identify, design and implement a wide range of innovative solutions to address loneliness and isolation across Cheshire West and Chester.
  • Nationally, over 1 million older people say they are always or often feel lonely, and two-fifths say the television is their main form of company.With the numbers of older people aged 65 or over in the UK predicted to rise by nearly 50% in the next 20 years, loneliness is an urgent problem.
  • BBC Get Creative is a campaign that encourages participation in creative activities and recognises and celebrates the arts and culture that happen every day across the nation. The campaign invites arts, cultural and community organisations of all shapes and sizes to put on free events that inspire people to develop and share their own creativity. Launched in February 2015 by the BBC and What Next? with help from Timothy Spall, Johnny Vegas and Lily Cole, the campaign now has over 1000 Get Creative 'Champions' committed to running inspiring, motivating and free Get Creative events.