HMR Circle awarded funding for three years

HMR Circle members, pictured in December 2019

The Circle group for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale has been awarded funding from the National Lottery to help support its key activities.

HMR Circle is a membership-based service open to anyone over the age of 50, working boroughwide in Rochdale, Middleton, Heywood and the Pennine villages.

After a great deal of hard work and endeavour and the support of local Lottery Funding officer Aneeqa Javed, HMR Circle has been awarded funding from the Lottery’s Reaching Communities Fund, which will also allow the service to carry out targeted work to increase and diversify membership.

Circle membership includes access to a network of friendly and vetted local people who can help with gardening, technology and odd jobs around the house.

Thanks to the organisation’s volunteer driver scheme, members can get out and about to try new things, as suggested by members, and meet others with similar interests.

Mark Wynn, Director of Rochdale Circle, said: “We are obviously really pleased to get backing from the National Lotteries Reaching Communities Fund which will allow us to build on our existing work. Ensuring organisations like HMR Circle have the funding they require is difficult at the best of times, but with the current situation this will become increasingly more difficult.

“We have to thank all our partners, especially Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Rochdale Adult Care for their support and we hope we can continue to deliver an exemplar service for Rochdale's older population.”

He added: “We are working with Rochdale Council and partners during this difficult period and we are supporting the delivery of essential food and medicines to people who are socially isolated or cannot access the shops or pharmacies, as well as ensuring our current combined membership of Circle and the Volunteer Drivers Service of nearly 800 get a phone call to check they are ok and have everything they need.”