Wellingborough's Glamis Hall For All day centre awarded £50,000 lockdown lifeline

A Wellingborough day centre charity has been awarded a £50,000 grant - a share of £9.5m of National Lottery funding to help recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Community group Glamis Hall for All in Goldsmith Road, which serves Wellingborough and its surrounding villages, has been awarded through the Covid-19 Community-Led Organisations Recovery Scheme (CCLORS).

CCLORS is led by independent trust Power to Change in partnership with Locality, The Ubele Initiative and Social Investment Business, and was part of The National Lottery Community Fund’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund, that launched in May this year.

Heather Saunders, chair of trustees of Glamis Hall for All, said: “This grant gives us financial security through what will be our most challenging winter ever. It enables us to keep our day centre open come what may for our vulnerable clients, provides them and us with some stability and routine in these most uncertain of times and helps to look forward to getting back to normal when the pandemic has run its course.”

Along with many other organisations, Glamis Hall closed to the public in March and had to furlough 50 per cent of their staff.

In April, it joined with the Victoria Centre (another local community centre) to create the One Wellingborough partnership, largely funded by the Wellingborough Council and providing Covid-19 relief effort for people struggling during lockdown and beyond.

Since shielding ended in August, the day centre reopened with vastly reduced capacity, the income from which did not cover costs.

This grant will enable Glamis Hall for All to keep its day centre for older people open in some form until restrictions due to Covid-19 are finally lifted and it secures the jobs of the eight people employed at the centre.

Ms Saunders added: "The struggle is not completely over for Glamis Hall however, as its Northamptonshire County Council funding ceases at the end of March 2021 when the council’s public health budget focuses on people with health inequalities more complex than just age.

"Residents are urged to lobby their county councillors to make funds available from the adult social care budget to help centres like Glamis Hall provide an invaluable service to older people in the county and respite for their carers."

Glamis Hall for All consists of a day centre for the over 50s, a large hall with a kitchen and servery and several meeting room that can be hired by organisations and the public.

It is home to a youth club, football club and the Wellingborough base of GLJ Theatre. It hosts an indoor ‘Boot Sale’ once a month between September and May, organises a Summer Family Festival and Christmas Festival for the local community on an annual basis. It is also the new home to the annual Wellingborough Pride event.

For more infomation click here for the Glamis Hall For All website or click here for their Facebook site.