GOOD Morning West Belfast – the social service which has been vital in helping the over-55s combat loneliness and isolation – hosted a large Christmas party at the Andersonstown Social Club to celebrate all of its members and the contribution they make to the vital service.
The group, which forms part of the Ardmonagh Family and Community Group, was a lifeline for those elderly members of our community who suffered from isolation during the pandemic.
Gemma McKeron, Team Leader at Good Morning West Belfast, said the party celebrated the users who keep the vital service going.
“This is a celebration for our Good Morning West Belfast service and we had about 100 of our members here today to enjoy the day.
“We cater for up to 500 members of the community aged over-55. We tackle and try to prevent loneliness and isolation. This is an event to celebrate them and their support of us. We run a lunch club five days a week and also run free activities with an extensive activities schedule and today was just to say thank you to them for supporting us.”
CELEBRATIONS: Gemma McKeron (second left), Richard May (back) and other staff from Good Morning Belfast and ARDCOMM at the PD
Richard May, CEO of ARDCOMM, explained the background behind Good Morning West Belfast and said the Christmas party was all about celebrating their users and the contributions they make to their local community.
Richard said: “We’ve been delivering the programme for a minumum of ten years now. We got a lot of feedback from our users coming out of Covid and a lot of our users were really suffering from high levels of depression and isolation.
“After Covid we were straight into the cost of living crisis so we felt we needed to do something and this is where our lunch club came from. Things have really grown from there.
“The Good Morning Service is funded through the Department of Communities but that’s only for our telephone service. We largely fund the lunch service ourselves, we have a few supporters in Sainsburys and Asda. We also support others such as Foodstock so it’s community supporting community.
“Every year we have a Christmas party for our users and it was an excellent day. We want to celebrate their lives and all of their support. We facilitate the services but with Good Morning West Belfast a lot of our programmes are organised by our users themselves."
Richard continued: "Our staff support them but these are all people who came through the conflict here and they have tonnes of experience organising in their own communities to support people and it’s a natural instinct for them.
“The party was for our users to enjoy themselves and celebrate all of their hard work and support. We support almost 500 users and we deal with all sorts of issues such as people looking for medical advice and services and we advocate on their behalf with statuatory bodies. We signpost a lot and that’s the most important thing.
“Our motto is ‘Neighbours Helping Neighbours’ and that’s what it’s all about, it’s about community and getting together and celebrating inclusiveness.”
