Council teams and contractors donate £3,050 to bring some festive cheer to ever single aged 18-21 who has spent time in foster or residential care in the borough.
Here’s a heart-warming story for the festive season: 189 care leavers in Blackburn with Darwen will receive a Christmas present thanks to the generosity of the local council’s highways team the Local Council Roads Innovation Group (LCRIG) and key council contractors.
Georgia Fogarty, LCRIG with Ben Hughes and Aimee Dewse from Multevo, and gifts bags ready to go to care leavers; photo courtesy of Blackburn with Darwen Council.
The initiative is important because, for many care leavers, this will be the only Christmas present they receive this year.
The council team and partners – which include AJ Bretherton Groundworks and Plant Hire, Multevo and Tensar – donated a total of £3,050. A team at Boots in Blackburn, headed by manager Sian Smith, has used this money to order appropriate gifts for 189 recipients. That means that every single person aged 18 to 1 who had spent time in foster or residential care in the borough will receive a gift.
The gift bags have now been handed over to the council’s Children, Education and Young People’s department for delivery. Now they will be hand delivered to every care leaver, whether or not they are still in the borough.
This is the sixth year that LCRIG had donated to and co-ordinated the gifts initiative.
Cllr Quesir Mahmood, Executive Member for Growth and Development at Blackburn with Darwen Council, says: ‘In highways, we work with some excellent contractors who put a lot of focus on giving back to the community. We can’t be more grateful for their support in ensuring our care leavers get a gift this year. Thank you to the LCRIG team who take so much time and care into buying, wrapping and creating the gift bags.’
Cllr Julie Gunn, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, adds: ‘One of our missions as a council is to ensure that no-one is left behind. Our care leavers have lived through challenging circumstances at a young age and receiving a Christmas gift is something that will hopefully make them smile. Thank you to everyone involved in this fantastic initiative.’
Susanne Ingham, Relationship Director at LCRIG, says: ‘LCRIG is so proud to support this fantastic initiative again this year and provide presents for young people leaving care. A huge thank you to the companies that generously donated towards the gifts, to Georgia for putting together the gifts, and to the team at Boots for their support.’
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