by Yvonne Hill

 

 

  

 

The launch of The Bridge Drop in Centre took place on Tuesday 15th September at St Mary Magdalene Church. People of all agencies including members of GYP ,Community Connections, Victim Support, as well as our local MP Tony Wright were among the invited guests. The Rev Linda Ricketts, began the ceremony with a short talk by saying that the church had recognised that it had a variety of gifts that could be utilised within the community. She talked about the difficulties many people suffer and pointed out that a large percentage of them are on low incomes and rely solely on benefits. Very often, these people find themselves short of money to buy food at the end of the month. The aims of the Bridge composes of a listening ear in confidence; Arts and Crafts; training on how to budget and feed the family well on a limited budget; instruction on how to grow vegetables and fruit to provide a healthy well balanced diet. However, The Bridge will have more to offer in the future.

 

Members from the Gorleston Baptist Church are also involved with the running of the centre. These volunteers recently completed a training course to equip them in knowledge of First Aid and Food and Hygiene.

 

 

Due to the fact that they have received generous funding they plan to purchase some laptops and equipment to set up an Internet Café. This will run on a different day of the week to the drop in. Training and counselling will be offered to help people to develop new skills.

 

Tony Mallion came to launch The Bridge and after a short talk declared The Bridge open and cut the ribbon which was placed over the serving hatches leading to the kitchen.

 

A beautiful lunch was expertly served and presented by the volunteers of The Bridge.

 

The primary aim of The Bridge is to provide a safe environment, with good food, love, care and most of all fun, it will be a place where people will enjoy coming to and participate in what the centre has to offer.

 

 

The drop in centre will take place every Tuesday between 11.30am and 2.30pm.