Chorley URC has been part of the Chorley town centre life for over 200 years and is committed to being an integral part of the local community today.
Much of our work in and with the community is now done under the guise of The Hollinshead Centre, the name we plan to give to our refurbished and extended buildings when our building project comes to fruition. Amongst the most significant aspects of this work are Open Kitchen, The Meeting Place, Saturday coffee, our Wellbeing garden and Chorley Repair Cafe.
We host Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Alcoholics Anonymous, Lancashire Adult Learning, Addiction Recovery Groups, Art & Craft Groups, choirs, drama and dance groups and more besides.
The Meeting Place is a registered warm hub and has been part of delivering the Household Support fund in Chorley in partnership with Chorley Council. The household support fund has been supporting residents who struggled to put enough food on the table. We have hosted outside groups who offered advice and support with sexual health, modern slavery/human trafficking, the cost of living and debt.
We’ve had a garden in the community and schools competition at Chorley Flower show for the last four years which has helped us raise our profile and engage with people in the local area.
Although we’re on the edge of Chorley town centre we support people from across the borough. We commissioned an in-depth community audit several years ago and have had it updated twice since. Those audits consistently showed that whilst Chorley as a borough is relatively affluent, we are located in close proximity to areas of severe deprivation and we are committed to playing our part in supporting local people who are struggling for whatever reason.
Since 2019 we have had a Church Related Community Worker in post, Andy. Church Related Community Workers are trained in both theology and community development work. They are deployed by the URC to help bring about change in both the church and the community. The post was reaccredited for a further 6 years in summer 2023 so we’ll have a CRCW until 2030. Chorley Repair Cafe, The Meeting Place and the Wellbeing garden are significant parts of Andy’s work to date.