“Anybody who wants to come along and join in can” Arts and crafts sessions looking to combat loneliness in Salford

Lead Image: Imogen Holland

A Salford fire station is hosting weekly arts and crafts sessions in order to help lonely Salfordians make friends.

The community group, called ‘Craft and Chat’, is hoping it can tackle loneliness in Salford residents by encouraging people to come down and get involved with arts and crafts, and to meet new people.

Organiser Viki Johnson, said she’d like people to “come along, have a chat and make friends with anybody”.

Continuing, she said: “Anybody who wants to come along and join in can. They can come chat, they can come craft”.

Loneliness is a growing problem across Britain, with an estimated 9 million people often or always feeling lonely.

Around 1.5 million of these are aged over 50, with 1.2 million chronically lonely older people across the UK.

However, Viki’s group is helping those across Salford to make new friends and gain a new skill.

One attendee, Lyn Newton, told us how her husband worried about her having no hobbies, which encouraged her to go to a card making class.

Lyn, from Pendlebury, said: “I started going to a class at Walkden, and I met two ladies there”.

She continued to explain how the ladies have now become friends, and go to each others houses to work on their newfound card making skills

Craft and Chat is held at Eccles Community Fire Station on Wednesday mornings from 10am – 12pm.