A NEW centre is opening in Colne to help vulnerable people in the borough.

Community Interest Company Enable U is setting up home in the ground floor of Stanley Villas in Albert Road to provide a host of activities including cookery classes, gardening, arts and crafts and dance classes across the borough.

The idea behind the venture is to support people who have disabilities, addictions, are at risk of social isolation or have mental health problems, and to enable them to live as independently as possible.

It aims to provide support to learn new skills, social activities and hopes to enable people to tackle obstacles that may come across in everyday life.

As well as this they will have a drop-in centre and will be arranging sessions for housing advice, benefits advice and other forms of support.

The venture is the brainchild of John and Sandra McBeth who run Pendle Support and Care Services.

John said: “We found through the support work we do that there was not much available for people living with disabilities in Pendle.

“We set up the CAMEL Club to try and give people with disabilities the opportunity to learn new skills, brush up on old ones by taking part in activities such as cooking, arts, crafts and dancing.

“We wanted to extend our services and decided to create Enable U as a way of doing this.

“We have very recently moved into Stanley Villas and are in the process of renovating it so it can be a base for Enable U and Pendle Support.”

They have recently set up a gardening group that meets twice a week at Rooming Roosters where they have taken on three raised beds to grow food. They are hoping to use the food in the cookery class they run at Nelson and Colne called Take Home Cookery.

John added: “The idea is that people go out and buy ingredients which gets them involved in the whole process and they are socially interactive. Then they cook the ingredients following a recipe and have something to show at the end of it. This is a real achievement for some people who have limited life skills or ability.

“The activities are designed to be as low cost as possible so that more people can attend and get something out of it. We are looking to work with local companies and establishments such as colleges, so that we can help benefit the vulnerable people in our local community.

For more information email admin@pendlesupport.co.uk