April 10, 2025

A tea party celebration welcomed 100 beneficiaries and partners of the Furness For You project to Barrow Town Hall’s Banqueting Suite on Friday, 14th of March.

The project’s ten partners hosted their beneficiaries and volunteers for afternoon tea with entertainment and guest speakers, including the Mayor of Barrow, Cllr Judith McEwan, and Alison Meadows, Senior Manager Community Services of Westmorland & Furness District Council.

“It’s been very moving to see how local people’s lives have been positively impacted by the Furness For You project,” said Cat Moffat, of Cumbria CVS, “and the partnership has worked hard to collaborate and remove some of the barriers to participation to help the community thrive.”

The Furness For You project has been running since 2023 with funding from the UK Government and The Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, with the ambition to increase volunteering and tackle loneliness.

Offering weekly activities from Indoor Bowling and Disability Support Groups to Knit and Natter get-togethers, the partners offered people in the community the chance to get out of the house, connect with other people and take steps towards helping others through volunteering. Support sessions in areas such as health and wellbeing or financial advice have also been delivered, with thousands of people being reached overall through the project.

Gabriela Lipska of Cumbria CVS summed up the event, “it’s been wonderful to celebrate the people at the heart of this project, to see the smiles on people’s faces and to feel a real sense of pride among the beneficiaries who have been supported by Furness For You”.

 

Furness For You project

Ten partners from across Furness came together to deliver a free service to benefit local people struggling with loneliness. In a two-year project, Groundwork North East & Cumbria were the lead partner, while the Cumbria CVS Furness For You team have worked with people on a one-to-one basis, offering specialised support to meet individual needs.

The Furness For You partnership covers health and wellbeing, arts and crafts groups, support with benefits, learning new skills and so much more, all for free. As the current Furness For You project draws to a close, the hope is that Furness For You has become a movement that will be long-lasting, to take forward the ethos and to build a legacy though partnership working between support organisations in Barrow and the Furness area.

Building on this strong foundation is the website, furnessforyou.org.uk, managed by Cumbria CVS, and which has the ambition to be an online support hub to meet the needs of the community in the Furness area.

 

Furness For You Partners

• Age UK Barrow & District
• Barrow & District Disability Association
• Barrow Park Leisure Centre
• Brathay
• Cumbria CVS
• Furness Multicultural Community Forum
• Groundwork NE & Cumbria
• Poverty Truth Network
• Stitch Ability
• Women’s Community Matters