Amazing Graze, United Blackpool and Bobby Ball ...

I was asked tonight would I like to come and take some pictures of an old church ..by my  friend Will Ritchie and owner of  https://thebplbible.co.uk/ Little did I know this would be a surprise with a fantastic old church, ITV television and Bobby Ball !!

Mark was inspired to set up Amazing Graze in 2012 after turning his life around from a background of drink, drugs and petty crime. Within three months, the Christian goodwill group was serving food and preaching gospel to more than 300 rough sleepers per week. They used to meet every Friday and Saturday night at their headquarters on Boothley Road, where they serve up more than 20,000 hearty plates of food to Blackpool’s poorest and most disenfranchised residents. 

All of the group’s volunteers are trained in health and social care and first aid, and are dedicated to supporting homeless people with drug and alcohol problems through every step of their recovery. According to Mark, there are a number of factors contributing to the rise in people coming to his team for help. “This is mainly because we get quite a lot of problems coming in from elsewhere,” he said. “People who come here when they were 12 or 13 with their parents, when they’re 18 with nowhere to go, they think they’ll come to Blackpool, and they find it’s not as nice as they remember.

All of the group’s volunteers are trained in health and social care and first aid, and are dedicated to supporting homeless people with drug and alcohol problems through every step of their recovery. According to Mark, there are a number of factors contributing to the rise in people coming to his team for help. “This is mainly because we get quite a lot of problems coming in from elsewhere,” he said. “People who come here when they were 12 or 13 with their parents, when they’re 18 with nowhere to go, they think they’ll come to Blackpool, and they find it’s not as nice as they remember.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/our-region/blackpool/soup-kitchen-sees-rise-in-desperate-families-in-blackpool-1-8325652

All of the group’s volunteers are trained in health and social care and first aid, and are dedicated to supporting homeless people with drug and alcohol problems through every step of their recovery. According to Mark, there are a number of factors contributing to the rise in people coming to his team for help. “This is mainly because we get quite a lot of problems coming in from elsewhere,” he said. “People who come here when they were 12 or 13 with their parents, when they’re 18 with nowhere to go, they think they’ll come to Blackpool, and they find it’s not as nice as they remember.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/our-region/blackpool/soup-kitchen-sees-rise-in-desperate-families-in-blackpool-1-8325652V

All of the group’s volunteers are trained in health and social care and first aid, and are dedicated to supporting homeless people with drug and alcohol problems through every step of their recovery. According to Mark, there are a number of factors contributing to the rise in people coming to his team for help. “This is mainly because we get quite a lot of problems coming in from elsewhere,” he said. “People who come here when they were 12 or 13 with their parents, when they’re 18 with nowhere to go, they think they’ll come to Blackpool, and they find it’s not as nice as they remember.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/our-region/blackpool/soup-kitchen-sees-rise-in-desperate-families-in-blackpool-1-8325652

All of the group’s volunteers are trained in health and social care and first aid, and are dedicated to supporting homeless people with drug and alcohol problems through every step of their recovery. According to Mark, there are a number of factors contributing to the rise in people coming to his team for help. “This is mainly because we get quite a lot of problems coming in from elsewhere,” he said. “People who come here when they were 12 or 13 with their parents, when they’re 18 with nowhere to go, they think they’ll come to Blackpool, and they find it’s not as nice as they remember.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/our-region/blackpool/soup-kitchen-sees-rise-in-desperate-families-in-blackpool-1-8325652

However Amazing Graze, which was facing homelessness, has found somewhere new to help Blackpool’s neediest people.

 

The organisation’s founder Mark Butcher appealed for help finding new premises after the group was asked to leave its base in Boothley Road so repairs can be done.

 

Now it has been offered the ground floor of a former baptist church in Bolton Street, which means the resort’s most vulnerable people will continue to get the 
help they need

 https://www.facebook.com/unitedblackpool/

Since starting in October United Blackpool have helped to house around 15 people. Assisting getting a number of these people clean from drink and drugs. With the partnership and the aid of Amazing Graze we have continued to support these people once off the street and we intend to keep this number rising. On our weekly outreach missions we have fed over 100 people and handed out around 70 jackets and sets of gloves and scarves.
2019 is a big year for us and we have a lot of plans in the pipeline. We want to carry on raising awareness of the homeless crisis and inspire people to help change our town.
We are all only humans, and we all have full time jobs. We couldn't do any of this without the support of you guys so thankyou for that!
Keep up with your random acts of kindness and keep liking and sharing our posts 

The news will be a relief to those who use the group. Several had voiced worries over the future in recent weeks. And Mark said the plan is to also open on a Wednesday afternoon, so volunteers can help pensioners in the South Shore area too, and not just the homeless population. “We are ecstatic to find a building that meets all our needs,” he said. “We are going to be opening as a community centre as well. “We want to make it more of a community hub, and we want to help locals as well as the homeless.  

Mark said it will cost around £15,000 to transform the building into the centre, with around £4,000 already donated by local businesses and around £600 raised by well-wishers. He said the group hopes to raise the rest through “the local community in labour and parts”, and said: “We need the community to come together and give us what they can. We have had an electrical contractor offer to supply us with lights and fittings. Howdens have offered to fit us a kitchen.” Amazing Graze is planning to leave Boothley Road after its last day, “the last Friday in February”, and re-open “on the first Tuesday 
in March”, Mark said. Help is now needed to transform the ground floor of the new premises, with a military museum currently there due to move upstairs.

The Building itself has quite the history – Alexandra road congregational church – James Wayman was largely responsible for securing the site for the erection of this church. The Victora congregational church had paid for the ‘tin tabernacle’ which was formally opened in 1891. The current 3 storey building brick built in 1898 on the corner with 48 Bolton Street by then
the name had changed to Alexandra united reformed church and was opened on the 19^th January 1900, records also show a rebuild took place in 1908.
A Sunday school, the Wayman Memorial School was built next door in 1912, the church itself was closed in 2016 to be sold for development.  

 

The news will be a relief to those who use the group. Several had voiced worries over the future in recent weeks. And Mark said the plan is to also open on a Wednesday afternoon, so volunteers can help pensioners in the South Shore area too, and not just the homeless population. “We are ecstatic to find a building that meets all our needs,” he said. “We are going to be opening as a community centre as well. “We want to make it more of a community hub, and we want to help locals as well as the homeless.

Read more at: https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/amazing-graze-s-new-home-where-it-s-going-to-be-and-why-it-desperately-needs-your-help-1-9554201