Located in the beating heart of North Point Shopping Centre is Bransholme Chat. Run by Back to Ours, the National Lottery community fund-funded chat shop offers a safe and welcoming space for members of the local community to come and have a conversation and sit in good company.
This is an essential service that gives the most isolated and vulnerable residents of our city a lifeline and the reassurance they’re not alone, though chatting and activities were presented with a new challenge at the start of the pandemic when in-person delivery from their Bransholme Chat was no longer possible.
Adapting to the challenge, the team launched a dedicated phone service where staff and volunteers would call isolated and vulnerable people for a chat while stuck inside the house during lockdown. Alongside bespoke newsletters, the 1220 phone calls made across lockdowns to present day have proved to be an invaluable support network for many with a number of callers telling the team: “you saved my life.”
Last week, the team at Bransholme Chat celebrated 100 weeks of phone calls with two of their volunteers, Meg and Graham. Since the start of the lockdown, they’ve been at the end of the phone offering chat and support to those who need it most.
Speaking to Hull Live about how it feels to have reached such an impressive milestone, Meg and Graham said:
“It means a lot to us that we are able to help so many people just by making a simple phone call once a week to show that someone cares about them and that Back to Ours has enabled and trusted us to do this over the past 25 months.
“During that time our phone calls have included chatting about anything and everything you can imagine but, most importantly, we’ve all had a good giggle.”
Speaking to Hull Live, Sheila said: “It’s hard for me to describe just how important Bransholme Chat has been for me. When I first moved here from North Hull, I didn’t really know anyone, so to be able to speak to the team here was amazing.
“When lockdown hit, I couldn’t leave the house and I wasn’t able to see anyone. Other than speaking to my son on the phone, Meg and Graham were some of the only people I could speak to and it was a massive help.
Now restrictions are slowly fading from public life, Bransholme Chat are open Tue-Sat for chat and a number of different activities in North Point, welcoming the community for some much-needed chat. There are still a number of people who are not yet comfortable with venturing outside, so the team are continuing their phone service indefinitely.
After the trials and tribulations of the past two years, our community can be thankful that projects like Bransholme Chat exist, supporting the most vulnerable people in our city. It is a testament to the kindness of local people in our city and should not be taken for granted.
So next time you’re in North Point Shopping Centre, why not pop in to Bransholme Chat and meet the team? You’re sure to find something good to talk about!
