Christmas can try to make it

THE LALLEY CENTRE IN COLLYHURST CAN BE

CHRISTMAS can be an anxious time when you’re struggling to make ends meet.

The pressure to spend galling sums of money on gifts and food can be immense.

And for those already facing extreme financial hardship, the stress and anxiety that often goes along with the festive season can be magnified.

At the Lalley Centre in Collyhurst, staff and volunteers are all too aware of the toll that pressure can take on the community they serve.

They work around the year to make sure that vulnerable people don’t slip through the cracks.

Many of the people who come to the centre are fighting to keep their heads above water on zero hours contracts.

Sometimes an unexpected bill or period of illness can be enough to plunge them into financial crisis.

Some are dealing with the switch to Universal Credit, facing weeks without cash, while others are unable to work and have no access to public funds.

And in the run-up to Christmas, the Lalley Centre, which is part of the Caritas Diocese of Salford, has been doing all it can to make sure struggling families don’t go without.

“Christmas is such an expensive time. It’s a stressful time, a lot of people who come to us are already stressed,” says centre manager Julia Coulton.

“A lot of people have just gone on to Universal Credit, they have to wait five or six weeks for payment to come through – that’s no money for that time.

“If they work part-time, it depends on how many weeks there are in that month. Sometimes the payment goes down because it calculates they’ve had two payments in a month.

“For all sorts of reasons, Christmas can be stressful. For people who are struggling in other ways it’s a particularly stressful time, so we just try to make it as happy as we can for people.

“We treat everyone like one big family. Everyone is welcome here. We just try to make it a nice time. Christmas is special for us.”

Many of those who attend the centre have children, and are desperate to be able to make sure their little ones can still enjoy the magic of Christmas.

The Toy Appeal, which now provides gifts to thousands of children across Manchester, was launched after its founders Dee and Chris Drake spent time volunteering at the Lalley Centre in 2012.

They took over the Lalley’s annual toy appeal and expanded it. This year it helped more than 3,700 children, including in Collyhurst.

“Every year there’s the toy appeal, it started as the Lalley Appeal, now it covers all over,” adds Julia.

“It’s a big sack of toys and it’s absolutely brilliant.

“You don’t have to worry about Christmas presents because it’s sorted. It’s amazing.” The centre also works closely with Wood Street Mission, and refers any families who miss the deadline for the Toy Appeal to the city centre based charity, so no child misses out. It also provides support when it comes to another major festive expense – food.

The Lalley Centre runs a food bank throughout the year, which over the past 12 months has provided food for more than 6,500 people.

At Christmas, staff and volunteers work overtime to make sure everyone has extra items to last while the centre is briefly closed until the new year.

Extra food also comes in from the