Zoom time as Circle crew lines up global audience

HMR Circle, who support over 50s in Heywood, Rochdale and Middleton, have taken part in a conference in South Korea.

In February 2020, the group was featured in a Korean documentary.

The appearance on KBS, South Korea’s version of the BBC, was aimed at addressing concerns about the ageing Korean population.

The Korean government are seeking low-cost ways to support older people and, through research, found HMR Circle, leading them to send a documentary crew over, who filmed with them for a week. The Korean documentary is available by searching for “Korean Broadcast Service visits HMR Circle” on Youtube, which is mostly in English and the ITV article is available on catch-up online.

Now, HMR Circle was invited to present at the prestigious International Social Innovation Conference 2021, held in Daejeon, South Korea.

Circle Director, Mark Wynn spoke to the International audience via Zoom about the Circle model and the positive impact we make to older people’s lives.

The organisers connected Circle after the event to report the positive feedback the Circle presentation had received.

They also sent a recording of the event for them to share.

The video was created for a Korean audience so has a Korean translation audio feed. You can view the video here: www. youtube.com/ watch?v=gj4trvecxhy.

In more success for HMR Circle, the Volunteer Drivers Service has been selected as one of the Co-op’s Local Good Causes.

The service takes members to and from their hospital or doctors appointments, shopping, or anything else they may need.

A Circle spokesman said: “We had a visit from Ian Jenkins, the Co-op

Member Pioneer for Central Rochdale and Norden to give us the news about our selection and to explain how we can maximise support from the community.

“You can support the VDS by either making us your chosen good cause or if you visit the Co-op in the Norden and picking us there.

“If you are not already a Member of the Coop you can join online for just £1 to be a member and then simply pick us as your chosen good cause.”