Care, Community, Culture

This evening I headed to the Adelphi Hotel for the launch of a new initiative which brings together three of Liverpool's longest serving and most respected voluntary organisations in a new partnership to deliver personal assistant support services to members of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities to enable them to live independently in the community.

Mary Seacole House, Chinese Wellbeing and Irish Community Care Merseyside all have outstanding track records in providing support to members of their communities locally and I've had the pleasure of working with them all around the mental health support needs of BME people in Liverpool. All of them will continue to deliver their own individual services but the new joint initiative will allow them to maximise the care they can offer to people in need of companionship and conversation, help with housework, shopping and cooking, support around attending appointments or social activities and understanding correspondence from the council, NHS, housing providers and others. All within appropriate cultural contexts.

The whole project has been three years in the planning and I wish all involved every success as there's a real need for this service locally.