CRCW – Mal Breeze
Together Making a Difference is a CRCW Project in Blackburn, a former cotton mill town with an industrial legacy. It has a population of over 105,000 people and has significant areas of deprivation. Overall, the borough of Blackburn with Darwen is the 17th most deprived local authority in the country, with 34% of the borough being classed as the most deprived 10% of the country.
The appointment of a CRCW to work with the three churches of Revidge Fold, Trinity Brownhill and Westbury Gardens URC’s in North and East Blackburn is helping each church build on their existing community connections and projects. The idea was for the CRCW to help to establish and develop new connections and initiatives, in response to identified needs, by trying to reduce poverty and its negative effects on people's lives, in partnership with other agencies.
The aim of the project was for the ministry to initially build links with the community on the Shadsworth Estate (close to Westbury Gardens) with the expectation that developmental work there would yield benefits that would help to inform work in other geographical areas in the town and be replicable, where possible.
The Big Local Lottery funding of one million pounds, focused on East Blackburn to make sustainable improvements to life there and will be coming to an end in 2022. TMAD project will therefore be seeking to complete the work done, where possible, by building on the improvements made and by helping the local church respond to the needs and aspirations of those living in the East Blackburn area
As always, the intended focus of the TMAD work is to progressively move to estates in other parts of town adjacent to the other two churches, i.e. the Wimberley estate near Revidge Fold and the Roe Lee estate near Trinity.
All the above work will also embrace online working, which developed extensively during the Covid19 lockdown periods and were so useful in enabling new ways of working. These new ways are to be explored with local churches, schools, Messy Church and working with and through various groups, such as the Westbury Art and Craft Group, the Revidge Fold Memory Café, and the Westbury Talks project.
CRCW Mal Breeze, who took up the post in November 2014 has completed his first 5-year term and is beginning his second term, which will end in June 2027. He was inducted to work with Revidge Fold, Trinity Brownhill and Westbury Gardens on 6 December 2014, then a Group Pastorate, all of which are now churches working together with nine other local churches in the Lancashire East Missional Partnership. Mal is continuing to develop work in accordance with the project’s aims by strengthening contacts and actively working with key organisations and individuals already working in the area, to help develop partnerships that are important to the success of the project.
To read a recent reflection by Mal Breeze, click here: The true story of Life in Blackburn
