Calder Community Cares has been hosting weekly meet and greets for families. Why not head along and spend some time with your family and make new friends without worrying about costs?

It’s all too easy for families to feel isolated. Many people who have arrived from Ukraine have left their entire social circle behind, and local families impacted by the cost of living crisis can’t always justify spending money to meet others. At Calder Community Cares we want to help wherever we can, so we’re providing meet and greets every single week.

The idea behind these events is to provide isolated families with the ability to connect with each other and spend some quality time together without having to worry about costs. We provide food for attendees, as well as a minibus to assist with travel. These meet and greets are for both local families as well as those from the Ukraine and have been a huge success so far.

Back in July We held the previous meet and greets at Dean Clough in Halifax as well as the Good Shepherd in Mytholmroyd, which were hugely successful. We held a huge party for families with traditional Ukrainian dishes, music, dancing along with children’s activities. Some of the children who came along were enjoying themselves so much that they didn’t want to go home! We want to keep this great energy going and provide the events as long as we can.

We can’t do this alone of course. We’ve been supported by Ivan Kuzio, who has been a wonderful Ukraine liaison officer. We’re also able to fund the meet and greets thanks to the success of our Calder Community Kindness store, and everyone who has donated items to it or bought something from it. We’re hugely thankful for all of the support that has allowed us to put on these amazing meet and greets.

If you’re interested in attending the next meet and greet with your family (or even just yourself!), make sure to register your interest through our site form and we can send you the details of our next event. To see all the pictures from our events, make sure to follow our Facebook page!