A 'café with a difference' that works to bring joy to the lives of people across the borough have shared how vital their services are as they celebrate their King’s Award win.

CreateBolton based at the Claremont Church on Bark Street were recently awarded The King’s Award for voluntary service.

This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

CreateBolton is a Christian charity celebrating 10 years of supporting often isolated and lonely people, connecting them with each other and enabling them to live more purposeful lives in their communities.

And as they celebrate their anniversary and the award win, The Bolton News met with Andrew Kilpatrick, lead officer at CreateBolton, to discuss the difference the charity makes.

Andrew said: “The idea behind CreateBolton is to make everyone in the community feel loved, appreciated, valued and safe.

“We established 10 years ago in July 2013 as a charitable trust and then zoom forward, in 2018 we changed the kind of charity we became so we could do more.

“When we started 10 years ago, we were just a tiny little café, and we were only open for two hours and then over the years it has gradually built up as more people have found us.

“We are a café with a difference in the sense that the till matters but only a little bit, as long as we make enough to pay our bills that’s what matters to us.

“The growth we have seen is about being able to serve more and more people, it isn’t about the money.

“Our strapline is ‘creationships that make a difference’.

“Our priority is to help those people who feel isolated, lonely, not that connected to their community, who have bad mental health, or they just need time away, they can spend time for themselves here to make friendships and have support.”

Andrew said there are many elements under the umbrella of CreateBolton that make the Christian charity what it is today.

He said: “We have headings under the umbrella of CreateBolton, one is café create that is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10am to 2pm.

“The second is we have paint a pot classes as well as a whole load of other workshops to gain creative experience.

“What we find from these experiences is that people end up booking on with other people and they begin to make friendships.

“We have the shop, create retail, where we produce things that we then sell, and we also sell artists work from across Bolton.

“We also have create community which is much more targeted for people who would identify themselves as being isolated or lonely for many different reasons and they would come in on a Tuesday or Wednesday for a few hours where they have a project, allowing them to get lost in the project and forgetting about their worries.

“They end up finding friendships and some go on holiday with each other, they all look forward to coming here.

“We have the create hope which is the allotment up in Horwich which is used by men with early on set dementia, but those men happen to have been gardeners or had allotments in the past and they are not able to do that anymore.

“We also have a project called studio create, which is for people with a learning disability who have a particular gift in arts and craft, they make items which we then sell on.

“And the final thing that is within the create community is create well where we are working with the bereavement group at the Bolton Hospice.”

Andrew spoke of the inspiration behind the creation of the charity.

He said: “My wife Joy Kilpatrick about 12 years ago gave up what she was doing because as a Christian she felt she had a nudge from God telling her to take her art skills and her social work skills and bring them together to do something charitable.

“I then gave up my job 10 years ago and we came together and started to develop CreateBolton from that tiny crafty café to eventually building it up to today.

“We feel humbled because everybody until the last 18 months has been a volunteer and to make this work over 10 years with 150 to 200 volunteers over that time, it is huge for us.

“The charity is about doing things with people and being here for people, they come to this hidden gem for support.”

If people want to access the services, they can attend the café from Thursday to Saturday or attend workshops which can be booked online.

To find out more information go to: https://createbolton.org.uk/

If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at chloe.wilson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on X @chloewjourno.