{"id":262479,"date":"2025-07-13T20:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T20:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/262479\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T20:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T20:45:14","slug":"they-spent-eight-years-making-sure-people-dont-fall-through-the-cracks-now-theyre-closing-down-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/262479\/","title":{"rendered":"They spent eight years making sure people don’t ‘fall through the cracks’ – now they’re closing down forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘For some people it\u2019s transformed their lives.’(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A charity service in Oldham that has ‘transformed people’s lives’ is being forced to close down. after more than eight years providing vital services to vulnerable people in the community.<\/p>\n

The Ancora Project, based in the Oldham<\/a> Library, has provided vital services to some of the most vulnerbale people in the community for more than eight years. But it will cease operation from July 25.<\/p>\n

The volunteers provide crisis support for those facing homelessness, debt battles or struggling to afford basic necessities like food. But after winning bids for grants from The National Lottery for eight years, the organisation struggled to find alternative funding.<\/p>\n

(Image: Suzy Pabla)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gutted,\u201d Suzy Pabla, Ancora\u2019s project manager, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. \u201cWe regularly see a group of people that usual services don\u2019t work for. We are a little concerned where people might go for accessing that sort of support. There are things on offer, but I think we are quite unique in our approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some people it\u2019s transformed their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The LDRS spoke to one man, who did not wish to be named, who said the support he received from volunteers had been \u2018life-saving\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was priced out of the property I was renting,\u201d he said. \u201cI was working as a kitchen fitter – but after struggling with drink and drugs, and then health problems, I was getting less hours. The rent went up and three months later, I was made homeless.<\/p>\n

(Image: Suzy Pabla)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living in temporary accommodation now, and am about to become a pensioner. Ancora helped me with all the paperwork for things like pension credit.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know what I was entitled to and without them I really would have struggled. I think it’s easy to slip through the cracks.”<\/p>\n

The closure comes as the borough is still seeing rising levels of housing insecurity, with private rent prices sky-rocketing, while wages and benefits payments fail to keep up with rising costs.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Ancora said: \u201cWhilst the Ancora project is closing, citizens can continue to access support from Christians Against Poverty and Oldham foodbank. The work of lead partner KeyRing continues as they support individuals in Oldham to build skills in the local area and to prevent crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘For some people it\u2019s transformed their lives.’(Image: Manchester Evening News) A charity service in Oldham that has ‘transformed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,12450,393,4884,6332,6333,2465,1286,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-262479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-charity","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-homelessness","13":"tag-housing","14":"tag-manchester","15":"tag-oldham","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114847883429576073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}