Bolton Destitution Project

21/07/2026

The Wednesday Drop-In is closed tomorrow (July 22nd 2026) for the team's annual holiday break and reopens at 10am Wed, July 29th

10/07/2026

Refugee Week 2026 at DP: Wednesday June 17th was a special one in the DP calendar as we celebrated Refugee Week 2026 at our Drop-in. From all accounts our wonderful team, service users and visitors enjoyed it!

The theme this year was COURAGE. We had a range of art and other activities that our service users and team could honour the courage and determination that asylum seekers and refugees demonstrate every day.

There was a banner with the word 'courage' displayed in large letters and everyone was encouraged to write messages around it. Also, a world map people could use to show where they came from.

Irina, the Art and Craft Lead Volunteer, did some henna painting at the art and craft table for anyone who wanted it.

Music requests put together by some in attendance were played to represent music from different countries.

Altogether, it was a very enjoyable occasion.

10/07/2026

Octagon Art and Poetry Event Showcases DP Artwork at their Refugee Week Activity

The Octagon Theatre's Refugee Week 2026 Community Exhibition took place at the Theatre Bolton on 15th June and was a collaboration between the Octagon Theatre's Womens' Group, the Bolton Central Library and Destitution Project (DP).

This community art and poetry event highlighted the wonderful artwork and poetry created by refugees and asylum seekers from across Bolton to celebrate their contributions.

The work of DP's Art and Craft Lead Volunteer, Irina, as well as that of other DP service users was part of the celebration, which was enjoyed by many.

Link to the Octagon video of the event: Octagon Theatre Bolton | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1194286553768563&vanity=OctagonBolton

17/03/2026

Art Workshop At DP - A Great Experience: Over the past few months, DP has had the pleasure of partnering with Nadeem of the Refugee Art Alliance to offer a 6-week Art workshop for our service users. The sessions were held at the Wednesday Drop-in during the afternoon. Nadeem was assisted by his colleague Maleesa. Find out more > https://boltondp.org/art-workshop-at-dp-a-great-experience

12/03/2026

Our team was very much saddened by the news that former Drop-in Coordinator at DP, Paul Barnes, passed away after a short illness.

Paul first joined us in early 2018 as a volunteer. We then welcomed him as an employee in what was a new post of Drop-in Coordinator. He served diligently in this capacity from Sept 2019 to May 2023.

https://boltondp.org/paul-our-former-drop-in-coordinator-gone-too-soon

19/01/2026

DP celebrates Christmas 2025!

What better way to give you a window into our end of year Christmas party than to share that week's briefing written by several of our wonderful team of volunteers and staff. Enjoy!

Briefing for the DP Drop-in, Wednesday December 10th, 2025

It was indeed a very exciting Christmas Party Drop-in at DP. THANK YOU TO THE WHOLE TEAM FOR THEIR DEDICATION AND PREPARATIONS!

Main Reception - Jenny (Volunteer)
A busy day as usual yesterday, with 92 Service Users registered, including 9 new ones. There were three young children. The day went quickly, with Narjess mainly on the laptop, and we passed on people with queries to Casework as usual. The early morning queue was dealt with reasonably quickly and Aysha and Mags encouraged service users to form an orderly queue inside the building. After we had cleared up, we had a meeting with Mags and Abdul to look at ways to cope better with congestion at the reception desk and how we might take turns sharing the various aspects of our work.

And we also found time during the days to taste some of the Christmas goodies!

Casework - Shaheda (Senior Caseworker)
The day began at 8.30 am with a festive atmosphere in the casework department, everyone embraced the sprit with Christmas hats and I ended up with a reindeer headband!

After setting up casework département and once our 9.30am meeting finished, we began with casework. I saw 16 service users, including 4 of which had appointments booked in to see me. Some cases were complex, and we experienced a few delays due to late arrivals. In addition to the usual casework, I also assisted with home office interview advice, work permit application, asylum cases being refused and eviction notices served. Despite being busy, the festive atmosphere helped keep everyone calmer and more positive.

We closed our department earlier than usual at lunchtime as we joined the Christmas party!
We noticed that food room was still open due to high demand and Fiona ended up helping in the food room! Thank you, Fiona!

After lunch we resumed our work in the casework department, continuing to see walk in service users and additional appointment.

Food Room - Pam (Volunteer)
70 food parcels were given out today in the Food Room. The queue was non-stop throughout the day. Everyone one was given a chocolate bar and a packet of tissues as an extra treat.
Thank you to all the volunteers for providing a wonderful abundance of treats to be served with the mid-day meal. Each person received a cake, tangerine and packet of crisps, plus the usual mid-day meal provided by Alan and his staff.

It was uplifting to see so many happy smiling faces throughout the course of the day.

English Language Classes
Janet (Volunteer) - This morning, I had four service users in the class and Mary took one of them to teach in the photocopier room. With the three SUs I covered different kinds of leisure activities, using a story and a worksheet to reinforce the vocabulary. Lots of conversation took place.
Ian P (Volunteer) - Hello Everyone. This was necessarily a brief lesson of about 20 minutes. We played find the animal by a process of asking a series of questions. With varying degrees of assistance with reading and pronunciation, each SU asked a question to reduce the pack of animals down to the last one left standing: the rabbit! Then we dispersed to enjoy the feast and festivities in the Main Hall!

Operations - Abdul (Manager)
The preparations of the games were top-notch - plenty of the Christmas Hats - thank you Sarah! David and Ahmed as Santa were in the spotlight! Snack tables were full of varieties and taste - thank you Pam for organising the tables and those who contributed! I dealt with three ICT matters after the lunch and was grateful at our meeting for the inputs by our reception team to further manage the build-up of SUs by the entrance.

Main Hall - Ian T (Volunteer) - I think this must have been the greatest number of people to have turned up for the Christmas party for a few years. Alan prepared a very nice hot meal as usual and there was only just enough to feed everyone. We all had a great time and enjoyed the games provided by Sarah and Elsie, and the appearance of Santa, thanks to Ahmed and David. Irina brought in some festive pictures for children to colour-in.

WISHING ALL OUR SUPPORTERS, FUNDERS, SERVICE USERS AND WELL WISHERS ALL THE BEST FOR 2026!

16/12/2025