A charity providing mediation for families in Wigan celebrates a decade of services with fun day

TalkFirst, based in Ince, launched in 2013 and works across the borough to support families struggling with conflict and communication issues. Key aspects of its work are Tou-Can projects which support parents on a one-to-one basis with a range of issues, and Building Better Relationships.

Accredited with the Family Mediation Council, staff work to help those separated and separating families who need to negotiate issues around co-parenting, children and their property and finance issues.

To mark a decade of helping families, a community celebration will be held in the form of a Summer Sunday Fun Day, in partnership with Ince Rose Bridge Sports and Community Club on Sunday July 23.

Many local businesses have supported the event to provide a wide variety of prizes including Wigan Roller Rink, The Royal Oak and Little Fifteens, the latter two after their owner Tony Callaghan saw their work and was hugely impressed.

TalkFirst spokesperson Martine Delaney said: “We’ve been really overwhelmed by the support, it’s been brilliant. We were thinking about what families want during the school holidays, and they want to be able to take their children to places. We’ve had donations from businesses far and wide across the North West.

Prizes also extend to further out of the borough, with Blue Planet Aquarium and Gulliver’s World providing four tickets each that can be won on the raffle.

Tracy Sheppard, manager and mediator at TalkFirst said: “When we started 10 years ago it was me sitting at my dining room table, now we’ve got six staff delivering across Wigan. People see us as the people to go to, and they’re more open and keen to talk about what it is that they’re experiencing.

"It’s 10 years of supporting people in Wigan and we’ve supported thousands of families. That is something we should be shouting about and helps us to think about what the next 10 years hold. Hopefully we can expand in Wigan and beyond but also to continue to evolve the nature of the projects that we work with.

"I want to say a thank you. We’ve worked with families throughout Wigan who have trusted us with the things they’ve found most difficult. Relationships are the most important factor in everything we aspire to and achieve. Also the services that have supported us, whether that’s Wigan Council or other volunteer community sector organisations that have worked in partnership with us and provided us with information.”

Mr Callaghan, who owns a number of bars and pubs around the area, said: “I have been blown away by the work TalkFirst do and a lot more people should know about it and give them credit for it.

"That’s why we have joined forces with them.”