Community Ambassador’s recipe for supporting families in need

Local resident Mehrun Jogee has worked tirelessly to provide nutritious hot meals for vulnerable residents across Blackburn with Darwen during the Coronavirus crisis.

Before lockdown, Mehrun had been taking part in the Our Community, Our Future Community Ambassador programme to help develop her skills and knowledge to become more involved in her community.

52 year old Mehrun, who lives in Blackburn, said:

I found out about the Community Ambassador programme when my friends and I were looking for information on how to set up a community group to support women in our local area. I felt this training would help develop my skills and would help me learn more about communities in Blackburn with Darwen.

I have always enjoyed helping people, and I have been volunteering for a long time. It helps you appreciate how lucky you are and not to take things for granted. I love to meet new people so the Community Ambassador training was an opportunity to make new friends.

As the Catering Manager at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School and The Olive Primary School in Blackburn, Mehrun put her ideas forward to her manager on how she felt they could help people during these difficult times. Star Academies supported and encouraged Mehrun to use her networks as a Community Ambassador to set up a co-ordinated response to make sure help was available for residents most in need.

Star Academies supported Mehrun and her colleagues by offering the use of the school kitchen facilities to prepare fresh meals for distribution. Using her networks developed from meeting like-minded people on the Community Ambassador programme, Mehrun was able to help facilitate the setup of meal preparation and distribution, which now provides over 200 fresh hot meals per day for families supported through Blackburn with Darwen Children’s Services and for asylum seekers and refugees living in the borough.

Mehrun, who also delivers meals to young people supported through Nightsafe regularly, added:

Blackburn with Darwen is my heart and soul, there are lots of amazing people here. I have been involved in raising money and volunteering for different charities for many years. Everybody needs help at some point in their lives, and I feel grateful that I can help make a difference and support people.

I come from a big family and when I came to this country, I left all my friends and family behind but people in this town are so friendly and made me feel welcome. It is nice to give back, I have always been a community person it is in my nature to want to help others.

I am lucky to have such supportive managers: Mufti Hamid Patel, Chief Executive of Star Academies, and Hafez Lukman Ahmed, Head of Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School. They have both supported me in my volunteering and charity work, both in my workplace and in my personal life.

Mufti Hamid Patel CBE, Chief Executive of Star Academies, said:

Mehrun is a highly valued member of the Star Academies family and we have been highly impressed by her commitment to volunteering.

We actively encourage and support our staff and pupils to undertake voluntary work for charitable and community organisations. We want to make a positive contribution to people living in our local community and to help those who are living in need around us.

Mehrun’s voluntary work is a wonderful example of the charitable and voluntary work carried out by many of our staff members, pupils and parents. We are committed to supporting these charitable endeavours and hope to support even more people in the future.

The Community Ambassador programme is one of many projects being delivered on behalf of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and funded through the borough’s social integration programme. Our Community, Our Future is a three year programme which brings together a wide range of local partners working together to strengthen relationships between people from different backgrounds, to help the borough become a place where diversity is valued, and where people’s faith and cultures are understood and respected.

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Leader of the Council and Chair of the Our Community, Our Future board, said:

It’s wonderful to see the people who have taken part in our social integration programme using their skills to support vulnerable people during the current crisis.

As a Community Ambassador, and also a Nightsafe volunteer, Mehrun is making a real difference to the lives of many people across the borough, and on behalf of the Council, I thank her for her devoting so much of her time to volunteering.

Blackburn with Darwen wouldn’t be a place with kindness and working together in its DNA without community spirited and selfless volunteers like her.

To find out more about Blackburn with Darwen’s Our Community, Our Future social integration programme, visit www.blackburn.gov.uk/about-council/social-integration or call 01254 304597.