The Salford community is coming together to make pairs of palm-sized hearts to be delivered to hospitals and care homes to provide a connection with absent families and friends during Covid-19 lockdown.

Michelle Whittaker, who works in Public Health, contacted Salford CVS looking for members of Salford VCSE community to take part in producing hearts.

Michelle Whittaker who came up with the Salford hearts project. Copyright : Michelle Whittaker.

Michelle said: “I was looking at positive ways we could bring comfort to families in these difficult times and looked at ways,

“Other areas had done this to add a Spirit of Salford twist with our pink hearts.”

This is a perfect to way for families to find a connection to one another while they are apart during this time.

Hannah Barton, an impact evaluation worker, became involved in this idea through her job working at Salford CVS.

Hannah explains about the hearts project in the video below.

Many Salford VCSE groups have got involved with creating hearts.

Hannah said: “They’ve got a really good community focus, doing something within their own homes but contributing as a group has been really beneficial.”

When asked about her thoughts on how the project has helped the Salford community, Hannah had this to say.

These hearts were made by Salford Volunteer Sarah Sharples. Copyright : Michelle Whittaker

During this time ideas like this bring people together more than ever.

Hannah said: “It is really, really overwhelming to understand Salford’s residents desire to play their part.

“And its really lovely to be able to mobilise that and to be in the middle of connecting the need with the desire to help. I mean it’s really great when you’ve got a project like this.”

Hannah added: “I think as well people connected with the love hearts project because there are lots of people who might be carers of people who have got dementia or they might have family in care homes. It’s something that people could really resonate with and I just think it really captured the imagination and they wanted to do it.”

In total around 320 hearts have been made by the Salford VCSE community.

Michelle said: “Crafting is a good way to relax and focus the mind in a positive way.

“I believe it is important to do this type of volunteering because kindness is sometimes the only thing in our control.”

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