Persona Care and Support

17/12/2025

Thank you to Healthwatch Bury for visiting Grundy Hub to produce our enter and view report, we're proud of our Grundy team for all they've achieved.

The Healthwatch team spoke to our colleagues, people we support and their friends and families and have also made some recommendations for how we can make the hub work even better for older people and people living with dementia in Bury through Grundy Hub Get Social.

Want to know more about Grundy Hub or how Get Social can support you or someone you know over 50?

Find out more or refer someone here https://www.personasupport.org/our-services/grundy-hub/.

We are delighted to share our latest Enter and View report following visits to Grundy Day Care Centre. This marks a significant milestone — the first report since the relaunch of our Enter and View programme.

We would like to extend a special thank you to our Enter and View Lead and Board Member, Alison Slater, whose dedication and expertise were central to producing this report.

You can read the full report and learn more about our findings here: https://healthwatchbury.co.uk/news/2025-12-15/healthwatch-bury-publishes-enter-and-view-report-grundy-day-care-centre

Persona Care and Support

16/12/2025

Enjoying a festive afternoon in the winter wonderland of Newbank Garden Centre's Christmas shop was the perfect trip out - followed by a stop in the café and smiles all round.

alt text: photos of older people enjoying Christmas decorations including wreaths, ceiling decorations, reindeer and trees, browsing in a shop and enjoying a hot drink in the cafe. Elmhurst Short Stay and Persona logos are at the bottom.

13/12/2025

Our Christmas Fair replaced the Persona AGM (annual general meeting) this year, after some feedback from people we support and our colleagues.

People said they wanted an event they felt more a part of, with less listening to presentations and more of the singing and Christmas celebrations that we always have, so that's what we did!

Thank you to everyone who came, we loved hosting so many of you and hope you enjoyed the cake decorating, snowman building, cushion stuffing, tree decoration design and all the other fun that we had on offer.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen and kept us fed and watered all day!
See you next year?

To see more about the fair, including our annual report and more video and pictures, click here https://personasupport.org/news

alt text: video of clips of the Christmas fair showing people taking part in the activities mentioned above.

12/12/2025

We asked people we support and our colleagues to show us their Christmas jumpers and they've done us proud!

Thank you to everyone who's shared their knitwear - we couldn't choose a favourite!

alt text: video of images of a dog and people dressed in Christmas jumpers against a green background with gold snowflakes. Persona logo is at the bottom and at the top it says 'our Christmas jumpers' in red and green letters. Jumpers include traditional designs in pink and blue, 'peas on earth', a reindeer face with gold antlers and a lady wearing a green, red and white striped elf sweater and inflatable reindeer as trousers so it looks like she is riding it.

11/12/2025

Congratulations to Nnena Kalu!

🎨Huge congratulations to Nnena Kalu on becoming the first artist with a learning disability to win the Turner Prize. Her colourful and expressive sculptures are helping break down barriers, showing that people with a learning disability can achieve anything.

Nnena, a British Nigerian artist with a learning disability and limited verbal communication, has faced challenges throughout her journey. Her studio manager, Charlotte Hollinshead, shared with The Guardian “Nnena has faced an incredible amount of discrimination, which has continued to this day, so hopefully this award helps to smash the prejudice away.”

Alex Farquharson, chair of the jury and director of Tate Britain, described her win as a watershed moment for the international art world, highlighting how it begins to dissolve boundaries.

Read more in The Guardian: https://brnw.ch/21wYf6g

Image description: A photo of Nnena Kalu designing a pink, blue and yellow piece of art and smiling. She wears a striped floral t shirt and a purple apron. The pink text box has the blue logo of the guardian news outlet. There is white text on the graphic that says 'Nnena Kalu becomes first artist with a learning disability to win Turner prize'

09/12/2025

Our beautiful birthday flags are as unique as everyone who's a part of Persona every day.

At the October Persona Your Voice meeting, we talked about our favourite parts of Persona; which memories, events and ideas we could use as designs and which colours best celebrate our 10 years of supporting people across the Bury towns.

People we support and our colleagues from Persona and Bury Shared Lives were then invited to wax and paint the flags at workshops in November.

Our flags are gorgeous, but they are even more special to us because they have been made with the love and input of everyone at Persona.

Thanks again to Cabasa Carnival Arts for making this happen for our 10th birthday celebrations!

alt text: video showing the process of making the flags as described above, using bright colours like pink, purple, blue, green and gold. On the flags are designs including a butterfly, bees, sunflowers, hikers, the Peel memorial and our values. There are also some clips showing the finished flags being put onto rods and displayed at our Christmas fair.

07/12/2025

We've really enjoyed working on our 10th birthday flags with Cabasa Carnival Arts and we can't wait to see them unfurled at our Christmas Fair tomorrow!

Come and say hello if you're in Bury tomorrow, all the fair details are here https://personasupport.org/events

alt text: video showing people painting our silk flags and pointing to the bits they've done themselves. Persona logo is at the bottom.

05/12/2025

To celebrate our tenth birthday we've been working with Cabasa Carnival Arts, creating two flags to show what Persona means to us.
Everyone at Persona has been involved in the design and painting of these flags, here's a sneak peek at one, from our first painting workshop. Stay tuned for more!

alt text: three photos of a large flag covering a table, the first shows a design guide under the material, the second shows painting inside the waxed designs and the third shows the finished flag covered in bright colours with bees, hands reaching together, the Peel Tower and Persona diamond logo. The Persona logo is at the bottom.

03/12/2025

Lots of things all use every day began life as tools to make something more accessible, like:
-computer mouse
-subtitles
-electric toothbrush
-voice recognition assistants

Accessibility makes life better for everyone and access to information is really important, so we always add alt text to our social media posts and we use Recite Me's toolbar on our website. It lets you customise the pages and get the information you need in the way you need it.

The most popular tools our visitors use are:
-screen reader
-using the colour screenmask
-magnifying text

Try it yourself now! https://personasupport.org

01/12/2025

Just a week to go to our Christmas Fair!
We're all so excited to share what we do and have some festive fun.

If you'd like to
-find out more about what we do, either for you or for a loved one
-learn about working for us
-come and meet friends and enjoy time with your family

Come along to enjoy festive food provided by The Green Café, Christmas crafts, singing and more:

When: Monday 8th December 10am-2pm
Where: The Polish Centre, Back East Street

Get all the details here:
https://personasupport.org/events

alt text: snowflakes falling in the background with Christmas trees hanging from streamers at the top of the image. A Christmas tree and a snowman with a santa hat on are below with the words Persona Christmas Fair between them. Persona logo is at the bottom.