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EachStep Blackburn, a specialist dementia care home, and the leading Blackburn South Asian community group, One Voice, came together to celebrate Ramadan and Eid. These efforts are part of a pioneering partnership between the home and One Voice to ensure that their service is accessible to members of the South Asian community and to raise awareness of dementia issues.

EachStep Blackburn is a new £5m state-of-the-art dementia care service. It is part of the national social care charity, Community Integrated Care. The pioneering home provides specialist dementia care to 64 people, and serves as a hub for the local community.

Ten people who work EachStep Blackburn and at the charity’s head office took part in One Voice’s ‘I’m not a Muslim, but I will fast for one day campaign’. In doing so, their non-Muslim staff experienced an important moment in the lives of people they support and other colleagues, and showed their respect for this important festival.

This was followed when the charity worked with One Voice’s young people’s groups, WEG’s (West End Girls)and 2020 Vision, to create a festive Eid card. The young people worked with the charity’s marketing team and the award-winning design agency, Carbon Creative, to develop the card which innovatively represented symbols of the religious festival.  The card was sent directly to 8000 Muslim households in the borough, sharing the best wishes of the care home team to the community.

John Hughes, Head of Communications and Marketing for Community Integrated Care says: “Ramadan and Eid are special times for many people in Blackburn, so we were keen to partner with One Voice to share our best wishes with the Muslim community. Our Ramadan fast gave us great insight into the experiences of Muslim community members, and showed our respect for their faith and efforts. We also had a really positive response from the community for the Eid cards, and would like to thank One Voice and their talented young people for making this possible.”

Fatima Dhira, 17, Outreach Volunteer for One Voice and part of West End Girls group, says: “The Eid cards were a truly special gesture by EachStep Blackburn, and I feel very lucky to have been included in the design process. It was wonderful to see their staff and the people they support so passionate and enthusiastic about learning more about Eid and Ramadan! It was also great to see the adults consider the suggestions of the young people involved, and to take them on board.”

You can watch a short film where the young people involved share their thoughts on creating the card for their community and what it was like to work with a professional design agency: bit.ly/eid-card.