CARE staff and vulnerable youngsters braved the cold weather and hit the streets to help Bolton’s homeless people.

People from Westhoughton-based care and support firm Next Stage, spent the weeks before Christmas collecting donations like food, toiletries and blankets.

And then the team, which also included young adults housed at Brogen Court in Lostock, went around Bolton last week to hand out the donations to people living on the streets.

Sian Hodson, leaving care manager, said the company wanted to ‘do something positive for the local community’ and help its young people at the same time.

Ms Hodson said: “The young people we support also got involved and were really interested in making a difference.

“Before they set off each unit cooked a hot meal to go along with clothing and essential items.”

“As a support worker it’s all about making a difference in our line of work but it was amazing to hear comments from the young people that we support such as ‘it made them a better person’ and one of our young people said she exactly knew how they feel as she used to be homeless herself.

“One of the homeless people checked what was in the bag and decided to clean his hands with the baby wipes.

“This brought tears to everyone’s eyes and made people appreciate such a simple thing we take for granted.”

Brogen Court is a centre where people aged 16 to 18 with complex needs go to get back on their feet and prepare for adult life.

Estelle Jones, manager of the care home, organised collections from local supermarkets and groups will be visiting the town over the next few weeks to take donations to people living on the streets.

She said: “It is a nice thing to do as a group.

“We have been wanting to do something for quite a while.

“Quite a few of our young people asking about the number of homeless people we see.”

“They started asking questions and we have had these discussions with the staff about wanting to help out.”

Supermarkets which have made donations to the care home included Asda and Tesco in Middlebrook and Morrisons and Decathlon in Bolton.