Latest News
17/10/2021
SPARC4Youth Story So Far Booklet
To read the full story of our lovely young person’s project for 18-30 year olds since it began last September, please take a look at the booklet below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GrhSi2fHwPT_CzUaBWbvyXOoLGn7ryyR/view?usp=sharing
It show the fantastic creative work of our young people, their thoughts on the project, and what we’ve been up to!
05/10/2021
SPARC4Youth Anniversary
SPARC4Youth is officially one year old! This is our story over the past year. From a few faces meeting on Zoom once a week to four weekly workshops, we’re pleased to say that the past year has been even more successful than we could have imagined. The most surprising element was the ability of our group members to form such strong, enduring, and positive friendships over Zoom and during several lockdowns, which have now continuing into the real world! We’re proud to say that we’ve held over 100 workshops, with over 222 individual attendances, and we can’t wait for more! If we’re successful in our funding bid, we’ve got even bigger and better things to come for our young people, so watch this space…. 🌟
01/10/2021
Garden Update!
Huge thanks to these wonderful people from Good Gym Stockport for their fantastic work on the SPARC garden.
We’re looking forward to providing a relaxing new space for our members in the form of a therapy shed very soon!
03/09/2021
Finally!
The SPARC Annual General Meeting took place today, after almost two years since our last! It was a toned down version compared to our usual event, but it was good to see our members back together and find a bit of normality again.
Our Community Cafe was able to provide some lovely food, thanks to Stockport Community Fund and Stockport Food Fund who helped us get it up and running again.
The future is bright 
03/09/2021
SPARC Football Fundraiser!
SPARC’s football group are creating a range of fundraising activities to promote the ability of participation in football to enable positive mental and physical wellbeing.
Football encourages positive mental and physical wellbeing by: providing a safe place to go; keeping busy and active; meeting new people; getting people motivated; providing a positive social network; helping to raise and maintain fitness levels; preventing social isolation; and promoting mental wellbeing.
Your kind donations will help to keep up the fantastic work within the football group and provide much-needed resources to cover travel expenses, competition entrance fees, purchasing new kit, etc.
However, there are a number of ways that you can support this:
- Support the group’s fundraising activities
- Donate directly: http://sparc4me.org.uk/donating-to-sparc/
- Promote SPARC and its groups/activities to friends and family
19/07/2021
New SPARC guidelines
With the removal of restrictions across England, SPARC would like to take this opportunity to let you know what we will be keeping in place for the coming weeks.
Firstly – groups will still be by appointment-only using a first come first serve system (including the Social Lounge). If you would like to book on to any of the sessions, please call us on 0161 429 9744.
Secondly, we ask that out of courtesy for our more vulnerable members, you continue to wear your mask in the centre for a little while longer. This will be constantly reviewed, but due to the increasing infection rates we feel that this is the right thing to do. Similarly, we ask that you try to keep your distance where you can for the same reason and avoid large groups of people gathering at the centre.
24/06/2021
Music group volunteer wanted
If you have a passion and skill with music and would like to help people with mental health problems, we would like to hear from you.
Please contact Amanda at amanda@sparc4me.org.uk or call us on 0161 429 9744!
21/05/2021
Bringing the beat back!
We are so pleased to see (and hear) our Music Group back up and running every Tuesday and Friday 12:30-2:30pm.
To book a place, please call us on 0161 429 9744!
18/05/2021
The New Normal
We’re so pleased to announce that we can now run groups within the centre again! These groups will run in addition to our outdoor Tai Chi, Walking and Allotment groups, and require appointments to ensure that we don’t exceed the Rule of Six.
To see more information, see Activities > Activity Calendar, and to book a space on one of our fantastic new groups, call us on 0161 429 9744!
25/06/2020
Slowly back to normal…
We are pleased to announce that SPARC is slowly getting back to some kind of normal. Our SPARC Therapy Groups continue to run online and Man about a Dog are continuing as usual.
As well as providing telephone support, SPARC workers are now offering our members face-to-face meetings either based at the centre or in the community. We are also beginning to arrange small outdoor group activities such as football, gardening and local walks.
24/04/2020
SPARC goes on and on
Just a reminder that SPARC is continuing to provide support in a variety of ways during these difficult times.
If you need to contact any aspect of the service then please contact the main office number 0161 429 9744 any weekday (occasionally at the weekends) and we will be happy to help. Or you can leave a message and we will get back to you.
You can access our Man about a Dog project on 07706115471 or via their website (https://manaboutadog.org) and Facebook page.
Our therapists; Sparc TherapyGroups also continue and are providing a range of therapeutic workshops and again you can find out more by ringing SPARC on 0161 429 9744
SPARC will keep going and we are just at the end of the phone if you need us!
09/04/2020
Easter updates
The SPARC landline will be available over the weekend and we will respond to calls and messages as quickly as possible. Man about a Dog will continue as usual and can be contacted on 07706115471 or by email themanaboutadog@gmail.com. The counselling service will also be running two workshops on Sunday via the SPARC Therapy Groups Facebook page. One from 2pm until 3pm, and another from 3:30pm until 4:30pm.
24/03/2020
Life goes on
As many of you know, we have been operating a telephone-based service recently. This will not be changing due to any of the new restrictions and SPARC will continue to provide as much as we possibly can to our members. We are available over the phone and we monitor our Facebook messages as well.
Our counselling service is providing workshops online and Man about a Dog are doing what they can to keep the project running, and can be contacted by phone and social media.
Please try to stay safe and positive – we can and will get through this.
15/03/2020
SPARC Closure
Unfortunately SPARC has had to close in order to ensure the health and safety of its members, staff and carers. This decision was made in light of the escalating situation surrounding Covid-19.
We have not taken the decision to close lightly and it is with huge regret that we take this action. We will be monitoring the situation daily and will be publishing updates as soon as they are available.
13/08/2019
New Trophy Cabinet!
SPARC takes great pride in our Football Group. In the photo below, are cups representing years worth of hard work and dedication to the sport. The members have put in a tremendous amount of effort into making what the group is today.
SPARC was able to raise £95, thanks to friends, family and the local community of Stockport for the display case to show the trophies that carry so much importance to the staff and members here!
13/08/2019
Charity Skydive
On the 18th November Jackie Myerscough and Rhonda Armitage will be taking part in a skydive in aid of SPARC, this is an amazing thing to do and the charity would really appreciate if people could dig deep and donate.
Thank you!
25/07/2019
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
SPARC are honoured to have been chosen to be 1 of 10 charity partners by Greater Manchester Chamber Of Commerce for 2018/19. We are thankful to have been chosen and excited to be working with them over the coming months. Thank You.
25/07/2019
Evaluative Report and Report & Accounts 2017-2018
We’ve been busy, but today happy to release this years Report & Accounts 2017/18 please look through and look at the work we do empowering people and bettering lives.
Here is a report that explains more in depth about how SPARC engages with our service users Evaluative Report 2018.
25/07/2019
Champions Again!
We are really pleased to announce our football team, SPARC United have won “The Good Mood” 5 a side tournament in Huddersfield, Yorkshire on Wednesday 14th March. They played four games against other mental health organisations and won all four!
25/07/2019
And the winners are…
As part of World Mental Health day Nick (team member of SPARC United) brought together a few SPARC United players and entered the Burton Albion football tournament held in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. This was a whole day event having to be at the train station at 8.00am with tickets costing £54.00. They played 6 games in total: 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and they returned champions ‘again’.
13/08/2019
SPARC United – Semi Finals
We are chuffed to bits to announce our football team SPARC UNITED are through to the semi-finals of the FA Peoples Cup – Adult Male Premiership Disability League.
The game will be held at Powerleague Manchester Central on the 25th March at 2pm.