Summer 2023Jenny Kennedy: Woman of Rochdale 2022

Former youth worker Jenny Kennedy was crowned this year’s Woman of Rochdale at the annual luncheon for all of her good work in both the Darnhill and wider Heywood communities

Known locally to many as the Queen of Heywood, Jenny, who lives on the Darnhill estate, has a long history of helping others, from her beginnings as a youth and social worker to her work with her community group, Restoring Hope.

In 2006, Jenny set up Heywood Youth Link, a charity which evolved out of a mentoring service she ran at Rochdale Youth Service. Funded for two years, Jenny felt the service shouldn’t disappear, and turned it into a charity, using a similar model to Rochdale Connections Trust.

“At the time, lots of kids from Darnhill and Heywood wouldn’t travel to Rochdale for help,” she explained. “Adults came to us to train as volunteers and were leaving with a level 3 qualification which meant they could have a change of career – they could apply for jobs in schools and youth offending.”

Heywood Youth Link sadly came to an end in 2014 after Jenny was diagnosed with cancer.

“I couldn’t do as much, but the staff were fantastic and tried to run it, but we closed in 2014. People still got in touch with me offering items for others in need so I started something I called ‘Pay it Forward and Share the Love’ which merged into Restoring Hope.”

Jenny founded the Restoring Hope charitable group with local postman Steven Kay, who has raised tens of thousands of pounds for the local foodbank. They decided to join forces to help even more people in the Heywood community.

Restoring Hope largely operates from a large room in Darnhill Library, where Jenny set up a community food pantry and works with a community café.

Before gaining her degree in youth community work – which Jenny is especially proud of as she is dyslexic “which was an asset with the children, really” – she worked as a social worker in children’s homes for 15 years.

She married her husband John in 1983, and has two sons, Justin, 47, a minister at Heywood Baptist, and Jonny, 48, who works in Venetian marbling.

Jenny met John, 65, when they worked together at the-then Senior Service in Middleton before John moved into youth work. They have two adopted grandchildren, Isaac, seven, and Charisse, 13, after being asked to be grandparents by a young girl who Jenny once worked with.

Jenny is still in touch with many of the then-young people she helped – with some even wanting to return the favour and help her help others.

“I enjoyed making relationships with the teens,” she said. “There was a lot of joy but also a lot of pain when they opened up to you. The fact they trusted me is a honour, and that’s still there because I’m still in touch with people I helped when they were youths, but the relationship is different.”

“With Restoring Hope, I love that people have got somewhere to go and talk to us in the community. “We’re so blessed with people volunteering, and our local councillors have all been amazing. They’re an absolute godsend to the estate and Heywood, helping with things like housing issues.

“A lot of our work is with people who have terminal illness, sick children, or their bills are mounting when in hospital. Every day people message me that they’re struggling so I signpost them somewhere; they always thank me and say that they were really helped.

“Some people who have been in desperate situations have come back to me months later, offering their help.

“You can’t buy that feeling of satisfaction, and it’s very humbling to do. I’m honoured to be in a position to support someone and empathise with their situations.

“Being the Woman of Rochdale is nice for Darnhill. I didn’t realise it was me until they said the winner was known as our Queen!”