Winter 202225 years of Rochdale Connections Trust

Rochdale Connections Trust is a local charity which provides a range of valuable support services to young people, adults and families who are finding life difficult.

Established in 1997 by a group of youth court magistrates – concerned by the number of young people coming before them who had little or no family support – RCT set about to help them return to education and training via a range of social inclusion intervention programmes.

Since then, it has evolved to include work with socially isolated adults and those with complex needs, whilst remaining highly committed to their original targeted youth support programme.

Referrals are received from a range of agencies, services and statutory bodies, including social services, the youth offending service, probation, schools and CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services).

A range of services are provided by fully trained staff and volunteers, including young people mentoring, female and male ‘Freedom Programmes’, literacy and numeracy courses and parenting courses, to name but a few.

It takes around £600,000 to keep the charity running for a year, with funding coming from a range of places, including Lloyds Bank, the National Lottery and small private funders.

Here they demonstrate their success across various demographics with these two case studies.

Case study: referral for gambling programme

At her initial assessment with RCT, we established that she had a daughter removed into care when she was younger. She said she still struggled with the emotional trauma this had caused and had not dealt with it. She also disclosed that she was isolated and lonely.

Due to this, we offered her the option of attending one of our groups for isolated and vulnerable women and subsequently our in-house counselling service.

She has now been attending since February and has grown in confidence within the group. As part of the group, we have supported her with personal issues she’s had in a previous relationship which ended in 2021 but was still causing her some issues, due to emotional manipulation.

We have also supported her to put boundaries in place in her strained relationship with her son which has now improved immensely. This lady also has some issues with the property she currently lives in: we have been working with her and her housing officer to start a home exchange so she’s happier in her home.

When this lady started in the group, she said she had no hope for the future. As part of the group she has written goals she wants to achieve over the next year and has started feeling hopeful and positive about her life.

The peer support provided in the group has made her realise she isn’t alone in her situation and is allowing her to heal from the past. She does still have her bad days but will reach out to group facilitators for support.

Case study: young person B

B presented with high levels of anxiety due to his position at home and was unable to label or express his emotions.

From a very young age, B was relied on as ‘the man of the house’ whilst his dad was in prison. He cared for his younger sister and took on many responsibilities. They were sometimes left unsupervised, and he had to prepare food and settle his sister into bed. B is very protective over his sister and has little time to be a child.

He was withdrawn around other children and often felt lonely in group settings as he felt unable to connect with others. B had very low self-esteem and a lack of confidence, was struggling to make eye contact and was unable to start conversations. Due to this, B was easily led by his older friends and had little awareness of how to play safely in his neighbourhood. B had a negative self-outlook and never believed that he was good enough at anything and often said that he ‘can’t do it’ or ‘is rubbish’.

Since joining the programme, B has experienced lots of changes in his home life: his dad has returned and his mum became pregnant. B has mixed feelings about these changes. So much change and uncertainty at such a young age, together with a lack of coping skills, has been the main focus for B’s support.

After joining the youth group with his sister, it was identified that B needed a space away from his sister that was just for him, where he could express himself and play more freely. Therefore, B was referred for 1-2-1 person-centred ‘thera-play’ sessions with a keyworker.

During his 1-2-1 sessions, B is provided with a safe space where he can share his thoughts and feelings, practise emotional regulation, learn coping skills and resilience, and grow his confidence and self-esteem, whilst being creative and being a child. He is becoming more confident at naming different emotions, but struggles when discussing coping mechanisms for difficult feelings.

He has responded well to consistent support, allowing him to recognise and have confidence in his strengths. His social anxiety has reduced and his self-esteem increased.

Following on from B’s increased self-esteem, B has explored what he enjoys and what makes him happy, so that his hopes and dreams for the future can be used as a coping mechanism. B created a ‘Dream Jar’, which he can keep in his bedroom and ‘charge’ with happy dreams when he is feeling worried or upset. B enjoyed having something special that he made himself to take home and use, and was confident in naming what his hopes for the future are.

Interview with Vivian Carter

Vivian Carter, one of RCT’s founders who is now chair of the board of trustees, told us more about the charity’s work.

A former teacher in Heywood, Viv also worked at British Coal and British Gas before working in her partner’s engineering workshop. She has also taught English to French students.

What was the original aim for RCT – and has it achieved it?

Absolutely and miles besides. I chaired the youth court in Rochdale, and we had loads of kids coming in, offending, and they weren’t at school. They weren’t at school because they chose not to be – and realised if they escaped the school system at 11, nobody noticed they had gone. But that leads to offending because they need guidance and occupation and all those things they weren’t getting.

The whole youth bench was up in arms, saying we had to do something. I went to see the deputy director of education at the council and he knew exactly what I was talking about. So, we drew in the head of youth services, and head of children’s services and we formed a bit of a group and decided that we’ve got to do something.

The local authority gave us a place to work and we managed to get £20,000 from The Prince’s Trust so we employed two people. One worked with children in school and the other one worked outside on the social side - mentoring. We decided mentoring was the way forward because they weren’t being mentored at home.

It grew very quickly. I remember speaking to John Kay [the current secretary of the charity] and telling him that although the council had been kind enough to put us up and look after us, we needed to be able to take the kids somewhere neutral where we could look after them.

Not long after, he showed me the premises on Drake Street, where I’d actually worked for a very short time. It was empty after becoming a furniture shop, but it was for sale – I didn’t know how we’d pay rent, never mind buy somewhere. John said, “leave it to me.”

He managed to find support from the bank and get us a mortgage. It was the making of us because we had a place to work from and it was a big office in those days. Now it’s not big enough, but it was amazing.

How many mentors does RCT have now?

We have about 28, who all work one-to-one with kids. We soon discovered that it was alright mentoring the young people but actually, you needed to work with the parents as well and – very often – that was where the problem lay.

We quickly discovered one of the bigger family problems was women who were being abused and not talking about it, which affects the kids. Two of our staff went on a course to learn how to help these women; supporting them in standing up for themselves and enabling them to be able to take their own lives in hand. They were brilliant and one of them still works here.

It became obvious that we needed to do more: we were then working in schools with kids who were not settled and needed mentoring so then that grew.

Do you run a course for men who feel they are at risk of committing abuse?

Yes. We couldn’t have men in here when we had women in who had problems. So we had to dedicate a day where it is men only. You have to refer yourself: you have got to want to change your ways, otherwise we can’t do anything for you. It took us a while to get funding for this because nobody believed we could do it.

If you were starting RCT today, would you do anything differently?

I don’t think we would. It was – and still is – based in the community. We follow the community’s needs to do what we do. We try to follow what the community has a need for. Our new project on Darnhill in Heywood is a good example; we have to be based in the community, they won’t come here, so we have to go to them. It takes time because we have to build up trust.

Have you got any aims over the next five years?

Our next move must deal with knife crime – somebody has to deal with all these kids who are wandering around with a knife in hand. Our projects present themselves: we don’t particularly think we want to do ‘this’. Something will come up and then we make a plan and try to get funding, so really, we just take it step by step.

To find out more about Rochdale Connections Trust or become a volunteer mentor visit www.r-c-t.co.uk