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ELSIE








 WRAIGHTE









 Elected as councillor for Kingsway in May 2019, Elsie speaks to Claire Flett about
 overcoming a tough childhood and how she wants to help others from a similar background

 I am from Barrow-in-Furness and I grew up with my mum  and   possible to find out what people’s concerns were so that I
 my brother, Chris. We did not have the easiest time growing   would be a better representative - I feel that  deeply and I
 up. When I was three, my mum left my dad and we lived in a   take my responsibilities seriously.
 refuge.  We were in the homeless shelter for a few months.
 Then we moved from council flat to council houses and we   In the time I have been a councillor, I have attended lots of
 were in private rented for a while so it tough, but I did have   meetings and done a lot of casework. This is people coming to
 my mum there, who was very keen that I should go to school   me with housing problems, antisocial behaviour, policing, the
 and  get a good education.  cleanliness of the local area and local environment.


 I was the first person in my family to go to college, and the   I am currently working on a social mobility initiative. Its
 first to go to on university. I went to the University of   provisional name is Pioneering Rochdale and the idea behind
 Manchester where I studied politics and international   it is to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds
 relations.   in Rochdale, giving them some of the skills that children from
 disadvantaged backgrounds sometimes do not have, like
 At college and university, I was with people who were affluent   networking, confidence, giving presentations or even being
 or from different backgrounds and had completely different   aware of how to speak to other professional people. It is a
 experiences to me. I would say that has shaped my outlook,   really important point that they get the academics right, that
 my beliefs and my politics and my wanting to become a   is so key, but there is another side, like presenting yourself
 political activist and, ultimately, to become a councillor.   well and being able to express yourself.


 On graduation, I worked as a think tank researcher and then   Having graduated and spoken to people from a similar
 I worked for a charity called the Social Mobility Foundation,   background to mine, it is a real issue so the idea behind the
 which was about getting people from disadvantaged   initiative is to get Rochdale-based professionals involved.
 backgrounds into the top professions and universities.
 It is important that it is a Rochdale-based initiative,
 I came to Rochdale in 2015 to work for the local MP. I then    Rochdale-based young people, Rochdale-based businesses
 worked as a PA at Rochdale Council and then as a political   and professionals, to do a few different things.
 advisor/office manager for Tony Lloyd MP, before moving to
 my present job as an assistant transport strategy officer.  One component is mentoring, another is to have some
 inspiring professionals’ panels where a businessperson
 There was not a lightning bolt moment when I decided I   speaks to a group of young people about what they do and
 would like to become a local councillor; I thought I was well   how they got to where they are and their background, and in
 positioned to do it now  and I saw that some of the people   the future, hopefully, work placements in different sectors.
 here face a lot of socio-economic challenges - that was my
 incentive to try to make things better for people. I knew that I   I have only just started speaking to the council leader and the
 had strong Labour values of fairness and equality, and   cabinet member responsible and having early meetings with
 wanting to make things better. Getting my current job and   officers, and will hopefully start to do something early next
 buying a house in Littleborough means I am in a stable place, I   year. I am hoping that local colleges and apprenticeship
 am settled, so the timing is right.  providers will refer young people to the initiative.

 When I was first elected as a Labour councillor for Kingsway   I am really keen to do this; my own experience has made me
 (in May 2019), I  was very keen to talk to as many people as   sure that this is the right thing to do in Rochdale.
                                                                                             Photo & Hair: Greg Couzens
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