Page 10 - Real Rochdale Issue 16 Winter 2022

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
REAL ROCHDALE - WINTER 2022
us, we needed to be able to take the kids some-
where 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.
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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
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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
REAL ROCHDALE - WINTER 2022