For some time now the Trust board and its welfare team have wanted to extend their work to provide more for our younger members and Dale fans alike and to support the parents and guardians where appropriate. Trust secretary, Murray Knight said recently “supporting not only our younger Trust members but young people in the Rochdale area in general is something the Trust Board is keen to advocate”.
To this end, the Trust has recently formed a supportive partnership with Early Break, who are a service providing support and advice to young people & families in our local community and also to the surrounding boroughs, people who have needs around drugs and/or alcohol.
Facilitating this, the welfare team has been bolstered by board member Dave Earnshaw who is one of our young person advocates and an experienced worker in youth matters.
We are pursuing further connections with “Positive Steps” who are a charitable trust that delivers a range of targeted and integrated services for young people, adults and families typically providing a range of information, advice, guidance and employability support for young people in Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside, and for young people aged 13 to 19, providing a range of opportunities to help them make a smooth transition to adulthood and working life through their services delivered in schools, colleges and in the local community
We are using the banner name “Youth Matters” It’s a new venture for the trust and Youth Matters is a name we feel encompasses what we are trying to achieve and supports our young person’s ethos mentioned by Murray earlier.
We will be featuring “Youth Matters” under its own heading in the welfare section and all services will have signposting information clearly available.
We will be launching the Youth Matters program on our web site in the near future.