Robin Parker, our election pundit makes the right ‘Connections’

Pauline Journeaux, Rochdale Online; Vivien Carter, Rochdale Connections Trust; Robin Parker

Former mayor of Rochdale, Robin Parker certainly made the right connection in the recent council elections. When he was asked by Rochdale Online to be their ‘guest electoral pundit’ and to make a ward-by-ward prediction of the results, he scored an impressive 100 per cent.

Robin admitted that though his predictions had been remarkably accurate one ward, Milkstone and Deeplish had caused him some concerns. However, after visiting the area and talking to people on the ground, he was satisfied that Labour’s Terry Linden would win.

Robin was presented with his winner’s cheque by Rochdale Online Managing Director Pauline Journeaux and donated his prize to the Rochdale Connections Trust, where the cheque was handed over amidst a lively group of children who were involved in the kitchen area.

Mrs Journeaux gave a short speech in which she told everyone that they should ‘follow their dream’ and said that if they had an idea to set up a business they should have faith in themselves and work hard to make it a reality.

Robin, who has retired from politics, told Rochdale Online that he had first encountered Connections during his mayoral year. He had been impressed with the work that the Trust did with young people and children. He said that he was delighted to hand over the cheque to help with the great work that the Trust was doing for Rochdale families.

Two of the helpers we spoke to had come into contact with the Trust in an attempt to deal with their own issues.

One, Bernadette Dearden, said: “I have worked here for two or three months. Everyone made me feel so welcome. It has given me so much confidence. I have taken courses in anger management and information technology. The trust had helped me to turn my life round.

Another helper, Rashida Jordan, said: “I have learned social skills and parenting. Connections has helped me with supported housing. As a mother, the socialising aspect has been so important to me. It has been great being able to come in and share my experiences and has made me realise that I was not alone in having problems to deal with. Connections has always been here for us as a family and we have never been turned away.”.

Rochdale Connections Trust (RCT) is a community charity, started some 13 years ago, following the concerns of local magistrates, who found that the majority of young people appearing in the local court were not attending school. They were not truants but they had just chosen to evade the system. Young people today cannot evade the system but the problems and anxieties which caused them to do that still remain and those are the problems which RCT sets out to address.

A great deal of the Trust’s work is undertaken by volunteer mentors whom are trained to BTEC level 3.

A Trust spokesperson said: “Rochdale is an area with a very high number of ethnic minorities and we knew that we were not engaging with this group as effectively as we could. We knew that Asian families in particular, preferred their children to attend group sessions but that didn’t work well either until we appointed a worker who could speak a number of Asian languages. He was able to allay the fears of parents who did not understand what we did. Making a film, outlining their difficulties and other activities, such as cookery and attending the gym, helped to raise their self-esteem and self- confidence enormously, so much so that, in a very short time, we were able to move them into integrating seamlessly with the other groups with whom we were working - community cohesion at its best.

“Unfortunately, this project revealed a bigger problem. The real divide is not just between black, minority and ethnic (BME) communities and white youths. There is a bigger problem within the BME community itself. One mosque will not have dealings with the neighbouring mosque, Asians do not communicate well with Africans and so on. What we would like to do now is generate a programme of events , similar to the one we ran and know works in these circumstances which will encourage young people from diverse racial backgrounds (and their families) to work on inter-racial harmony.

“We then aim to develop into inter-community cohesion A donation of £2,500 would allow us to run the group, for 12 months; space in which we can seek further funding to maybe establish this work more firmly in an area in which the need for increasing the levels of community cohesion is crucial . Recently, one of our workers took two young women out for a cup of coffee; a local white girl and one of Pakistani origin. When they returned the white girl said, “Isn’t she lovely? I have never spoken to an Asian girl before.” Bearing in mind that she lives in an area with an occupancy rate of 70 per cent ethnic minority residents, surely this is the best way of generating community cohesion?”