Mohammed Sheraz
Liberal Democrat Party
Central Rochdale Ward
Hi, I'm Mohammed Sheraz- son of a Kashmiri immigrant who arrived and settled in Rochdale in the late 60’s. I am Rochdale born and bred, coming into this world at Birch Hill Hospital.
I have lived all my life in the Central Rochdale ward.
I went to Heybrook, Howarth Cross, Falinge Park High School and Hopwood Hall College, and gained a Youth and Community work Diploma at Bradford College. This enabled me to become a Youth and Community worker for Rochdale Council for over 15 years. This role at Rochdale Council enabled me to develop, deliver and manage a wide range of borough wide initiatives. Since leaving Rochdale MBC in 2016 I have worked with statutory and voluntary organisations to help local communities to be empowered and part of the decision making processes locally and across the North West.
Through my previous work and now volunteer capacity, I have been at the forefront of developing and managing work in all four townships of Rochdale with young people and various diverse communities.
A few examples of my proudest moments and achievements include:-
- Empowering young people and the residents of Rochdale by providing advice, information, guidance, mentoring and practical support.
- Launching Friday night "Fusion" in partnership with Your Trust (Formerly known as Link 4 Life). This initiative allowed hundreds of young people to attend youth provisions on weekends.
- T emergency response during Boxing Day floods in December 2015- I led a community response, arranged volunteers, resources and engaged the statutory organisations to help clear out residents from their households and support in clearing out their basements/ cellars with flooded water, bringing all residents affected to safety. This achievement was recognised by then Prime Minister, David Cameron where I was invited to a ceremony at Downing Street in March 2016 to receive an award in recognition of the Rochdale floods.
In addition I have:
- Successfully set up a soup kitchen (since December 2015) where we provide weekly hot meals up to 100 needy people which includes homeless and refugees and asylum seekers. This has developed into annual Christmas dinners where we are providing over 100 hot meals. This initiative under Army of Kindness has been self-sufficient with funding and volunteers.
- Empowered women in Rochdale and my area to get involved in setting up community groups and being active, by providing training courses for them to develop.
- Finally, during the covid-19 pandemic I have led on food provision projects, working closely with grassroots and national organisations, to ensure maximising services and resources. In the school holidays in October 2020, I led on a borough wide project to support Marcus Rashford’s initiative of ‘End Child Hunger’ where I worked with community centres/organisations across all four townships to deliver school dinner meals for families struggling to make ends meet during school holidays. We successfully distributed 500 packed lunches a day.
I have dedicated the last 10 years in volunteer capacity to supporting refugees and asylum seekers to settle into the town of Rochdale, access to schools and health services as well as employment and other additional support. This has also led me to support the community in building confidence, gaining better health and wellbeing, learning skills such as English language and access to skilled based courses. With time some have set up their own community organisations/ charities and businesses.
I am really looking forward to using my skills, experience and passion to continue to serve, support and empower residents of Central ward with your support during the local May 22 elections.
Vote For Change
