Celebration event launches Groundwork’s 30th year

Cliff Ellison, Executive Director at Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale

A recent celebration event marks the start of a year-long series of events leading up to Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale’s 30th birthday in October 2013.

The Team Programme Celebration event held at Hopwood Hall College (Middleton Campus) on Friday 26 October commemorated a number of impressive landmarks reached on the Groundwork Prince’s Trust Team programme.

Local charity, Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale, has been delivering the Team programme in Heywood, Middleton, Oldham and Rochdale with The Prince’s Trust since 1998. The Team programme takes groups of unemployed young people on 12 action packed weeks to increase their confidence and provide the skills needed to gain work or further training.

John Davies, Youth & Community Manager at Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale, commented: “I am very proud to have been involved with the Prince’s Trust programme since I was a volunteer on the second team Groundwork delivered in 1998. I have since been a Prince’s Trust Team Leader, Co-ordinator and Manager, so have seen firsthand the positive impact it has on young people and their surrounding communities. I would like to thank all the young people and organisations who have been involved in making this programme such a success over the last 14 years.”

A combined total of over 200 Teams have been delivered by Groundwork in the local area. This year will also see the 3,000th Team member complete the programme since 1998.

In the run up to Groundwork’s thirtieth anniversary the charity will be hosting a number of events to celebrate different programmes and projects delivered in the local area.

The next event, on Wednesday 5 December, will showcase their Volunteer Project Assistant (VPA) programme, with contributions from current and past graduate volunteers. Local organisations will also be able to find out how Groundwork can support VPA placements within their firms.

Cliff Ellison, Executive Director at Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale, added: “The Prince's Trust team programme is fantastic and it is awesome to think that over 3,000 local young people have been helped to turn their lives around. Please watch for details of subsequent events - it is important that we celebrate what we do in our thirtieth year but the real objective is to see how many new individuals and organisations we can attract to work with us and help to make a huge difference.”