Newbold projects benefit from team work

The six young people who worked on the garden at St Peter's Church, clearing pathways, weeding and tidying the grounds

A group of unemployed young people from Rochdale are currently completing The Prince’s Trust Team programme, to give them the skills and confidence to find a job. During the 13-week course, they have been fundraising, helping communities and building their skills to help them find work.

The six young people have been working on the garden at St Peter's Church, clearing pathways, weeding and tidying the grounds. The team also carried out improvements to the garden of Mencap Cotton Fold and organised a Christmas party at St Peter's for the service users of Mencap.

Debbie Crocker, Mencap Support Worker, said: “The partnership work between the Groundwork Prince’s Trust Team, Mencap and St Peter Church has been great. It had empowered the people we support to access positive activities. The Team of young people worked really hard organising and fund raising for the Christmas Party and have made improvements to the garden at Cotton Fold and the Church grounds. We would like to thank both St Peter Church and the Groundwork Prince’s Trust Team for all their hard work on behalf of the people we support.”

As a final goodwill gesture the team decided to donate the money raised at the Christmas party raffle to the local food bank.

Simon Dean, Prince’s Trust Team Leader at Groundwork, commented: “The team were all very keen to help and support Mencap. These young people have worked hard to tidy the grounds of St. Peter Church and Mencap, as well as organising a fun day for the Mencap services users. This project has brought together different groups from the Newbold area and it’s great to see the positive impact that these young people have had on their community.”

The Prince’s Trust will help 55,000 disadvantaged young people this year, giving them the confidence and skills to turn their lives around. Three in four young people on Prince’s Trust schemes move into work, education or training.