Rochdale Connections Trust awarded Covid-19 funding from Youth Endowment Fund

Rochdale Connections Trust

Rochdale-based charity Rochdale Connections Trust has been awarded a grant of £57,000 from the Youth Endowment Fund to support young people at-risk of being drawn into violent crime through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rochdale Connections Trust will use the funding to launch a new online programme of support to help vulnerable young people access mentoring from a trained youth worker.

The programme has been developed to reduce stress, loneliness and anxiety felt by young people who have not been able to access regular support due to social distancing and stay-at-home measures.

The Youth Endowment Fund is an independent charitable trust set up by the Home Office. It funds, supports and evaluates projects in England and Wales which work to prevent children and young people from being drawn into violent crime.

Rochdale Connections Trust is one of 130 organisations to share part of a £6.5m grant pot from the Youth Endowment Fund to help at-risk young people impacted by Covid-19.

Bev Place, Business Development Manager at RCT, said: “As a charity which was originally set up to work with young people at risk of engaging in criminality over 20 years ago, we are thrilled to receive this funding grant to allow us to continue to work with the most vulnerable young people living across Rochdale and to show them a different path.

“Many have been adversely affected by the restrictions imposed during the outbreak of the pandemic leaving them to flounder without interventions that might ordinarily have been provided in the school setting.

“Significant numbers of young people have been struggling to cope without a structured routine during lockdown and urgently need access to support workers to prevent the further deterioration of their mental health.

“The funding will allow us to be more creative in our approach to reaching young people and to develop on-line provision to meet identified need.”

Jon Yates, Executive Director at Youth Endowment Fund, said: “It has been too easy to forget vulnerable young people during this crisis. The pandemic has removed much of the critical support that many of them rely upon – from teachers to youth workers.

“This funding will help us find the best way to reach and support these young people when they most need it.”