£6,500 will help people to remain connected
ACHARITY offering key support services for the borough’s children, young people and adults has received a grant worth more than £6,000 as part of annual awards celebrating charities working in community, welfare and youth.
Rochdale Connections Trust (RCT), which was established in 1997, will also have the chance to work with a team of business coaches as a result of its selection as a 2020 Weston Charity Awards winner.
It was chosen from a record field of nearly 200 applicants, all of whom are frontline charities delivering youth, welfare or community services in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales.
RCT is a leading provider of domestic abuse services within the borough of Rochdale, and also provides counselling, mentoring and social opportunities for a range of groups in need.
The award will see the
Trust receive a core grant of £6,500 from the charitable grant-making Garfield Weston Foundation to help it ‘survive, adapt and thrive’ despite the impact of Covid19, as well as a year’s strategic planning support from a team of four business leaders thanks to the leadership charity Pilotlight.
Kathy Thomas, CEO of RCT, said: “I am really pleased that RCT has been chosen to receive a Western Charity Award.
“It shows that we are a resilient, thriving local charity that is worth investing in, especially at a time when everyone is concentrating on the here and now.”
She added: “By working with Pilotlight business coaches we hope to take a step back from our busy schedules and have the time to think about the future, talk over possibilities and opportunities and have a critical friend to guide us.”
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, RCT has worked ‘extremely hard’ to keep in contact with vulnerable borough residents and provided care and activity packs and food parcels to more than 50 families each week.
Some of its services have continued with social distancing in place, while some have moved online.
Philippa Charles, director of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the most vulnerable in our communities hard.
“Frontline charities such as Rochdale Connections Trust are addressing increasing demands for their services with innovation, professionalism and determination.
“They are doing so despite serious threats to their finances and operating models. The support and experience of the Weston Charity Awards puts charities in a really strong position to survive, adapt and thrive into the future”.
Bruce McCombie, interim chief executive of Pilotlight, said: “RCT has been selected as a Weston Charity Award recipient on the strength of its ambitions and the openness of the leadership team to external perspectives - attributes that will help them benefit most from working with our Pilotlighters.”