Cs 1756 Rochdale Community Champions

Rochdale Community Champions Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research in 2015

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Rochdale Community Champions

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Rochdale Community Champions Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research Edited by Katy Goldstraw, Helen Chicot and John Diamond

Contents 05

Foreword, Steve Rumbelow

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Who Are Rochdale Community Champions?

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The Leadership and Participatory Research Methods Training

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Rochdale Community Champions: Adult and Continuing Education in action

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Participatory Research: Principles and Practice

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The Research: Case Studies 1. Yasmin and Andrew 2. Chris 3. Jan 4. Julia 5. Norma

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The Research Process

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Afterword, John Cater

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Appendix One: Proposal from Edge Hill University to work with Rochdale Community Champions

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Appendix Two - Four: Session Planners

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Appendix Five: Who is Who and How to find out more

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Foreword to the Project Steve Rumbelow, Chief Executive, Rochdale Borough Council.

This is the second booklet to come from the joint work between Edge Hill University and the Rochdale Borough Community Champions. It is an illustration of the deep thinking and hard work that our Community Champions put into their role; not just through the help they give to others as volunteers but also through the careful thought and care that sits behind that. This booklet provides us with some examples of what it means to be a Community Champion. It tells us that who you are and what you think and believe is an important element of what you do.

Public services are facing very challenging times and are having to find new and better delivery models, which work to support confident and resilient communities. Volunteering can play a major part in sustainable public service models and our Community Champions Scheme is an example demonstrating the benefits that skilled and motivated volunteers can bring.

The outcomes from Community Champions are remarkable; they make a positive difference to people’s lives, whether it’s helping an adult to be able to read and write or supporting someone who’s overwhelmed by their financial circumstances. They give their time and expertise to support people in a unique way. Community Champions are a real asset to our borough and something to be proud of. It’s incredible that there are so many Champions, across the borough, helping people – that’s a real force for positive change happening every day.

Something that is very special and important about the Community Champions is the deep level of engagement these volunteers have with the Borough. You’re not just helping people; you’re thinking about, discussing, reflecting and analysing what’s going on, identifying what is helpful and unhelpful, what is important and what needs to change. It’s vital that this thinking and engagement drives the leadership of the Community Champions - and it’s only through work like this partnership with Edge Hill University that we can really understand your views, listen to and act on them.

I understand that the emphasis of the research, this year has been about understanding why rather than how things work the way they do for Community Champions. This research will tell us about what it means to you to be a Community Champion, their r perspective on our community and about why the way things are done is as important as what gets done when you’re helping people.

This insight is important, not just for the Community Champions but also to inform the development and delivery of wider front line public services.

Thank you.

Steve Rumblelow Chief Executive, Rochdale Borough Council

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Who are Rochdale Community Champions?

Rochdale Borough Council hosts the Community Champions. The champions are volunteers who are chosen for their passion, commitment and human focus. The Rochdale Community Champions offer an innovative and supportive approach to supporting others in their community. Rochdale Council describes the champions as: “Rochdale Borough’s Community Champions are residents who have excellent people” skills; they care about their local area and have a high level of expertise that is based on their life experience. They use their skills and attributes to help others in their community.

Community Champions: - help people at a time when they need some support - work with people to identify and clarify their goals; the person can work on any goals But the emphasis chosen is most often on wellbeing, skills, employment or family matters - are trained and expert in using methods which help people to progress towards and achieve their goals Although they are able to offer support at any stage, Community Champions aim to offer most of their support at the “single contact” stage, supporting the person to build their capacity and resilience; if possible preventing a progression towards a need for further services” www.rochdale.gov.uk Rochdale Community Champion volunteers offer support and training for others in their community in a wide variety of areas from literacy, families, health and wellbeing, and employment skills. The support that the Champions offer is solution focussed and of a positive nature. The support is bespoke to each individual, but is focused around a six session model, with the aim of signposting the client after the initial support period.

As part of the support that Rochdale Borough offer, the champions receive a range of development training. The Community Champions find this training useful and attendance is good at the sessions. The development needs of the volunteers are very much valued.

For some volunteers, their focus is on a particular task for example literacy support, for others volunteering is part of a more general process of development enabling them to grow in a supportive environment. Rochdale Community Champions staff support team, has worked hard to support the training needs of each volunteer, recognising the diversity of volunteer motivations.

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

The Leadership & Participatory Research Methods Training.

Rochdale Borough Council has developed a training support programme with the Community Champions based on a competency approach. All volunteers are inducted into the community volunteer project and offered continuing professional development training throughout the course of their volunteering. Recognising the positivity, passion and compassion of the Champion volunteer team and seeking to develop this, Rochdale Borough Council sought out ‘Leadership and Decision Making’ and ‘Undertaking Locally Based Research’ training from Edge Hill University. This training was based on the positive solution focussed ethos of the Community Champions. This is the second year that the training programme has been delivered.

The training was delivered over four days in January 2015. The first session was focused around models of leadership and decision making. The sessions were very much workshop focussed and activity centred, encouraging the Champions to share experiences and expertise. Post it Walls were created, discussions were led about decisions makers, authority and power. Issues were discussed around working with conflict and conflict resolution workshop techniques were role played. Decision Making Trees were talked through, then workshopped by the Community Champions and factors that shape the trees and enable it to grow were discussed and developed.

The second, third and fourth sessions were focussed on developing participatory research skills. These sessions were focussed on undertaking locally based research. Why we might undertake locally based research was initially discussed, followed by discussions of what is evidence and how research can be co-produced. Toolkits were then shared with the Community Champions, using the Association for Research with the Voluntary and Community Sector (www.arvac.org.uk ) resources. Planning a locally based research topic, framing research questions and gathering research were then discussed. Day two commenced with a discussion of ethics and ethical practice, followed by the pragmatics of a research project. Rochdale Community Champions worked in self-formed groups to share ideas and create a plan for their locally based research project. During this process an animation was created with the group about what being a champion means to them. Day three was focussed on developing research skills and ideas. Day four reviewed and refocused learning and supported participants to consider their research plans.

The training offered by Edge Hill University, was offered to all of Rochdale Community Champions volunteer team, with the recognition that not all of the team would wish to develop a leadership or research role within their volunteer remit. The aim of the training was to empower and enable the volunteers, providing them with an opportunity to develop their leadership and research skills should they wish to. The feedback from the training was very positive, Rochdale Community Champions liked the training style, the participatory nature of the sessions and the approach to learning that Edge Hill University offered. Some Rochdale Community champions then chose to utilise this training by undertaking locally based research. A volunteer led, community participatory research project was born, supported by Rochdale Borough Council Champions team and Edge Hill staff.

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Rochdale Community Champions: Adult and Continuing Education in Action.

Rochdale Community Champions are a community led, volunteering project. The ideals of locating community education and adult learning in a community setting, led by the community, for the community are very much the key tenets of the Champion Ethos. The Continuing education and Adult learning offered by the Rochdale Champion’s is very much of the ethos espoused by the The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) www.niace.org.uk which aims to encourage all adults to engage in learning of all kinds.

Rochdale Community champions are focused on the specific learning needs of the adults with whom they work. Community Champions offer group learning sessions, such as job clubs, supporting adults who are unemployed with CV building and computer skills. Learning here is offered in a variety of Community Centres across Rochdale. Community Champions also offer one to one support, in areas such as adult literacy. These one to one sessions, are often in less formal community settings such a local cafĂŠ. Learning is brought to the learners by members of their own community, in settings that learners are familiar with and feel comfortable in. Most Community Champions do not have formal teaching qualifications, they do however, alongside training offered by the Rochdale Community Champions team, have excellent inter-personal skills, being very well skilled in reacting to and developing the learning needs of their community.

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Participatory Research: What is it, why is it useful for the Rochdale Community Champions After completing the four days of Leadership and Decision Making and Undertaking Locally based research training in January 2015. Volunteers were offered the opportunity to engage in a participatory research project supported by the Champion Support team at the Borough Council and staff at Edge Hill University. Participatory action research (PAR) holds to an epistemology of power that questions the nature of knowledge and the extent to which knowledge can serve the interests of societies powerful, reinforcing societal hierarchies, PAR; “Seeks to understand and improve the world by changing it. At its heart is collective, selfreflective inquiry that researchers and participants undertake, so that they can understand and improve upon the practices in which they participate and the situations in which they find themselves. The reflective process is directly linked into action, influenced by understanding of history, culture and local context and embedded in social relationships” Baum, MacDougall & Smith 2006:854 For this reason Edge Hill University worked with Rochdale Community Champions using participatory research techniques.

The hope was that through the research process, volunteers would learn and develop, that the process of research would build volunteer confidence and leadership.

Participatory research is distinctive in that it holds the social justice goal – to enable action. Action is arrived at through participation in a reflective cycle, research participants collect data, analyse their data and then decide on appropriate action. This focus on leadership, decision making and research action fits into the training sessions delivered by Edge Hill University for Rochdale Community Champions.

Participatory research has a social justice function in that it pays particular attention to power and the hierarchy that exists between researcher and research participant. The primary focus of participatory research is that it is a collaborative process between researcher and participants. Participatory research also holds the social justice function that the research is not extractive; the research is a collaborative process that involves research participants within the research process. The focus of participatory research on the shared co-production of knowledge fits into the training sessions delivered by Edge Hill University with Rochdale Community Champions.

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What happened next: Support sessions with Edge Hill Staff After the training sessions in January 2015, Rochdale Community Champions were encouraged to develop their own locally based research project. Rochdale Community Champions chose to conduct individual research projects. The research conducted was a real mix of projects that reflected the diversity of volunteer interests and skills. Some of the initial research that had begun in the January 2015 training, changed and re-formed, some volunteers experienced illness and had to step down from the research role. Volunteers were often surprised by the effect that the research had on them, the reality of communities and their experiences of Work Programme Sanctions and poverty was very emotionally demanding.

Edge Hill staff met with the volunteers in Rochdale approximately every six weeks to support the volunteers with their locally based research. Support was also offered via Rochdale Borough Campion’s Support Team and e mail support was provided in the intervening times by Edge Hill Staff. The visits by Edge Hill staff were set up as ‘advice slots,’ Champions arranged appointments to discuss their research with Edge Hill staff and advice was shared regarding issues such as ethics, research questionnaires and qualitative research methods. There was also a lunch seminar within these visit days. The lunch seminar led on topics such as research techniques, research ethics and reflective learning.

At the advice session in July, volunteers had gathered a great amount of material and evidence from their various research groups and it was decided that alongside a celebration event, that this booklet would be created to share some of the research process and findings. A similar booklet was created for the July 2014 celebration event and this year this booklet sits alongside an animation and radio play as evidence of the hard work, commitment and passion of the Champions for community research.

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

The Research – Case Studies Rochdale Community Champions commenced their research in March 2015. Here is a small sample of the work that was produced. What is included below is by no means all of the research that was produced and is merely intended to provide the reader with a feel for the quality and thought that the research project initiated in the Rochdale Community Champions.

You can access the Animation that was created as part of the 2015 project here: www.edgehill.ac.uk/i4p You can access the radio play that was created as part of the 2015 project here: www.edgehill.ac.uk/i4p

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Research Case Study: Yasmin and Andrew Andrew Andrew is a dedicated Rochdale Community Champion. He in the process of conducting a longer term research project. The project is a piece of social history research linking themes from the Workhouses of the 1930s to the policy narratives of the present day. Andrew is a passionate researcher and has dedicated many hours to reading a range of novels such as ‘the road to Wigan pier’ which offer a background to his current research. He is currently conducting semi structured interviews with Rochdale residents focusing on memories of the Rochdale area, benefits and welfare provision.

Yasmin Yasmin is a passionate and talented script writer and has drawn on these talents in her research for Rochdale Community Champions. Yasmin has developed characters that reflect the experience of many Rochdale residents in receipt of benefit. Chantelle; Yasmin’s primary character is a caring and supportive sibling for her autistic brother. Chantelle is placed on the Work Programme and in failing to comply with her workfare requirements due to her caring responsibilities, she is ‘sanctioned’, her benefits are removed and she is forced into a position where she has to access a foodbank. Yasmin’s script, through the medium of ethno-drama (Mienczakawski 2013) tells the real story behind the Work Programme headlines, using theatre as a means to give voice to those who so often are silenced. To listen to Yasmin and Andrew’s radio play please visit; www.edgehill.ac.uk/I4P

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Yasmin - Talking Heads In the recording Studio – recording Yasmin & Andrew’s work “TALKING HEADS” Yasmin 31.VIII.2015

September 2015 Snapshot of Community based Research for Rochdale Community Champions & Edge Hill University SCENE II : Chantelles story : A Rochdale childhood Hi, My names Chantelle. That’s not my real name I was called Edna , after my Grandma how gross is that?!

I live with my Mum and step-brother in a small flat in Rochdale. It was my job from as far back as I can remember to look after us all, especially my young brother Ben – who's a bit “slow”.

Mum was usually gauched out on the settee and I'd desperately be trying to stop Ben from crying because he was hungry but I knew that there was nothing in the house to eat because Mum had cashed in the Family Allowance yesterday.

I didn't get to school much as I was caring for Mum & Ben unless she'd managed to get a few nights work at the Packing Factory, [1].

Then I'd have to try and grab some money off her before she spent it all on drink or drugs.

We didn't have many clothes and when Gran tried to invite us to her church, I had to say we weren’t well because we just didn't have any smart clothes kept for “ Sunday Best “ to wear ; just hand -me- downs from “Aunty” Brenda's kids next door.

We existed on beans & sausages on white bread and biscuits. School holidays were the worst times, then we didn't get our Free School Meals and I'd often go hungry so that Ben could have whatever was left in the cupboard, [2].

I know that Mum loved us , in her own way, and that she tried her best for us, but if it hadn't been for Gran bringing us “food-parcels” from her church and “ Aunty “ Brenda , me & Ben wouldn't have survived, [3].

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SCENE II : Job Center Plus Office MADGE :

Chantelle! Chantelle!

CHANTELLE :

Here ! I'm here!

MADGE :

Yes take a seat. Now let me have a look at your details.

Oh dear! That’s most unfortunate.

CHANTELLE :

What is there something wrong?

MADGE :

Yes. You failed to appear at the placement we set up for you at the Peoples Advisory Pop-In .Therefore you have been sanctioned for six weeks, [1].

CHANTELLE :

Oh God! I can't believe this!

I did phone up and tell them I couldn't make it ,honest I did!

It's just that Ben was playing up, Mum wasn't well and I just didn't have the bus fare to get there. It’s two buses to get right over the other side of town you see, I couldn’t leave Ben with Mum and he couldn't walk there with me it's miles and he's just a little kid...

MADGE :

I don't want to hear it .When will people like you realise that there are always consequences to your actions? ,[2].

CHANTELLE :

But what am I going to do with no money coming in?

I feel sick! [3].

How am I going to manage? [4].

MADGE :

Well I can give you a voucher for the Food bank I suppose .

Yes , here it is .If you hurry they might still be open now.

CHANTELLE :

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Thanks Madge ! Oh, God , I really don't want to go there - but I've got no choice now have I?, [5].

Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

SCENE III : Food Bank MILDRED :

Hello, Please come in and take a seat .

Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?

You look a little flustered my dear .

CHANTELLE :

No ...I've run all the way here. I just need to get my breath back and I'll be alright. [she hands the voucher over to Mildred], [1].

MILDRED :

Thank you.

Don't worry dear we'll get you sorted out.

CHANTELLE :

[Tearfully] I'm grateful...but to be honest I'd NEVER thought I'd get this low!

MILDRED :

Shall we say a prayer together My dear?

CHANTELLE :

[Doubtfully] Well if YOU want to…?

MILDRED :

Dear Lord . Please bless this child of yours and please help her to your wondrous bounty. Amen, [2].

CHANTELLE :

Amen. [A Food bank helper comes across bustling with three carrier bags of food]

MILDRED :

Here we are my dear .Here is three bags, enough for three people for three days, [3].

Would you like to help yourself to two tins from the out-of-date box?

CHANTELLE :

Yes please! Can I take these two tins of beans and sausages? Our Ben really likes these… [and three bags of tinned food won't get far with no tokens in the meter and us already on emergency credit ...she says under her breath].

MILDRED :

Yes , of course you can my dear . And why don't you take this Little Book of Bible Readings as well – there’s one for each day – you CAN read can't you ?

CHANTELLE :

Of course I can -I'm NOT stupid you know!

Sorry...You've been really kind and I'd like to say thank you to you all for your kindness even though I don't feel very deserving of it .

MILDRED :

You are a child of God. He will bless you and keep you always.

CHANTELLE :

I hope so, 'cos I've got another six weeks of survival to manage first!

Bye now. [4], [5], [6].

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SCENE IV : Reality hits home CHANTELLE:

Hi, Chantelle here again.

I wanted to tell you about how awful I was feeling after getting sanctioned for six weeks, [1].

I felt so angry, yet helpless to do anything about it. Nobody told me about the hardship payment I was entitled to .I didn't have anyone to turn to, being sanctioned was the new leprosy, and secretly I felt ashamed for missing that appointment and giving the DWP the excuse they needed.

Returning home with the carrier bags from the food bank I put it away in the cupboard, and tried to work out in my head what meals I could cook with it .

Mum was on the settee as usual , cigarette in one hand watching telly, and Ben was in his room looking at his toy cards. I felt a wave of total despair hit me. I could just see my life never getting any better , just struggling on, and on.

I tried to get an appointment at the Doctors, but they only had an appointment four weeks away, all the earlier appointments had been booked up by people on line, who had computers of their own.

How could we afford to have the internet at home when we struggled to pay the telly licence fee?

I'd always suffered with anxiety, right from being little, 'cos I was worried about Ben most of the time .Mum said: “I could worry for England !”. Yes, I could get the Gold Medal alright.

Fear gripped me in it's icy vice, what else could go wrong?

Troubles always come in threes don't they?

Superstitiously, I'd always saluted Magpies, if I say them, and I tried not to track on cracks in the pavement just to ward of the bad luck.

Even when something good happened, like “Aunty” Brenda coming round and bringing us some food or clothes, I always looked over my shoulder, waiting for something awful to happen , to balance it out .

I found myself going down the spiral of despair fast this time.

Not sleeping, not eating, [Ben could always use my share of the food ], and feeling apathetic.

All the fight had gone out of me.

Somehow I managed to drag myself out of the door and get to the free phone in the library to talk to the woman in the CAB. Overloaded with work as she was, all she could advise me was that she could only give me a voucher for the foodbank, [2].

So I thanked her and hung up in tears.

At the desk was a card advertising the Samaritans, I picked it up because I felt I was just despairing enough to ring them.

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Andrew's supplementary notes to accompany Yasmin's “Talking Heads “ scenarios :

APPENDIX : SCENE I Chantelles story : A Rochdale childhood 1]. Adzuna recently ranked Rochdale as being amongst the fourth worst places in the UK for job competition , with an average of 11 people chasing every job, [2]. In Summer 2015 Rochdale Food bank experienced a spike in demand for Food Bank parcels from parents struggling to feed their children during the long summer holiday when their children could not access their school dinners during the holidays. For many local children this was their main or their only cooked meal of the day. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/strugglingparents-skipping-meals-children-9672820 The report, which has been delivA Greater Manchester community club will provide food for kids from low-income families this summer after a survey revealed that a squeeze on budgets in the school holidays is forcing parents to skip meals.

Almost a third of parents on lower incomes have skipped a meal so that their children could eat during the holidays, accered to all 650 MPs, reveals that 62 per cent of parents with a household income of less than £25,000 aren’t always able to afford to buy food outside of term time.

For parents with incomes of less than £15,000, the figure was 73pc.

And 41pc of parents in low-income families had skipped meals during the holidays.

School holidays are especially difficult for hard-up families, whose children usually receive free school meals or support from breakfast clubs.

[3]. Child poverty figures for Central Rochdale ward Church Urban Fund : Poverty Look up tool online at link: https://www.cuf.org.uk/poverty-england/poverty-look-tool

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APPENDIX : SCENE II Job Centre Plus Office [1]. The latest figures made available to the Public are for the period 22 October 2012 until 31 December 2013.

These show 4,078 people had sanctions imposed during this time at Rochdale. Job Centre, Fleece Street , 40 % of these people were sanctioned without being told why the sanction was imposed by DWP staff.

Heywood,Job Centre ,Taylor Street - 972 , Oldham Job Centre ,Tweedale House - 6,605 Rochdale Job Centre , Fleece Street - 4,078 Middleton Job Centre - 1,483 In the Greater Manchester Area , the Manchester East & West area had 24,072 'adverse' sanctions.

Of these the majority by far were in the 18-24 year age group in total 246,592 individuals.

With 91,603 in the 25-29 year age group.

Most worryingly of all across the whole of the UK there were 49,827 disabled people ,who were sanctioned by the DWP. The latest DWP statistics for sanctioned claimants in our Rochdale can be found at : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jobseekers-allowance-and-employment-andsupport-allowance-sanctions-decisions-made-to-december-2013 [2]. A “Culture of Contempt” “Time To Rethink benefit Sanctions”, [March 2015 ]. Church Action on Poverty, The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reform church, the Methodist Church, the Church of Scotland and the Church in Wales. http://www.church-poverty.org.uk/news/pressroom/resources/reports and see also link at : http://www.methodist.org.uk/news-and-events/news-releases/new-data-more-than-100people-per-day-with-mental-health-problems-are-having-their-benefits-sanctioned From April 2015 the first trails of conditionality for WORKING PEOPLE needing support of the benefits system will begin. This will include working people who are working but earning below a threshold income normally set at 11,300- who will become subject to DWP conditionality or sanctions. The Resolution Foundation estimate that this will bring an additional 1,200,000 people under the sanctions regime.

[3]. http://www.channel4.com/news/malnutrition-health-emergency-dwp-british-medicaljournal

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[4]. The Trussell Trust run more 400 food banks nationwide, to find your nearest Food bank visit www.trusselltrust.org/map or to donate to the charity visit www.trusselltrust.org/donate A Food bank food parcel for three days consists of approximately £14.30 per person .

53% of TT Trussell Trust foodbank users have been referred because of delays or changes to their benefits.

“No ID, no checks... and vouchers for sob stories: The truth behind those shock food bank claims”, Mail on Sunday , 19 April 2014, - See more at link : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608606/No-ID-no-checks-vouchers-sob-storiesThe-truth-shock-food-bank-claims.html#ixzz2zcNWbK00 [5]. Open Letter from 27 Anglican Bishops and Catholic, United Reformed and Methodist leaders, and Quakers, published [20 February 2014] called for immediate action on welfare, wages and food markets, three of the biggest contributors to the hunger crisis. The original text to this letter can be read at : http://www.quaker.org.uk/news/quakers-say-end-hunger-fast and at : http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/27-bishops-slam-david-camerons-3164033

Over the Easter weekend 2014progressive Christian think tank Ekklesia reported : “We're surrounded by too many Christian leaders who are using their authority to advance self-serving and mean-spirited agendas that crucify those who are already poor and marginalised. If we're serious about following Jesus, we need to start turning over some tables ourselves.”

[- See more at link : http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20435 ], They concluded that : “There is something seriously amiss here. As the Prime Minister sings the praises of Christian values, his government and sections of the media appear to have declared a war not just on the needy, but on the kindness and compassion of people who attempt to help those in need. Where will it end?”

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Whilst over the same Easter Weekend the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in The Telegraph of the need for a Better support structure for the poor , [- See more at link: http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10773517/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-weneed-a-better-support-structure-for-the-poor.html], adding in his Easter address that: “In this country, even as the economy improves there is weeping in broken families, in people ashamed to seek help from food banks, or frightened by debt.” [ - See more at link: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5303/the-onewho-was-dead-is-now-alive.-where-there-was-weeping-there-is-now-joy-archbishop-justin s-easte#sthash.QEObrsiW.dpuf [6]. There is growing anecdotal evidence that people receiving Food Bank supplies are unable , especially those on electric voucher meters, and by definition facing a dire financial crisis ,to cook tinned food at home when they have no access to cooking facilities. This it could be argued allows people to subsist in Summer but is problematic in the depths of winter.

APPENDIX : SCENE III Food Bank [1]. “Demand was driven so high that on average the food banks in Greater Manchester were used once every 14 minutes”, - “Demand for food banks rockets by up to 90 PER CENT in Greater Manchester” Amy Glendinning , Rochdale Observer , 16 April 2014 .

See more at link: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchesternews/food-banks-rochdale-salford-tameside-6992502 [2]. “Quando dou comida aos pobres chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres chamam-me de comunista.” / “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

– Don Helder Camara: Essential Writings [3] “Food Poverty” has become a current local issue as reported by the Observer on 16 April 2014 ,which stated that: “Food banks around the region have seen a huge increase in people needing hand-outs - up NINETY per cent in some areas”.

Nearly 39,000 people relied on food banks across Greater Manchester last year - with the biggest increases seen in Salford, Rochdale,Tameside and Trafford.

“Demand for food banks rockets by up to 90 PER CENT in Greater Manchester” Amy Glendinning , Rochdale Observer , 16 April 2014 .

See more at link: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchesternews/food-banks-rochdale-salford-tameside-6992502

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APPENDIX : SCENE IV Reality Hits Home [1].Local Mental Health Campaign Group launch campaign highlighting “100 people a day with mental health issues nationally having their benefits sanctioned” please see links at: http://www.rbuf.org.uk/news/61/20/Newly-Relaunched-RBUF-Campaigns-GroupPublishes-Open-Letter-On-Benefit-Sanctions/d,Detail and : http://www.welfareweekly.com/letters-politicians-urged-to-help-safeguard-benefitclaimants-with-mental-illness/ and also : http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/97504/one-hundredpeople-a-day-with-mental-health-problems-are-having-their-welfare-benefits-sanctioned [2].For the first time it has been confirmed that Housing Benefit will be subject to sanctions.

The DWP legal framework would allow workers to be instructed to change jobs, attend mandatory training, or increase hours in order to earn more than the initial threshold income.

If you fail to comply your Housing Benefit will be sanctioned or cut.

“Sanctioning someone with a mental health problem for being late for a meeting is like sanctioning someone with a broken leg for limping. The fact that this system punishes people for the symptoms of their illness is a clear and worrying sign that it is fundamentally flawed.”

“Churches have increasingly seen people in desperate need because they have been sanctioned. The suffering and injustice we have seen caused by the sanctions system deserves serious scrutiny.”

– Time to Rethink Benefit Sanctions , [March 2015].

“The question always is, has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible? Or , in the triumph of the crowded procession, have the helpless been trampled on, instead of being gently lifted aside out of the roadway of the conqueror, whom they have no power to accompany on his march?”

North and South | Elizabeth Gaskell 1855

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Yasmin and Andrew worked together to create this piece of research; "Poverty Knock" - Embers from the fire” Yasmin Kenyon & Andrew Wastling A piece of Community Research conducted in conjunction with Edge Hill University and Rochdale Community Champions January – September 2015 Verse I – Cast off the Yoke of Bondage [Chorus] 'Poverty, poverty knock,' my loom is a saying all day Poverty, poverty knock, gaffer's too skinny to pay Poverty, poverty knock, keeping one eye on the clock I know I can guttle when I hear my shuttle go, 'poverty, poverty knock' Up every morning at five, I wonder that we keep alive Tired and yawning another cold morning It's back to the dreary old drive.

[Repeat chorus] Oh dear we're going to be late Gaffer is stood at the gate We're out of pocket, our wages they'll docket We'll have to buy grub on the slate [Repeat chorus] And when our wages they bring, we're often short of a string While we are fighting with gaffer for snatching We know to his brass he will cling [Repeat chorus] Sometimes a shuttle flies out and gives some poor woman a clout There she lies bleeding but nobody's heeding Oh who's going to carry her out?

[Repeat chorus] Oh dear, my poor head it sings I should have woven three strings My threads are breaking and my back is aching Oh dear, I wish I had wings Poverty, poverty knock Poverty, poverty knock Poverty, poverty knock MUSIC : CHUMBAWAMBA performs “ Poverty Knock “ You-tube video with Lyrics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfwJ387cs00 from the album "English Rebel Songs 1381-1984" (2003)

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

The Traditional English Folk song Poverty Knock is a factory-workers' song, written to be sung over the rhythm of the flying shuttles and clankings of mill machinery. Conditions of the cloth mills of the 1890's, when this song was written, were hot, noisy, and dangerous.

Injury and even death from the awkward and unsafe weaving machines was commonplace.

And yet the continual knocking of the shuttle was at least a surety that you'd be able to eat in a time when unemployment still meant virtual starvation and misery.

This theme of unemployment meaning virtual starvation and misery for common people is embedded throughout the course of English history. We find its narrative echoing down through the centuries in the words of radical English Preacher, John Ball. He would preach in the market place on a Sunday as people were leaving church his ideas raised the imagination of the peasant masses beyond the harshness of their daily lives, fusing their anger with a utopian vision, creating a revolutionary consciousness, one that was about to burst into life. John Ball's famous Sermon at Blackheath , quoted in General Chronicle of England 1381, still makes powerful reading today ; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

My good friends, things cannot go on well in England , nor ever will until everything shall be in common, when there shall be neither vassal nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves. How ill they have used us! They have wines, spices and fine bread, when we have only rye and the refuse of fine straw; and if we drink, it must be water.・ [1].

Little wonder then that John Ball was described as “The Mad Priest of Kent” by his enemies though to the peasants, he quickly became, according to folk-lore and the chroniclers of the period, one of the revolt’s leaders. He was certainly one of the most eloquent representatives of the Peasants Revolt and one of the first recorded leaders of popular revolt in English history.

Wretched is the infant's lot Born within a straw- roofed cot; Be he generous, wise or brave, He must only be a slave.

Long, long labour, little rest, Still to toil to be oppressed: Drained by taxes of his store, Punished next for being poor: This is the poor wretch's lot, Born within the straw-roofed cot [2]

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Rochdale Community Champions

Peasants Revolt in itself is something of a misnomer in fact these were highly skilled craftsmen with working skills often passed down from father to son for generations. It's easy to forget in the age of zero-hours contracts and casual factory work for many in Rochdale today that these people had highly specialist skills and training. How many of us today for example are skilled enough to grow enough food to harvest for a family and have a surplus to barter or trade to others, or have the skills to forge iron into plough shares of cast tools , let alone intricately carve roughly hewn blocks of stone into the face of an angel or cherub for the outside of a monastery or church ?

It was, as Dan Jones pointed out: “Sparked by a series of three poll taxes, each more recklessly imposed then the last , and all played out against a background of oppressive labour laws that had been imposed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor “ [3]

Committed Socialist William Morris ,who also designed the notable stained glass window – the Burne-Jones window in of St. Chads , Rochdale - depicting Faith, Hope and Charity, wrote in his prose poem “ A Dream of John Ball” that : “Above the heads of the crowd, and now slowly working towards the cross, was a banner on a high–raised cross–pole, a picture of a man and woman half–clad in skins of beasts seen against a background of green trees, the man holding a spade and the woman a distaff and spindle rudely done enough, but yet with a certain spirit and much meaning; and underneath this symbol of the early world and man’s first contest with nature were the written words: When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman?

The banner came on and through the crowd, which at last opened where we stood for its passage, and the banner–bearer turned and faced the throng and stood on the first step of the cross beside me.” [4].

It should be remembered that John Ball was preaching at a time when: “The church was the largest slave owner in the early Middle Ages. Four abbeys ruled by Alucin of York employed 20,000 slaves ...In England it was heretics, from John Ball & the Lollards onwards, who recalled that there were no gentry in the Garden of Eden”[5].

This was orthodox Liberation Theology a clear six hundred years before the “Bishop of the Slums”, Brazilian archbishop Dom Hélder Câmara. Who's famous adage "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.” in the 1980s went right to the very heart of the churches response to the Christian ministry to the poor and dispossessed .

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Dom Hélder Câmara like John Ball exposed one of the great fissures in the established church, bringing into sharp relief the claim of the church to be on the side of the poor.

It should come as no surprise that the Medieval Church authorities resisted the translation of the Bible to English. Religious reformers such as St. Francis of Assisi and John Wycliffe of the Peasants Revolt fame were able to understand the Latin Vulgate spoke out against the rich and powerful. “The sharing of goods was always treated by some Christians, even if only a minority of them, as a virtue”[6].

The New Testament also laid great emphasis on the universal sharing of material goods.

Christ's Sermon on the Mount eulogised the poor and the oppressed: “When he learned that the crowd had only five loaves and two fishes among them, Christ divided them equally, and a miracle was witnessed as everyone present had enough to eat. This was one of the great influences on subsequent endeavours for all people to have an adequate means of subsistence”[7] The appeal of this is obvious in an age when life was “ brutish and short “ for many , the poor barely had enough to eat, certainly not a healthy balanced diet, even when times were good such as at Martinmass and Christmas when as a popular rhyme chimed: “November : At Martinmass I kill my swine December ; And at Christmas I drink red wine” [8] Later Tyndale translated the New Testament from Greek into English. His version is printed at Worms in 1526 in 3000 copies. When they reach England, the bishop of London fearing that; “the jewel of the church is turned into the common sport of the people” seizes every copy that his agents can lay their hands on.

The offending texts are burnt at St Paul's Cross, a gathering place in the precincts of the cathedral. So effective are the bishop's methods that today only two copies of the original 3000 survive. For his efforts Tyndale is branded a heretic and executed at the stake in 1536.

Then as now the Bible text was all things to all men – a tool of oppression for the wealthy or a dangerous instrument of liberation and freedom for the poor.

"When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the beginning, he would have appointed who should be bond, and who free. And therefore I exhort you to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty."

“In what way are those whom we call lords greater masters than ourselves? How have they deserved it? Why do they hold us in bondage? If we all spring from a single father and mother, Adam and Eve, how can they claim or prove that they are lords more than us, except by making us produce and grow wealth which they spend? [9].

MUSIC : Sound of church bells from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLHDDAu37Y 25

Rochdale Community Champions

“He went slowly up the steps of the cross and stood at the top with one hand laid on the shaft, and shout upon shout broke forth from the throng. When the shouting died away into a silence of the human voices, the bells were still quietly chiming with that far–away voice of theirs, and the long–winged dusky swifts, by no means scared by the concourse, swung round about the cross with their wild squeals; and the man stood still for a little, eyeing the throng, or rather looking first at one and then another man in it, as though he were trying to think what such an one was thinking of, or what he were fit for.

Sometimes he caught the eye of one or other, and then that kindly smile spread over his face, but faded off it into the sternness and sadness of a man who has heavy and great thoughts hanging about him. But when John Ball first mounted the steps of the cross a lad at some one’s bidding had run off to stop the ringers, and so presently the voice of the bells fell dead, leaving on men’s minds that sense of blankness or even disappointment which is always caused by the sudden stopping of a sound one has got used to and found pleasant.

But a great expectation had fallen by now on all that throng, and no word was spoken even in a whisper, and all men’s hearts and eyes were fixed upon the dark figure standing straight up now by the tall white shaft of the cross, his hands stretched out before him, one palm laid upon the other.”[4 a].

John Ball in his sermon at Blackheath taught that all men were created equal, and that the ranks and stations of the social hierarchy were merely the inventions of their oppressors.

God he argued wanted the ordinary people to recover their original liberty before the age of Gentleman Abbots and Lords: “[F]alsness and guile have reigned far too long. Truth has been put under a lock.

Falsness reigns in every flock ...Sin spreads like the wild flood, true love, that was good, is fled, and the clergy work us woe for gain ...The commons is the fairest flower that ever God set on an earthly crown” [10].

The Archbishop of Canterbury put Ball in prison , adding that : “[I]t would have been better if he had been confined there all his life, or had been put to death“. This did not though stop the Archbishop in “Set him at Liberty , for he could not for conscience sake have him put to death”, Froissart's Chronicle, 1848. London Books pp.652-653 More revolutionary oratory was ascribed to Ball on Corpus Christi Day , June 13, 1381 , when he made an appeal to the people to rise up against “evil lords and unjust judges who lurked like tares among the wheat” when he preached : “For when the great ones have been rooted up and cast away, all will enjoy equal freedom – all will have common nobility, rank and power” [11].

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We also hear similar themes of a “ Great Levelling” in the words of writer William Langland in a series of dream visions dealing with the social and spiritual predicament of late 14thcentury England . Langland was no stranger to wandering England and Wales himself selling masses and copying text as he went along. But it his own words mainly in which his voice comes down to us through history; “And I have a dream a marvellous dream. I saw a fair field full of folk, poor and rich, working and wandering as the world demands...in particular the ploughmen who labour and till the ground for the good of the whole community “ William Langland, Piers Ploughman, 1372-89 MUSIC : The Melrose Quartet performs "Sing John Ball" - You-tube Video with lyrics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eWu1gMVSN8 Bibliography: Verse I – Cast off the Yoke of Bondage [1]. Writings on the Wall: A Radical and Socialist Anthology, 1215-1984, Edited Tony Benn, Faber and Faber (October 1984), [2]. Five Romantic Plays 1768-1821 (Oxford World's Classics) Paperback – 6 Jan 2000

by Paul Baines (Editor), Edward Burns (Editor) Robert Southey imagined the theatre as a site of revolutionary protest in Wat Tyler (1794) [3]. Summer of blood The Peasants revolt 1381, Dan Jones Harper Collins E-Books ISBN 978-0-00-733148-2 [2009] [4] & [4a].A Dream of John Ball Chapter III. They Meet at the Cross, William Morris, 1892 http://morrisedition.lib.uiowa.edu/johnball/ch3.html [5]. “The English Bible & the Seventeenth-Century Revolution”, Christopher Hill, Penguin Books, 1993, p.157, citing Pierre Bonnassie, “From Slavery to Feudalism in South Western Europe “, [translation Jean Brrell, Cambridge U.P., 1991, pp. 2-3, 25-37, 51-6].

[7]... Comrades ; Communism a World History , Robert Service , Macmillan , [2007 ], Chapter 1 Origins , pp.14 – 15 [8] The History of England: Volume I, The Foundation, Peter Ackroyd, Macmillan, 2011, Chapter 25, The commotion, pp. 285, ISBN 978-0-230-706-2 HB [9]. Chronicles Jean Froissart, the translation of Geoffrey Brereton (Penguin 1968) p. 212 [10] .Mediaeval Socialism, Bede Jarret, Chapter III, The Communists, Published by DODGE, LONDON, 1913 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19468 [11]. Radical Lives Melvyn Bragg EP1: Now Is the Time John Ball BBC Documentary 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4TAd8Cwjcg

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Illustrations: Illustration 1: Front piece: London: A Pilgrimage. With illustrations by Gustave Dore • Published: 1872 , London • Formats: Book , Illustration , Image • Creator: William Blanchard Jerrold , Gustave Dor [illustrator] • Held by: British Library • Usage Terms: Public Domain • Shelfmark: Wf1/1856 See more at: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/slums#sthash.rISw3Aas.dpuf Illustration 2: “When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman?”

- From “A Dream of John Ball “, William Morris, 1892 Illustration 3: Some accounts of the event attribute the following rhyming chant to the rebels: “When Adam delved and Eva span, /Who was then the gentleman?” We may not have any accounts of the uprising written from the rebels' perspective, but this manuscript illustration (depicting Eve spinning and Adam digging) evokes the sort of pre-hierarchical existence they may have imagined. This image comes from a manuscript at Corpus Christi College (University of Cambridge).

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Research Case Study: Chris Chris Chris is a dedicated volunteer, supporting clients and offering financial and benefits advice.

He began the project in January 2015 with a keen interest in the linkages between poverty and mental health. After speaking to clients and reflecting on his role as a Rochdale Community Champion adviser he decided to complete a piece of reflexive research examining his impact as a volunteer on both his own personal development and the development of his clients. Chris reflected that he had never been thanked as much in his working life as he had as a volunteer. This notion of care and human thankfulness inspired Chris to write a reflexive piece that considers his journey to and within Rochdale Community Champions.

Chris’s Reflective Project I worked in social care for over 30 years. I started as a trainee social worker, and, via child care social work, specialist work with young offenders, managing an adult care social work team, and a variety of other management posts, I ended up "surplus to requirements" when budget cuts began to bite.

Although I had an awareness of mental health issues I had never expected that I would suffer from anxiety and depression, but, having lost my job I experienced both, and truly discovered the difference between sympathy and empathy. As part of my recovery, aided by a period on medication and some sessions of CBT; I realised that I needed to do something about rekindling a sense of worth.

I was aware that the recession was having a negative impact not just on benefit claimants and the low waged, but also on people who had been in profitable employment but were now facing changed circumstances, and the prospect of being unable to maintain mortgage repayments and various other credit commitments.

I enrolled on a 'money management' course, and began to volunteer at a resource centre that had been set up by a G.P. who I had worked with previously. I quickly discovered that budget advice for people experiencing benefit issues and debt problems was not what was most needed. I became re-accustomed with the benefits system, and learned about how to support people with debt problems.

Welfare Benefit Advisors hadn't been invented when I started my social work career. Social workers were expected to understand the benefit system in order to advocate on behalf of their clients. Increasing complexity resulted in appointment of specialist advisors, (paid less than social workers), initially through Social Services, and later absorbed into a corporate information and advice service. This service also became a victim of budget reductions; as were grants to the local Citizens' Advice Bureaux. To an extent my new found role therefore represented a 'return to my roots'.

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Although I continued to volunteer at the resource centre, about two and a half years ago I also became a Community Champion, where I undertook the same role, but with a borough wide brief. I had the opportunity to take part in the Edge Hill research project last year, but decided not to get involved, although I did act as a "critical friend" to one of the participants.

I was aware how much other Community Champions had enjoyed the experience, and when the programme was repeated this year I decided that I wanted to get involved. I was keen to choose a subject that might produce something that was of practical/transferable/sustainable value rather than a piece of research that may be academically challenging but have little impact on changing practice.

I had begun to make use of some mental health training that I had received as a Community Champion, and 'weave' this into my financial support work with people who were suffering from depression as well as having money problems. Examining the effectiveness of this 'blended approach' was my initial choice for my research project, but I felt that some type of external verification would be required in order to validate any positive benefits resulting from this work. The Edge Hill tutors questioned the need for this, and suggested that my training and experience meant that my perception about the outcome of my input could be seen to provide sufficient validity.

For a long time I have been aware that my ‘go-to’ learning style is ‘experiential’, i.e. learning through doing. The flip side of this is that I have never been very good at, or spent time on reflection. I was encouraged to consider what may provide justification for the tutors’ view of the validity of my perception.

I remember at one of my first job interviews, in response to me having said that ‘I wanted to work with people’, I was asked why I hadn’t considered becoming a bus driver. I’d given little thought to my motivation other than a general feeling of altruism – it was just the right thing to do to help people who were worse off than yourself.

This interview question might have triggered me to examine my ‘drivers’ in more depth, but it didn’t. Even through my social work training, and my long and varied professional career in social care, I never gave detailed consideration to how I’d ended up doing what I did.

The ‘Edge Hill experience’ was the first time I’d embarked on a reflective exercise focusing on what has shaped my values – how have I become the person that I am? This was a potential research topic in itself, though it felt extremely self-indulgent.

4,000 words of reflection/introspection later, the summary of the key influences on my life was: Childhood: Working class neighbourhood where people looked after each other. Mum cared for her father and later her mother when they were chronically ill. Parents were church-goers – ‘christian’ principles.

School: Scholarship - privileged education, encouraged awareness of others less fortunate.

Gap year: Voluntary work in UK rather than overseas – recognition/awareness of deprivation.

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Degree: Social sciences – reinforced knowledge and awareness of inequality.

Social work training: use of self.

Employment: Significance of mentors, both peers and managers.

Youth justice work – systems intervention and power of peer groups Discovering a cause - User involvement and empowerment.

Impact of changed organisational ethos.

Finish involuntary. Depression and anger.

Post-employment: Loss of role Experiencing depression and receiving CBT, understanding and recovery.

Volunteering: Regaining role, making a positive difference. Countering injustice on an individual basis, challenging ‘the system’ to an extent.

This exercise gave me, for the first time, an insight and understanding of my motivation for what I did, and do, and what has shaped my practice. Some of this came as quite a surprise, particularly the significant and lasting theme of the importance of systems intervention alongside work with individuals. The exercise also reinforced the value that I place on some principles that I was aware of, especially peer support, user-led services and empowerment.

One other outcome was that I realised that I have received more thanks for my support as a volunteer in the last few years than in decades as a social care professional.

Although I found this reflective exercise was extremely valuable it raised the question of what comes next in relation to the research topic?

I've finally decided on a piece of action research that I think fits the bill, (of being purposeful in effecting change), and which I am keen to pursue. My plan is to use the development of a 'Recovery Republic' style resource in Kirkholt as my topic.

I think that it will be really exciting to look at how a genuine community led approach can produce meaningful information about needs in the area, and, more importantly, how such an approach could result in development of services that deliver peer support by/of/from the community.

My guess would be that there may well be common themes/issues shared by Kirkholt and other neighbourhoods that might inform 'Service delivery', but the major significance will be looking at how we may develop a model of community led needs assessment, and consequent solution focused approaches that can be replicated in any area of the borough (and, potentially, beyond?!)

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Research Case Study: Jan Jan Jan is an experienced and passionate volunteer supporting clients and offering financial and benefits advice. Jan has a wealth of experience to offer benefits advice as both a Rochdale Community Champion and having volunteered for other organisations such as Sure Start in the past. Jan keeps a reflective diary and having reviewed this diary, felt that key themes arose around the impacts that Benefit difficulties had on claimants. Jan decided to interview people asking them about the effect that benefit difficulties had had on them and how they felt, their mental health and the impact that benefit challenges had upon them and their families. Jan’s research reveals a range of impacts, especially the effect on the extended family. This is an issue that is not normally considered and is an important conclusion of Jan’s interviews.

Reflective Case Study Jan; Not long after meeting Sophie I became a community champion.

I was referred to the community champions through my engagement officer from the council I had recently stopped volunteering at my local TARA (tenants and residents association).

My engagement officer helped me to find funding to try and continue my volunteering at a local children’s centre.

After some calls Helen said she could support me in my role as volunteer. During the 1st three months of becoming a champion I had so many misgivings, as the role of a community champion was such a long way away from the role I had carved for myself over the years I had been volunteering.

Suddenly I felt threatened, scared and nervous, due to the discussion I was constantly having with Nicola and Kate. They were concerned I was being taken advantage of by the people I was supporting I really couldn’t grasp or understand what I was hearing. One time at champ chats Kate came to speak to me. She asked if I was OK, obviously I said yes, but Kate knew better.

She asked me to take a few weeks off from volunteering / supporting, and my calls I received I had to take their name and numbers and pass their details on to Kate.

At this time clients had my personal number and could contact me 24/7. Kate was really concerned about this so that’s why she asked me to write down the clients who did contact me during this break.

I had over three weeks break from supporting. These three weeks were the most eye opening weeks of my life. I had come to realise how much I needed my clients “NEED OF ME” this had become an intensely misguided relationship which I had formed.

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Due to my disabilities and long term health issues, I needed so much help from my partner Andrew to do daily tasks. I felt the need to give something back “I NEEDED TO BE NEEDED” I went back to volunteering under a very, very different set of rules. (Yes, rules, that’s what it felt like for me). But now two years on, I realise those rules are safeguarding guides which as champions we help to make. These guides I mention are critical to champions as they help protect us and the people we support.

When I started my community champions training I found it difficult and emotional. I began to understand better and had a clearer understanding how my need to help had been truly and utterly taken advantage of. I was doing the work of a paid worker it was also making me poorly.

During training we spoke openly about our experiences and we were taught some solution focus training Helen asked for a volunteer to help demonstrate scaling. When Helen started to ask me questions about problems I was having with somebody, I began to realize the implications of my way of supporting was damaging me. I remember clearly that feeling of total anguish; I broke down in front of a room full of strangers. It was only during this exercise (of scaling) that I had really only just had the “light bulb moment” Kate had been trying to show me for months.

The “light bulb” moment has become my life saver. I can hear you all thinking as you’re reading this “that’s a bit dramatic” but I promise you it is and has become my life saver. I experience a lot of health issues, I don’t want you to feel sorry for me or think “OMG how does she do it, or why does she volunteer” but please ask yourself “why can’t she volunteer” Before I became a community champion I never went anywhere alone.

I didn’t feel good about myself.

I didn’t feel I had a voice.

I didn’t have confidence.

I had an unhealthy need to be needed.

I didn’t feel I mattered.

My life was everybody else’s, not mine I felt a burden.

Due to the support, love, expert training, many challenges and some heated debates my life today is completely unrecognisable. It couldn’t be any different if I had dreamed my life out as it is now.

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Being a community champion changes you if you let it and enjoy all of the challenges given to you. This has only been possible due to the fantastic team behind me, and all the other community champions. Helen, Kate, Nicola, Simon, Ethen and now Aleem are amazing. As champions I do feel sometimes we don’t really realize all the hard, tough, relentless work our team does for us. I often think of them as a group of beautiful swans elegantly gliding along the water effortlessly, but if you could only imagine the amount of work, effort and energy it takes to look so flawless – AMAZING TEAM. All the training I have done over the last two years has helped me to transform my life completely. The people I support constantly tell me I have changed their lives. They would be in a hole without hope. I do find it so humbling when people tell me this, I also find it difficult listening to the praise.

The Edge Hill training has really helped me to recognise and understand I have a role within this amazing group of people. Also, what I do has an impact on the people I meet and support.

1. Empowering them to be able to fill in a form 2. Empowering them to talk to people in authority and deal with their own issues.

3. Empowering them to understand there is a way back from debt These are just three things I do for some of the people I support, but these three things change my client’s lives. They feel they can achieve anything when they feel empowered.

Being a community champion has reconnected me with my life. I do all the things I want to do; I'm just able to understand and realize my limitations and expect them.

I do hope when you’re reading this, you can realize and understand we as human beings set our own limitations, and it’s only when somebody shows you, Your true value, Your worth, Your potential, within you that is when we can be truly grateful for ourselves as individuals and unique human beings.

This is what it means to me being a ROCHDALE COMMUNITY CHAMPION

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Building Community Knowledge, Developing Community Research

Research Case Study Welfare Reform Act 2012: Jan The Welfare Reform Act 2012 is an act to make provision for Universal Credit and personal independence payment; to make other provisions about social security and tax credits. To make provision about the functions of the registration service, child support maintenance and the use of job centre; to establish the social mobility and child poverty commission and otherwise amend the Child Poverty Act 2010 and for connected purposes.

Housing benefit reform came into force 1st April 2013 – the ‘under occupancy penalty’ Family One Two Adults living in a 3 bedroom, 3rd floor flat. Sophie has mental health problems which she has had all her life. Sophie is 47 years old. Simon had a heart attack 12 months ago and had undergone heart surgery. He really wants to go back to work but has been told that it is unlikely that he will ever work again. Simon is 45 years old.

Due to the welfare reforms Simon can’t claim benefits in his own right. Sophie has to claim for Simon under her claim. He does however receive national insurance contributions.

Their joint fortnightly income is £260. From this they have to pay 25% council tax which is £26 per month.

In October / November 2014 I helped Simon and Sophie apply for a change in circumstance as they had recently started sleeping in separate rooms. Sophie and Simons GP had recommended this to help with Simon’s recovery from his heart attack. I gave Sophie the relevant paperwork so that she knew what to ask her GP to do.

In November / December the GPs letter of recommendation was dismissed so the under occupancy is still two rooms. So their under-occupancy rate was still 25% of their weekly rent of £126 every four weeks.

I have interviewed them 3 or 4 times and as you can imagine the topic I wish to talk to them about is very emotive so I decided to do a small time line of events.

- March / April Simon and Sophie’s housing benefit was stopped. Sophie didn’t want me to deal with this issue. She felt that she wanted to do it herself. She realised that this was going to be difficult but she was determined to do it herself.

- This change in Sophie she said was due to the support and encouragement I had given her. I had helped her to understand that being aggressive and confrontational would not help her to speak to the people she needed to talk to.

- May. Sophie did still not understand why her benefits had been stopped but her income officer from her landlord’s offices were helping her.

- Sophie was keeping in regular contact with her housing officer. Before March it had been myself who had been dealing with the income officer. At this time the housing arrears are at £2153.68 these arrears are under occupancy penalties only.

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Family Two Roman is a single man aged thirty and he has a five year old son. He has been in and out of work since leaving school. He lived in the family home with his dad and his nana.

Roman’s dad suddenly died. He was left to look after his 93 year old nana. He was very happy doing this as he had been the main carer for his nana since she moved in with him and his dad.

Due to the welfare reform act Roman and his nana were ‘encouraged’ to give up their family home of sixteen years as they couldn’t afford the under occupancy penalty. Nana went into a nursing home. She was upset and distressed about leaving her home and Roman to live alone.

Roman moved into his own home, a one bedroomed flat. He found it extremely difficult.

Roman also had to help his son but didn’t have the money to give his son’s mum, to help pay for his son. They both decided Roman would take him to nursery and pick him up.

Roman started a job with a mobile phone company. His job was to cold call clients. He found that this job caused him anxiety and stress.

In February 2015 Roman’s nana died. He was finding things extremely difficult. I had advised him to go and see his GP as his mood was very low. He went to his job centre appointment as normal, he told his adviser what had happened but she said she understood his feelings but he still had to do his 35 hours job searches.

During this time he had to help his family plan his nana’s funeral and sort out his nana’s belongings. He didn’t manage to do his 35 hours job searches during this time.

Due to Roman’s increasing depression and anxiety I took him to see his GP who signed him off for three months. During March Roman found it very difficult to cope. This was very visible. Roman received a letter explaining another sanction. Because Roman hadn’t done enough job searching hours within this period they decided to sanction him £10.40 off his Universal Credit for 91 days. This left Roman with less than £6 a month to live on for three months.

Roman and the mum of his son are currently making a go of their relationship; slowly hoping in the near future to live together. Roman gets his full Universal credit payment on 19th July which will be his first payment for 91 days.

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As part of their research Rochdale Champs were encouraged to complete reflective logs.

Jan has shared her logs here; Jan Reflective Log ONE Name: Jan

Date of learning event: 14th June 2015

Title of learning Event: My experience of the subject prior to the learning experience.

This could be a learning experience from your research e.g interviewing my first person I have found it very emotional, heart wrenching and sometimes very frustrating Facts How the knowledge was acquired?

Talking (clients) me listening when Sophie comes to me for support.

What was the nature of the experience Explain the subject.

Sophie was anxious as her benefit has been stopped (without any letters, phone calls etc).

I asked if it would be ok to use her experiences in my research.

An account of what happened without specifying what was learnt.

Select the part of the event that was significant and/ or important to you.

Listening and not commenting was hard. Not steering the conversation in a way I wanted.

Feelings What aspect of the event went well?

Sophie’s ability to voice how she feels / felt safely.

What was not so good?

Me having to sit and listen, not comment, Difficult.

What were my feelings about what happened?

Sadness, frustration, anger, useless – odd I know but relief at the end.

Sunday 14.6.15 1pm Felt it was time to put pen to paper and try to sort out all of my notes, so that they make some sense. I’ve had a great morning, its warm quiet and calm. I am trying to LISTEN more. I can hear the birds, children playing, life just passing by. While inside I feel all the frustration, hurt, confusion, anger, loneliness but mostly hopelessness. It is very difficult just listening.

What were the feelings of others?

First sadness, frustration and confusion. At end – relief, happy, she felt better. She was able to ‘let it out’ as such

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Jan Reflective Log TWO Name: Jan

Date of learning event: 11th June 2015

Title of learning Event: My experience of the subject prior to the learning experience.

This could be a learning experience from your research e.g interviewing my first person Interviewing Roman Facts How the knowledge was acquired?

Talking and gently questioning Roman.

What was the nature of the experience Explain the subject.

Roman’s experiences of being on Universal Credit An account of what happened without specifying what was learnt.

Talking, Discussions – feelings, Impact, More questions that I wanted to ask, Pulling answers through gentle questioning.

Select the part of the event that was significant and/ or important to you.

Listening and not commenting was hard. Not steering the conversation in a way I wanted.

Roman couldn’t put into words his experiences without gentle ‘pulling answers’ – open ended questions.

Feelings What aspect of the event went well?

I learnt to ask open ended questions without having my own agenda.

What was not so good?

The long silences; waiting for Roman to answer questions What were my feelings about what happened?

Anger, Sadness – also become very close to Roman. Happy and excited too as there is a change in Roman What were the feelings of others?

Distress hopelessness, felt that he was useless; better not being here.

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Research Case Study: Julia Julia Julia is passionate volunteer for Rochdale Community Champions and offers literacy support to clients. Julia has a particular research interest in Middleton, an area just outside of Rochdale. Julia has an interest in the experiences of people in their fifties and sixties on benefits. She is conducting research via semi structured interviews and producing a community drama with a group of people in their fifties in Middleton.

Below is a copy of the evaluation form that Julia used to gather research regarding participants experience of the drama group.

DRAMA PROJECT EVALUATION. (Aug 2015) 1. How did you find out about the Project?

2.

Why did you decide to join the group?

3.

Underline all or any of the words that say how you feel about it:Learning new things.

Wider Social Circle.

Joint Effort.

Confidence Building.

Fun Way to Spend Time.

Interesting.

Being Part of Something.

Look Forward to Meetings.

Liked Venue.

Looking at things in new way.

Brought out my Abilities.

Team Player.

Keeps me out of Mischief/The Pub. Why Not? It’s Free!

Something I always wanted to try!

Someone Challenged me (said I couldn’t)

4.

Was there anything that wasn’t so Good or Difficult?

5.

Anything to Add? Final Comments? -

6.

YOUR NAME: (Optional/ Initials Accepted)

Julia conducted detailed semi structured interviews with two participants regarding their experience of literacy.

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CASE STUDY 1: M “M” has shortened her name so that she can write it and goes by this name which begins with the same letter as her Christian name because she has always had a literacy problem which she blames on the limitations of the nuns at her school in Ireland many years ago.

Now in her 70s and retired she has the time to address the problems that have dogged her all her life.

When M was young, people weren’t aware of Dyslexia and many pupils slipped through the net and never learned to read and write so M had a lot of problems as an adult – particularly when she came to England and needed to get a job.

I asked M what her Early Experiences of Education were:She said the nuns tried to teach her the alphabet but most of it confused her and she struggled to make sense of any of it but could eventually write the four letters she used for her name. The nuns sent her on lots of errands (Arranging the Church flowers was her usual task) to avoid addressing her inability to read. If one of her teachers tried and failed to engage her in a reading task she would get a rap on the knuckles rather than a 1to1 session to help her to learn to read.

She talked about her feelings of inadequacy made worse by her youngest sister being celebrated as “the clever one” in her family because she learned to read early and taught the alphabet to her siblings. (Her Parents were both illiterate apart from being able to sign their names). M felt she was a disappointment to her parents but she planned to get married and be a housewife for the rest of her life because she was good at practical tasks.

Things didn’t always go to plan for M. Being a middle child she often had to compete for attention and appreciation with her many siblings (being 1 of 8 in the family). She helped her mother and older sister around the house while her brothers and younger sister went to college or to work.

Eventually, she got fed up of living at home and decided to follow a couple of her siblings who had come to live in England.

The problems started when she had to find a job: She could not fill in an application form on her own so she asked her younger sister for help.

M wrote her name and the number of her residence but her sister had to fill in the rest as she couldn’t even read the questions on the form.

M started working as a cleaner; firstly in a large private house in Prestwich owned by affluent Jewish people. Then in a public house and eventually her pleasant personality and ability to handle money saw her promoted her to a barmaid’s job. M soon learned to bluff her way around the optics and beer labels as she had a very good memory.

Her first husband, who worked there, never found out she couldn’t read or write. Her Second husband never mentioned it. So for most of her life she had managed to avoid dealing with her literacy problems.

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My second question for M was how and why did she eventually contact Rochdale Community Champions:M told me she was going out shopping one day when she got the idea to walk into a local school and approach the headmistress to ask where she could get help to learn to read.

Fortunately, the woman took her seriously and rang Rochdale Council to make enquiries.

M was then referred to the Champions team who found me in her local area and asked me to meet her at the Lighthouse Project in Middleton to find out what her needs were. M said it was a relief to find out it was not too late to get the help she needed.

I asked her to describe how she felt after our first meeting:M said it was like a burden lifting from her shoulders! Someone friendly and non-judgemental was actually saying it was not her fault that she hadn’t learned to read all those years ago.

When I had explained that she was probably dyslexic and tried out the coloured rulers with her it opened up a whole new world to her.

She had heard the word dyslexia over recent years but had no idea it could apply to her.

When I showed her the special books and the alphabet pages it all started to make sense to her and she finally felt that, with help, she may one day be able to read.

By the time the first meeting ended she knew she had done the right thing finding help and felt her confidence had really grown and was determined to start learning as quickly as possible. She felt like a woman on a mission. She had found a new direction. She left feeling like she was floating on air.

M worked very hard and it was evident that she practiced at home regularly because she very quickly learned the basics and was soon able to read her first book (A children’s book with facts about zoo animals with just a few lines on each of its 12 pages). This gave her a great sense of achievement and soon she was reading short rhymes and when I told her about my poetry group she was keen to join and show what she had accomplished. We also met at the library to choose Poetry for her.

We re-set goals as she reached each milestone and, although she still needs to keep checking she amazed herself that she could actually read at last and that the letters finally seemed to make sense to her.

I had told M that because of the dyslexic tendencies and the need to keep checking, she may never be a fast reader but at least she was understanding what she read and she could do simple exercises, enjoy find-a- word puzzles, make shopping lists, follow a recipe and understand letters she received for her hospital appointments. A year after she started she was proud to receive the Achievement Award I made for her and to be able to read it for herself.

M then went to Ireland for a holiday and showed her sisters that she had started to learn to read. (Her parents having passed away years ago)

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When she came back she was so much more confident and asked me to help her with The Highway Code as she had decided to start driving lessons.

This was then part of her new sessions as her ability and confidence grew. Unfortunately, M eventually had to stop the driving lessons as she needed an operation on her knee and when she came out of hospital she was in a lot of pain and because of her age she took a long time to recover. This also meant another break in her reading sessions.

When she returned she had further setbacks and had got out of practice and had to go back to basics and recap on her reading skills. At this point I tried to make it more fun by finding more word-finder exercises and word games. E.g. filling in missing letters. Labelling pictures etc.

My final question for M was about how she felt that engaging with Rochdale Community Champions had changed or improved her life and would she tell or recommend them to others.

M was very pleased with the effect the Champions had on her life; - She no longer had to get help to read hospital letters (although the wording sometimes confused her so she would ask me or her husband or sister to confirm what she thought the letter was saying.)

- She could shop more confidently and made less mistakes when looking for the items she wanted.

- She knew a lot about the Highway Code.

- She had made new friends at the Lighthouse Project; The poetry group, The Knitting group and staff.

- She could go to the Library and choose a book to read. (Poetry or prose) (She had joined for the first time in her life.)

- She could read for Information, on any subject, in the library.

This meant she could find out things she hadn’t learned at school.

These were just some of the benefits that came from just asking the right person to help her. She also found her attitude to others had improved as she was less guarded about feeling ‘different’ because she had been unable to read so she felt more equal to literate people.

Her attitude to life had also changed to a more positive outlook with more possibilities. She also said she would strongly recommend the Champions to anyone looking for help with literacy skills and now thinks it is never too late to start learning- Making up for the difficult start she had encountered in her early life.

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CASE STUDY: A “A” is a retired gentleman I have known for some years and has lived in Middleton for many years. When I started the monthly Poetry group at The Lighthouse Project in the early months of 2014 I asked a few people if they were interested in Poetry and if they would like to join a local group meeting monthly and discussing all aspects of poetry; reading, writing and listening to it -using monthly themes.

I asked A if he remembered where he first encountered poetry:A was immediately interested and told me he had enjoyed his poetry lessons at school and fondly remembers his English teacher who introduced him to poetry (mainly of the rhyming, rhythmic variety used with children.) He also recounted reading Shakespearean verse in his Secondary school and being introduced to non-rhyming poetry and different forms.

(Sonnets, Haiku, Limericks etc.) And even told how he sometimes wrote poetry which was deemed good enough for the classroom wall.

I asked him how he felt about joining a group now he was retired and he asked about the ages of other members as he did not want to be the oldest. I told him the group was for people of any adult age and I had other people interested who were older than him and he agreed to come along.

A became a valued member of the group as he remembered quite a lot of the classics and would bring some of his own books or some poetry he had written when he was younger, at school and afterwards. He said he found it a good way of putting some of his thoughts and feelings together to reflect on later. He spoke of it as a discipline, a way of focussing on some aspect of life as he saw it. He also said that, for him, his poetry had to rhyme and he spent a lot of time changing it so that it would.

He said there had been a gap of about 50 years from his early poetry experiences up to joining the group. A needn’t have worried; the other members of the group found him informative and amusing as he turned out to have a gift for storytelling and making his early life very interesting whether it was through poetry or just talking about it.

Eventually, A started to write his own new poetry in the group and sometimes it didn’t have to rhyme because we discussed how the feeling of a poem was more important than the rhyme and sometimes that was what was needed so he became freer and more open in his writing but he still admired people who could always easily get a rhyme as he had to work at it. I’d told him he was too self- critical and that some poems were better for not rhyming if it meant the message got across.

A also got on well with the other members of the group and made a couple of new friends and met some younger people who he wouldn’t have got to know otherwise. (Although most of them didn’t come to the group more than a couple of times.)

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I asked A how he had benefitted from the group?

He mentioned a more positive outlook and an improved willingness to give new people a chance. (His divorce some years before had dented his confidence). He said it had improved his “personal enjoyment” of life and that he had begun to look at alternative activities to going to the pub and he had become more interested in cultural activities. He had proved to himself that he still had a working brain even though his body was less able to do the things he used to in his younger, more active days. Poetry was something he could still do in spite of the ageing process.

A also said that Poetry brought back pleasant memories and took him out of himself if he was in a low mood and stimulated his memory so it was both Nostalgic and Therapeutic.

(Use it or lose it). It uses up brain power that we often neglect. It could help us to focus on other things remembered from times past like stimulus to other senses. It made him feel younger and more useful telling his stories and anecdotes to the group. Coming to the monthly sessions gave a purpose to the days and gave him something to look forward to.

The monthly themes also gave him something to focus on.

I then asked what A thought about the Community Champions he said I was the first one he met and he had not heard of them before but he has now noticed others at the Project.

He said he found them helpful and friendly; plain-speaking and respectful and “not too bossy” and he would highly recommend the services to others. He had also talked to “M” about how she had benefitted from the literacy sessions and said it was a much needed skill that often gets overlooked with older people.

A was full of praise for the people who had helped him feel less isolated and has since joined another group – Rochdale Circle, for older people, and has had practical help and social inclusion with them. In the past he said he would have been suspicious of joining groups especially the ones that catered for all age groups but now he is one of the younger ones in his new group and goes on outings and day trips with them. He now feels his life is much more fulfilling.

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Research Case Study: Norma Norma is a dedicated literacy volunteer. A teacher during her working life Norma has used her retirement to volunteer supporting client’s to develop their literacy, through Rochdale Community Champions. Norma has developed her research from July 2014 to focus on the story of one client. His anonymous story is told by Norma and illustrates the challenges and frustration of attempting to navigate an extremely complex and frequently changing welfare system as a learning disabled person.

Norma’s research will soon be available on the I4P website www.edgehill.ac.uk/I4P Much of the research is on-going and forms part of longer term work that is being continued by the community champions. What is shared within this section is simply a snap shot – of the full research that individual champions have conducted contact Rochdale Community Champions.

The Research Process: Challenges, Surprises and Successes Participatory Research by its very nature involves engagement and involvement in the process. Participatory research with its Social Justice goal involves a researcher engagement with the area of research. This involvement in the research and the process of conducting the research had some intended and unintended consequences. When the Rochdale Community Champions completed the Leadership and Research Methods Training in January 2015 several volunteers were keen to continue the training into a locally based research project.

Between January 2015 and September 2015 volunteers developed their research project ideas and considered how they would conduct their research project. Some volunteer groups met regularly, weekly, in Number One Riverside, Rochdale Council Buildings to discuss and prepare their research. Other volunteers worked from home considering and developing research questionnaires and semi structured interview questions. Some volunteers that were keen to develop the research had to drop out due to health or family issues.

Volunteers really appreciated the freedom that they were given by Edge Hill University to choose their research. Edge Hill staff were keen not influence Rochdale Champions’ research ideas, as we wanted their research to be fully participatory and self-initiated. This flexibility was appreciated by volunteers, one volunteer used the phrase “you’ve given us wings.” Volunteers really appreciated the opportunity to share ideas and thoughts and to be allowed the time and the space to do it. One volunteer fed back; “it’s well good” another volunteer commented “I loved the freedom to have an idea and run with it.” The support sessions offered by Edge Hill University were structured as open appointment sessions where Edge Hill staff were happy to talk through ideas offer and advice or simply listen to volunteer thoughts. This was appreciated by the Rochdale Champions; “{the} focus on ideas and thoughts is brilliant.” Champions liked the fact that the University is working with the community, in coproduced research.

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The advice sessions that followed the initial four day training were very much valued by Rochdale champions. The time to share / explore issues and ideas with other champions over the guided lunch seminar sessions offered volunteers “head space” as one volunteer put it. The addition of the collectively produced animation and radio play alongside this celebration event was also very much valued by volunteers.

One champion reflected that the course had given them the “Confidence to reflect and breathe; the Edge Hill project has helped me to do that.” The Edge Hill University course had reinforced reawakened and improved volunteers’ motivation; “what’s been really good – the sharing and coming together of load of individuals with lots of motivations and gains. We are all very different and our core values are what unite us.

And you don’t get it usually - this project has been good.”

Champions had been brought together by a commonality of values within the project. It was shared that there was a peculiar synergy of people that the research group seemed to be likeminded people together. This was part of the enjoyableness of the course, the sociable side of it, all part of the sharing and building of group.

In terms of development for the next cohort of leadership and research sessions then creating a peer led study group was suggested. This was suggested as an informal monthly get together over a drink to support each other’s research. Planning the dates in advance was requested. Edge Hill University had aimed at flexibility by developing the program on a rolling basis however volunteers requested a more structured series of dates. For the next cohort of sessions volunteers would like to see more people involved, a more diverse group of volunteers. For some the celebration event and the deadline for submission into the celebration book was not ideal and one volunteer commented that they would like on-going research over a longer period. This request has now been arranged so that Edge Hill staff can have a long term research support group and a new cohort of researchers supported simultaneously.

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What have you learned and what advice might you give to new Rochdale Champions starting the Leadership & Research Training?

In terms of what participants learnt from the project; participants fed back that it felt like part of a positive process and completing being part of being a champion. Champions felt that they would advise others to do the training. The training was felt to be challenging but a challenge that people can rise up to. Champions felt that they would advise other volunteers to definitely do the course, the course has offered an empowering supportive environment. However the course required self-directed learning, volunteers were not told when to stop with their research so volunteers advised future participants to pace themselves, and know their limits.

Listening was another key piece of advice. Not starting a semi structured interview with a preconceived idea but going out into the community and listening to people. In terms of practical advice regarding semi structured interviews; keeping interviews short and simple was something that champions had learnt. This had enabled champions to sometimes give space and let people time to think in their own head. Champions spoke a lot about having learnt a lot about listening.

Advice was shared that future project participants shouldn’t be put off by the University logo, the project was do-able. Advice was given that new participant should break their project down into small steps, not to feel under pressure and to ask for help. Peer support was felt to be a key element of the leadership and participatory research project. It was about selling the leadership and research training correctly; people like the university tag but the course was also accessible for people who want to do it.

In conclusion, the 2015 cohort of Rochdale Community Champions have engaged in a broad range of research projects represented within this celebration booklet, a collectively produced animation and a radio play. Some of the champion’s research projects conclude here and are represented within this booklet, other projects are longer term and only a snap shot of the project is within this booklet.

The project has been empowering, supportive, challenging and engaging for all involved.

What has come out of the evaluations is that the project has inspired volunteers and reminded them of the difference that they make in their communities. In a world were poverty is increasing, Welfare Reform is ever changing, Rochdale Community Champions working directly within their own communities weave humanity through bureaucracy.

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AFTERWORD: John Cater – Vice-Chancellor Edge Hill University I want to start by saying how pleased I am that the Edge Hill continues to be involved in this important and innovative project. I am very proud too of our own long history of innovation and change . We were the first non-denominational women only provider of teacher education in the country 130 years ago. And in 2014 our track record and commitment to being open to change and responsive to our students and to our regional and national communities was recognised when we became the University of the Year.

Today, teacher education is now only a minority part of what we do, whether it is preparing the next generation of health and social work professionals or developing our provision across the full academic curriculum; as part of our support for the creative industries we even have our own recording label!

Our commitment to the wider communities of the North West is an essential part of our broader strategic goals and ambitions. The work with Rochdale and the support we have offered to the Community Champions represents only one aspect of our support for working with and alongside community based organisations, public authorities and the third sector.

One of the reasons we established our Institute for Public Policy and Professional Practice (I4P) was precisely to give these relationships and activities a clear focus and direction. I know that we have much to offer communities and practitioners working across the region, but I also know that we have much more to learn from listening to you and reflecting upon what we do and how we can develop and improve further.

I recognise the potential offered by the Rochdale Community Champions in supporting local communities and residents. I hope that we can continue to support you in your work.

Thank you.

John Cater

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Appendix One Proposal from the Institute of Public Policy and Professional Practice (I4P) at Edge Hill University (Lancashire) to work with Rochdale's Community Champions to support their ongoing personal and professional development in 2015 and 2016 Overall Rationale: Since the autumn of 2013 staff from I4P have worked with members of Rochdale’s Community Champions initiative as part of an agreed programme of support and development. The original proposal included four separate days linked to two themes (leadership and decision making and community based research). Following the completion of the four days for those members of the group who wished to undertake a small scale piece of enquiry staff from I4P and the RCC support team worked with individuals. In July 2014 a ‘Celebration’ event was held at which a report outlining the work of the Champions was produced and certificates of participation were awarded by the University.

The model for 2015: This programme in 2015 was based upon a series of discussions between Rochdale and the University in which it was agreed that the Project (the Community Champions) would again be supported by a number of development days led by staff at the University. The overall aim of these development days was to enhance the work already undertaken in Rochdale; to enable the Champions to act as independent, self-confident, self-reflective advocates and to support their personal and professional learning in agreed areas of critical enquiry and reflection.

The work for 2015 included the following: 1. For all members of the Community Champions an opportunity for a structured review and reflection day facilitated by Professor John Diamond. This was introduced last year and provided an opportunity with the help of an external facilitator for the Champions to discuss their role(s), their expectations and the level and quality of support they were receiving from the central support team. For those members of the group who will access the four days on individual and collective leadership this will provide an opportunity to outline the programme and discuss the potential outcomes.

2. Four Structured Days on Individual and Collective Leadership – for up to 20 Community Champions. The focus of these four days was to unpick and to explore the different ways in which the Champions act as ‘leaders’ and decision makers. We examined these different ways of working through case studies and role plays in which different leadership roles were examined from ‘leaders as advocates’ to ‘leaders as facilitators and mediators’ to ‘leaders as critical reflective practitioners’ to ‘leaders as evidence based decision makers’. Over the four days we attempted to model participatory ways of working as the group explored and reflected upon their own (and the collective) approach to leadership . We used different approaches to decision making as a way of exploring and examining how they work as individuals as well as part of a group. From our earlier work with the Champions we were aware of there being a strong sense of group identity and we wanted them to reflect upon that and to think about how that informs (positively as well as negatively) how they act and inter-act. We used the idea of ‘evidence based decision making’ as a way into their reflection on how they used evidence in their advocacy role and how this might be developed further.

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3. We hoped that members of the group would be willing to keep a record of their thinking and ideas through a diary –visually as well as in a written form if they wish – and that they would share these ideas with the group on Day Four. As part of establishing a continuing support programme we suggested that by Day Four for those that wish we would agree how they might reflect upon their use of evidence and what counts as evidence. We imagined that such discussions might centre on decisions already taken (how were they arrived at, who took the decision, what did they consider in taking the decision and this could include decisions within the setting of the Champions to the decisions by public agencies in Rochdale) to how do you inform or shape decisions (what constitutes as evidence, how is it identified, collected, measured and understood). We set out how we could help them undertake these small scale projects leading to an opportunity in July to share and reflect on the learning which has taken place.

Outcome: As part of the activity agreed with the Group a report (outlining the small scale projects undertaken) will be produced by the University. In addition the Group produced an animation outlining the work of the Champions. A celebration day is now planned for September.

New for 2015/16: Delivery: The proposal is that above programme of activity will take place in Rochdale in the offices of the local authority or at the Town Hall.

It is proposed that we run the programme again incorporating the changes outlined above.

The evaluation and feed back from the participants suggest that this model (three days together and then a follow up day with support days ) worked more effectively than the previous iteration of the programme.

The proposed addition is that we offer 5 support days for those who have completed the programme but wish to develop a project or initiative which sits within the remit of the Champions.

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Appendix Two – Screen Shot of Session Slides

Appendix Three – Screen Shot lunch time seminar slides.

Seminar – Research Techniques

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Appendix Four - Screen Shot lunch time seminar slides.

Seminar – Ethics and Informed Consent

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Appendix Five – Who’s Who and how to find out more Rochdale Borough Council Rochdale Borough Council aims to be a council which builds success and prosperity with our citizens and partners, whilst protecting its vulnerable people. www.rochdale.gov.uk/ Rochdale Community Champions Community Champions are people from across Rochdale Borough who make a positive difference by helping others. They are real people, men and women of all ages and backgrounds who have the time, commitment and skills to offer support. Some have professional backgrounds and use those skills as a volunteer. Others are "expert by experience" or have developed their skills through training. Community Champions are available to help you with lots of different issues. www.rochdale.gov.uk/jobs_and_training/volunteering/community_champions.aspx Edge Hill University Edge Hill Universities Mission statement is “Creating and harnessing knowledge to deliver opportunity”. Edge Hill is a leading campus university with a strong focus on employability, delivering an outstanding student experience. www.edgehill.ac.uk/about I4P The Institute for Public Policy and Professional Practice (I4P) is a cross-disciplinary research and knowledge exchange initiative established in 2013 based at Edge Hill University. The changing and changed context of public policy and the role of public agencies is in a period of change. The Institute is committed to exploring the opportunities for cross sector collaboration and co-operation and to draw on the experience of practitioners as well as academic researchers to inform new ways of working and learning. www.edgehill.ac.uk/i4p/ ARVAC ARVAC is the Association for research into the voluntary and community Sector. ARVAV aims to act as a resource to people interested in research in or on community organizations, to promote and help develop effective and appropriate forms of research in or on community organizations. ARVAC aims to encourage and facilitate networking and collaboration between people undertaking work in this field and ensure that the findings of research in and on community organizations are made available to policy-makers at all levels. ARVAC plays a role in identifying gaps in knowledge of the community sector and the need for further research. www.arvac.org.uk NIACE The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) aims to encourage all adults to engage in learning of all kinds. www.niace.org.uk

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References Baum, F., MacDougall, C., Smith, D. (2006) Participatory action research. Journal of Epidemiology Community Health 60(854-857).

Community Champions (No Date) “Happy to Help: Rochdale Community Champions” http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/pdf/Community%20Champions%20overview%20and%20tra ining%20model.pdf Mienczakowski, J (2013) Ethno drama: Performed Research – Limitations and Potential in Atkinson.P, Coffey.A, Delemont.S, Loftland.J and Loftland.L (2013) Handbook of Ethnography Sage, London

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