History

Key Moments in the history of RCT

1997

The Charity was founded by a group of Youth Court Magistrates who were concerned by the number of young people who were disengaged from education, with little or no family support coming before the courts.

1999

With sufficient funding in place the charity was able to recruit their first staff, who trained a bank of volunteer mentors to work the young people.

2002

We were able to purchase and refurbish our own premises on Drake Street, which were officially opened by the Countess Sophie of Wessex

2006

We were awarded our first National Charity Grant through BBC Children in Need to work with Young Runaways. Until then we had been reliant on local funding pots.

2009

We recognised the need to extend our remit and offer support to the wider families.

The local authority supported our vision and allocated funding to allow this work to begin.

2011

The charity was awarded a significant 4 year DWP contract to work with families with multiple and complex needs.

900 local residents benefited directly from our input.

2012

During delivery of the DWP contract we became aware of the critical scale of Domestic Violence and Abuse in the Borough. With no other services to refer into, the Board of Trustees took the decision to invest in staff training to undertake this much needed work.

2015

By this point we were established as the leading independent provider of Domestic Violence and Abuse services throughout the Borough of Rochdale.

By 2017 we have supported over 800 female survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse across Rochdale.

2017

We celebrated our 20th anniversary of supporting local people in greatest need.

In our first 20 years we have supported over 7000 families.

2019

Rochdale Connections Trust are the winners of the Rochdale Business of the Year Award 2019 (turnover less than 1 million).

THE FUTURE IS IN THE MAKING...

We are committed to continuing to evolve our services to remove complex barriers and meet the changing social health and well-being needs of our community.