Youth Projects
Rotary believes in developing the next generation of leaders. Our programs help younger leaders build leadership skills, expand education and learn the value of service.
Youth Health Champions
The Youth Health Champions programme, began in 2022 at Rochdale Sixth Form College and some Rochdale secondary schools, are well under way.
Rotarians Paul Rowen and Selwyn Hodge had held several successful meetings with the key members of the College staff, head teachers of some of the secondary schools and staff from Rochdale Council and Rochdale Health Commissioning groups.
Students from the College undertook their training as Youth Health Champions, with the help of an external facilitator, and all successfully achieved their NVQ Level 1 qualification, which will then enable them to work with students in Rochdale secondary schools to provide targeted health promotion and guidance as necessary.
As the scheme moves into its second year, interest is now coming from Hopwood Hall College and several other secondary schools within the borough.
Youth Speaks
In 2020 we hosted one of the local heats of the national competition at Falinge Park High School. Our grateful thanks are due to the Head Teacher and staff for their kind support. Also thanks are due to President Ravi Sharma and the team of volunteers from Rochdale Rotary Club who helped to organise and run the event on the night.
Regrettably, the Rochdale teams that reached the regional finals did not progress beyond this point. But because of Covid 19, the national competition also had to end at this stage.
The District competition was held using Zoom in both 2021 and 2022, thanks to a lot of hard work and organisation by all the schools and Rotary clubs involved. The entrants from Falinge Park high School once again did themselves and their school proud.
After a break due to Covid restrictions Falinge Park High School hosted a District heat in February 2023. In front of a live audience students from 4 schools tested their speaking abilities. Hon. Guest Mayor of Rochdale Cllr. Ali Ahmed is a former pupil of Falinge and said "I'm so delighted that our young people have the ability to stand up in front of people and give such great presentations"
Topics were about Human Rights (Falinge) Environment (Oldham Hulme intermediate team ) ,Poverty (Beech House) and Not to regret one's past failings too much(Oldham Hulme Senior team)All teams had a Chairperson, Speaker and Vote of thanks person with strict time limits monitored by 2 Rotary timekeepers. 2 questioners Joe Wiggans and Janice Knowles put a question to each speaker after their speeches.
Adjudicators Janice Knowles and John Wroe congratulated all teams and gave some advice and encouragement for the future. After much deliberation they decided that both Oldham Hulme teams would go through to the District finals at Frodsham on 5th March. All team members were given a participation certificate.
President Selwyn thanked Falinge School and Host Teacher Sarah Boyle also Rotarian John Kay MC, Rotarian Ravi Sharma and District Rotary Chairman Warren Heyes for organising the evening. "we have very much looked forward to this event and it hasn't disappointed"
If you would like more details or to enter team(s) from your secondary school in a future Youth Speaks competition, please contact us we would love to hear from you.
Local Organiser Rotarian Ravi Sharma with Mayor Cllr Ali Ahmed presenting certificates to Oldham Hulme Intermediate team
Youth Speaks 2024
In 2024, the Club hosted both a heat of Youth Speaks, but also the North-East District Final. Both events were held again at Falinge Park High School and organised for the Club by Rtn Ravi Sharma.
Three teams each of Intermediates and Seniors took place in the heat with Falinge Park and Bury Grammar winning respectively. They then joined a further 3 teams each in their respective categories for the final.
After some excellent presentations and much deliberation by the judges, Bolton School (Girls) won the Intermediate title whilst Bury Grammar took the Senior title. They both earned a place in the District Final.
Advice on Health Related Careers
Over the past year, several lunchtime sessions were held for interested students at the Rochdale Sixth Form College regarding career pathways in health related areas. These were hosted by Rotarians David Smithard, Elvet Smith & Selwyn Hodge. Around 50 students attended. Plans are in place to extend this activity to enable more targeted advice to be provided to individual students in the future.
Schools’ Drama Classes
Following discussions with Gemma Johnson from the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy for Oldham and Rochdale, Rotarians: Neil Williams, Merrilyn Chadwick and Selwyn Hodge, agreed to support Gemma in developing a programme to help a number of Year 6 pupils in the Borough cope better with their transition from primary to secondary school in September.
This will take the form of a pilot scheme, being run remotely, with groups of pupils from 3 primary schools, between June and September 2020, and will be ‘badged’ by Rochdale Rotary Club for this purpose.
Following this initial trial, further discussions will take place with Gemma to determine if the scheme should be extended, and whether Rochdale Rotary Club should provide some financial assistance; as well as encouraging more schools and the Local Authority to also support the scheme, so that there might be some targeting of provision to where it is most needed.
In particular, the potential value for such a scheme to help in raising the overall educational achievement of more pupils in the Borough will be further assessed and discussed with all interested parties.
Rotary - The Next Generation
Rotary is committed to offering young people opportunities to unlock their potential, develop their skills and broaden their horizons. There are a wealth of projects available locally and nationally and details can be found on the Rotary Great Britain and Ireland website here.
Our Club would welcome the opportunity to work with individuals, schools or youth groups who are interested in any of these projects. Please get in touch through our Contacts page and let's talk.
U19 Lacrosse World Championship - Daniel Madeley
The Club endeavours to support requests for financial help from local young people who have an opportunity to undertake life-changing endeavours.
In 2019 Daniel Madeley was chosen for the English team in the Under 19 Lacrosse world championships. In order to take part, he had to contribute towards training camps, traveling, kit, etc. The Rotary Club of Rochdale made a grant towards his costs. Unfortunately due too the Covid 19 pandemic, the championships were postponed in 2020. However, a decision was made to rearrange the competition as an U21 event in 2022, with the same cohort of players.
World Lacrosse are creating a series of promotional videos leading up to the event in August 2022 and asked each representative country to choose one player to be the face of their country for the series of videos, Daniel was chosen to be the representative for England. World Lacrosse sent Daniel some equipment and for some months Daniel has been working on little clips for the first of the promotional video.
The video can be viewed below, and Daniel's progress over the next 18 months will be documented on this page.
Most Improved Student Awards
The Rotary Club of Rochdale is proud to present awards for the Most Improved Student to the following schools within our borough: Moorhouse Primary, Littleborough Primary, Falinge High, Wardle High, Redwood and Hopwood Hall College.