MAHDLO DECLARED WINNERS

  On Mon day 2^nd March, the Rotary Club of Oldham's Community Service Shield was presented to Mahdlo Youth Zone in recognition of their excellent work in the community. Previous winners include The Oldham Chronicle, Oldham Athletic, Warburton's Bread and Mirror Trinity Printing.

   At the start of the meeting Community Service Chairman Ray Coverley explained that the main criteria of the award were to recognise outstanding to the local community by organisations operating outside of their core business activities.

   Opened in 2012, Mahldo Youth Zone a registered charity, based in the heart of Oldham; they are open 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year, and offer a range of activities and opportunities that all young people from across Oldham can access for just 50p as a member.

  They aim to make a real difference by providing opportunities for young people to come together to meet friends, have new experiences, learn new skills and access the support they need to develop and achieve their potential.  This includes activities such as sports and fitness, music and creative arts, outdoor pursuits and community cohesion projects, as well as mentoring and counselling support, ability sessions for young people with a disability or in need of additional support, Family Zone, and skills development for young people looking to enter the world of work.

    Recent successes include the release of a music single and video  Stand Tall  created by Mahdlo members during a Music Production project; their hard work received well-deserved press attention and over 1000 views on YouTube.

  Mahdlo's Get A Job programme, a six week employability course, has been successfully funded for a second year after the pilot programme across three youth zones saw 82% of participants move into employment, education or training.