Community SupportRochdale Community
At Caring and Sharing Rochdale, we’ve come to realise something simple, but powerful: listening can change everything.
It’s not just about hearing words, it’s about tuning in to people’s lived experiences, their worries, their dreams, and the things they don’t always feel safe saying out loud. For those we serve – refugees, asylum seekers, and members of Rochdale’s richly diverse BAME communities, being listened to is often the first moment they feel like they truly belong.
Listening as a Tool for Healing and Trust
Research backs this up. A 2019 study by the University of Oxford found that active listening can reduce feelings of isolation and anxiety, especially among people dealing with trauma or displacement. It makes sense. When someone genuinely listens to you, without rushing, judging, or offering quick fixes, you feel seen.
And at Caring and Sharing, we’ve made this the foundation of everything we do.
From our drop-in support sessions to our women’s groups, food bank referrals, youth engagement, and language support classes, we don’t assume, we ask. We don’t impose, we co-create. Because when we start by listening, we build relationships rooted in trust, not charity. And that trust is what allows us to walk alongside our community, not just serve it.
Rochdale Is Full of Real People with Real Stories
We don’t need grand theories to explain what we see daily in Rochdale. It’s a town filled with everyday people facing very real challenges, and showing extraordinary strength.
We’ve spoken with people navigating complex immigration systems, facing housing insecurity, dealing with language barriers, or confronting racism, sometimes all at once. But through our community conversations, what comes through just as strongly is resilience. Hope. Solidarity.
It’s taught us to constantly rethink our approach. For example, we’ve adjusted food packages to include culturally relevant items. We’ve adapted our workshops to be trauma-informed and led by people with lived experience. We’ve built spaces where people from different backgrounds can learn from one another and grow together.
Every conversation helps us refine the way we work, and reminds us that we don’t need to have all the answers. We just need to start by listening.
What the Research Tells Us, and What Rochdale Shows Us
The British Journal of Social Work (2020) highlighted that when community groups include people in decision-making, outcomes improve and participation grows. That’s exactly what we’ve seen. People are more engaged when they feel they have a say. When their voices aren’t an afterthought, but the starting point.
We’ve also drawn inspiration from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which found in 2021 that anti-poverty programmes work better when they’re rooted in local voices and lived experience. No one understands a community’s needs like the people living them every day.
So that’s how we work: listening first, always.
Listening is Love in Action
Across the UK and beyond, there’s a lot of noise, but not enough listening. Especially to people at the margins. People who’ve been labelled “vulnerable” or “hard to reach” when really, they’ve just been unheard.
At Caring and Sharing Rochdale, we’re here to change that narrative.
And here’s our call, to local leaders, partners, neighbours, businesses, and everyone else who cares: Make listening your priority. Listen with intention. Listen with compassion. Let stories guide solutions. Let people shape policy. Let conversations become catalysts. Because listening isn’t just what we do, it’s how we move forward, together.
A better Rochdale, and a better world starts with giving every voice a place at the table. So pull up a chair, and let’s start listening.
