Cheryl Roach
About Cheryl
I began my journey as a volunteer working in the community at Centre 63. Working at the centre, I gained valuable experience of working with children and young people. This role helped me determine my passion for supporting young people to reach their potential and to develop important life skills through non-formal educational activities.
When I became a Project Manager, I managed a small team and supported volunteers and gappers within this role. At the time, my project was funded by KMBC Supporting People programme and audited through the Quality Assurance Framework, and were awarded a Level B, which highlighted that we were delivering a quality service.
I have worked in Knowsley for the past 22 years and in my roles, I attended various forums and partnership boards, developing strong partnerships Knowsley borough wide.
What Motivates Cheryl
In my current role as Business Development Manager, I have vast experience of applying and securing funding for youth and community projects and have been successful in sustaining services to meet the needs of our community for the past six years.
Working in the community has driven the desire for me to help others and contribute to the well-being of communities, which gives a sense of purpose and fulfilment within my career. It
has provided opportunities to learn new skills or enhance my existing ones has been beneficial for my personal growth and career advancement. By making a difference to my community brings joy and satisfaction.
The Future and Collaboration
For many years Cheryl and Ann have spoken about setting up our own CIC to address the gaps in provision in South Knowsley and St Helens. We have formed Merseyside Housing and Debt Advice CIC (MHDA) to provide an accessible Housing and Debt service to disadvantaged people who are at risk of facing poverty, homelessness, and housing
insecurity.
Over the past couple of months, we have listened to our community who have given us valuable insight to identifying gaps and challenges related to housing and debt. From the valuable feedback we identified refugees as our target audience in St Helens; as they have a high population of Refugees (Mainly Ukrainian) who are displaced in the community and are having difficulty finding suitable accommodation and while some progress has been made; ongoing efforts are needed to address housing challenges faced by refugees in St Helens.
This is the reason why MHDA would like to focus our work in this borough as well as Knowsley.