Mahdlo: the dreaming stops and reality kicks in

New chief executive of Mahdlo youth centre, Helen Taylor.

HAVING the hopes and ambitions of a major project riding on your shoulders can’t be the easiest of circumstances in which to start a new job. Helen Taylor (36) from Grotton, knows the amount of will to succeed behind Oldham’s multi-million pound youth centre Mahdlo. Reporter Lewis Jones met the ambitious woman who recently started her job as chief executive, charged with turning hopes into a reality.
CONFIDENT, relaxed and full of enthusiasm, Helen Taylor has a lot on her plate right now, though you wouldn’t know it.

Warm and friendly, she gazes up at the Mahdlo development at the site of the former Marjory Lees Health Centre trying to spot where her office will be, somewhere in the top right-hand corner she thinks.

She can be forgiven for not being too specific, the site is coming on well with the steel structure revealing the bare bones of the building but not much else as of yet.

Educated at OIdham Hulme Grammar and later earning a geography degree at the University of Newcastle, it’s safe to say Helen has been ambitious.

A self-confessed globe-trotter she escaped to the secluded Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland to do a masters degree and even voyaged to the Caribbean for her dissertation.

But on returning to the UK she found experience in the world of work was the key.

“I was really interested in working in the environmental sector but I had no experience. I got a six-month volunteer placement with Groundwork and started at grass-roots level,” she reveals.

From there she got a job as a community worker for Groundwork Manchester during an intensive year that would set her on the path to youth work.

“It felt like I did two years work in one.

“I was the only worker there, I was given a big action plan for an estate in Longsight and told to go and deliver it with no money.

“Within days I had young people knocking on the door saying I was supposed to provide them with holiday activities to keep them busy. I had to turn them around fast.”

She talks with passion and gusto as she considers her role in that community and the increasing realisation she came to . . . supporting the youth was where her heart was.

She then grasped the opportunity to travel, taking in the sights of South-East Asia and New Zealand. On her return she then focussed on her career, becoming a programme co-ordinator with Groundwork, eventually overseeing youth education work across a large area taking in Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Tameside.

But when the Mahdlo job caught her eye, it was too good to let slip away.

“When I found I had got the job I was just delighted. It really is a dream for me,” she admits.

“This a real chance to support local people, make a difference and it’s so exciting to be involved in a project from the very start.

“Mahdlo is adding something extra to the town, it’s taking facilities to the next level.

“I’ve always loved the area, this would have been a fantastic job wherever it was but it’s all the more meaningful being in my home town.”

Helen’s first mission in her new role will be to build a team of staff and an army of volunteers that will launch the club during the ambiguous time frame labelled “winter”.

A team of up to 15 staff will be employed at the site that will boast a sports hall, outdoor pitch, boxing gym, fitness room, climbing wall, dance studio and small cinema area.

They will then be supported by volunteers, ambassadors and mentors.

It’s thought that opening date will be at the start of 2012.

But there’s plenty more tasks to fill Helen’s diary between now and then, spreading the Mahldo name in schools across the borough.

She said: “We’ll be doing a lot of work out in the communities to actually get people through the doors.

“It’s about understanding what people want it to be.

“Some barriers may be physical, simply getting there, others may be about perception of who the centre is for.

“We need to try to make it an inclusive place where everyone feels welcome.

“Young people have been involved since the start and that’s shaped how the project has developed.”

She also plans to speak to bus companies and look into providing transport to make the facility accessible.

The project will be half funded by the private sector and trust grants, with funding from the council and nominal fees paid by youngsters making up the remainder.

Mahldo will be open seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Such an ambitious scheme to deliver unparalleled facilities demands a dedicated leader.

Innovative, articulate and confident, read the job description before she was recruited. Helen certainly fulfils such qualities. However she is aware of the level of expectation.

She said: “It’s a privilege but I really feel responsible.

“I want people to feel proud of Mahdlo, it has such a great amount of support I don’t see how it can fail.

“There have been people already who have expressed an interest in volunteering which is great.

“This a golden opportunity for Oldham and its people young and old.”