When 39-year-old Rachel Bresnahan from Stockport isn’t studying towards her Open University BA (Hons) Degree in Youth Work, she’s out tackling food poverty in her local community. Here, she takes a brief pause to share her story.
“I love my community,” says Rachel. “I grew up here in Cherry Tree, Romiley. As the council estate is on the edge of an affluent area, I always felt that the young people here were looked down on and had less opportunity. I wanted to change this perception.”
Rachel wasn’t always so sure of her ambitions. “School was great fun, study was less so,” she recalls. “I just didn’t know what I wanted to do in life so I had no fire in my belly. I was a minimum effort, straight C student whose teachers said ‘didn’t live up to her potential.’”
Rachel quit college for a sales role in the workplace. It was only while on maternity leave with her now teenage son that Rachel decided to return to education, completing a course on health and social care at a local college. That’s when she found her calling.
‘I needed the OU to get me here’
“I felt youth work was what I was made for,” says Rachel. “I now had a clear direction, but it felt like no clear path. I had no experience or qualifications. I needed to find a way to continue studying whilst working and raising a child.”
It was during a chance encounter on the bus that the OU penny dropped.
“I’d just begun volunteering in the church youth group when a lady on the bus told me that you could do an OU degree without A levels, and that her sister was a youth worker and did a youth work degree. That’s when I realised; I needed the OU to get me here.”
Rachel enrolled to study Youth Work with the OU and was quickly able to start putting her learning into practice through her campaigning work.
The passion to tackle food poverty
The first lockdown of the pandemic meant that youth work in its usual face-to-face format could not continue. Rachel was also furloughed from her day job in sales, which meant more time to volunteer.
The result? She developed an online cooking project delivering food, providing doorstep activities and over 150 weekly ingredient packs to families vulnerable to hunger. It would become the Cherry Tree Project – a youth-led, community-loving group dedicated to supporting families struggling with food poverty.
Amazingly, Rachel managed to meet the commitments of this award-winning project alongside the demands of the final work-based module of her degree.
‘The tutors have always got me through’
But her OU journey hadn’t all been easy, as Rachel explains: “There were some major life events during the course of my studies. Moving home, changing job, Covid, Dad passing, husband leaving, totally changing jobs, albeit to do what I love full time. I don’t think my friends and family thought I’d complete this degree. I’m five and a half years in though, so I think the odds are good!”
To any student who may be struggling on their course, Rachel has this advice: “If you’re thinking of quitting, ring your tutor first! I’ve emailed to quit once and considered it many times and the tutors have always got me through. Are all the tutors supportive? 100%. Especially my current tutor, Kate Breeze. I couldn’t have done it without her support.”
Finding a community of like-minded learners
Rachel also credits her fellow students’ for their support. “One of the highlights of my time studying with the OU was the day school in Birmingham. We met as a whole study group and it was great to be around people with the same passions as me. They were awesome, inspirational people.”
She even found a study partner. “I have a ‘study sister’, Charlene, who is now one of my closest friends and an amazing woman. We’ve studied together since day one, although we’ve only met face to face once due to COVID.”
Rachel now divides her time between a job she loves in youth work, and running the food provisions.
“My plan is to create a sustainable organisation run by its young people and supported and owned by its community. I want to grow the team so we can reach even more people.
‘You can change the world’
Rachel and volunteers delivering food provisions
“I am so proud of every single one of our young volunteers, because together we’ve achieved so much this past year. I’ve told them, ‘Don’t let anyone think less of you because you’re young, because I know you and know that all of you have the ability to change the world with your courage, your creativity, your spark and most importantly, your heart!’”
Rachel could easily have been addressing her younger self, whose teachers wrote her off as a missed opportunity. Because little did she know then, but the future Rachel would go on to change more than perceptions; she’d change people’s lives.
‘None of this would have been possible without the OU’
Through 2021, the Cherry Tree Project continued to support the local community, providing twice weekly food provisions and supporting 150 families every school holiday. It ended the year by supplying just shy of 2000 Christmas dinners.
“What a year,” says Rachel. “None of this would have been possible without the OU and what I’ve learned.”
“My message to anyone thinking about studying with the OU would be, ‘Do it.’ Not only have doors opened for me career wise but I’m also happier, more passionate and more confident. I now know my worth. I never felt like people had the highest expectations for me, but now I’ve proved it to myself as well as everyone else.”
You can find out more about the Cherry Tree Project by visiting the Facebook page here.
The OU Youth Work degree is being discontinued but you can learn more about a variety of courses, including Youth and Childhood Studies and Youth Justice modules.
