Many people know Kevin Rodgers from his work in community learning and development from the Strone to Larkfield and Branchton.

But little do they knew that he trained as a mechanic when he left school worked in a garage for 10 years before an employment advisor suggested youth work and changed his life forever. 

(Image: Duncan Bryceland)

He launched into a career he loved and it gave him the chance to study for a degree at the University of Glasgow.

Kevin, the face of Inverkip Hub, said: "Community work is a vocation. I stay in Inverclyde, I think it is a good place and everyone in the community has a good understanding on how to make it a better place.

"I think my biggest achievement was helping, alongside volunteers and the community, to help turn Branchton and Larkfield around.

"Branchton was a tough area 25 years ago, it had the highest crime rate per head of population than anywhere else in Inverclyde.

"It was called the Beirut slums, there were territorial issues and a lot of the issues concerned the houses, everyone played their part, people wanted change.

"My uni course kicked in and I carried out surveys about what people the community wanted in the area and we built up a team of volunteers.

"It was a hard, hard area, there was a great community but their wasn't the infrastructure or the support, there were drugs programmes and alcohol issues but there was a lack of youth facilities.

"The survey gave me information about what people needed, we had a community drugs team, youth work, adult education and it just snowballed."

Branchton was his first 'qualified post' as project co-ordinator event though he hadn't finished his degree in community learning and development he was taken on.

Kevin said: "It was a real big step for me. I had great support from John Donaghey and Frank Rush and other volunteers, they really inspired me, they took me under their wing.

"I had previously worked at Branchton and now I was doing my degree."

He was delighted that when he left in 2014 it was a better place and the evidence can be seen in current centre which is thriving.

Kevin was brought up in Nairn Road in Larkfield by his parents John and Vera and two sisters Lynne, 58, and Lynne, 54.

He had a happy upbringing. His parents met in London and Vera came from Durban in South Africa with her friend to Britain when she was 18. They later settled back in Greenock.

His late dad John was a scaffolder/stager at Scott Lithgow and his mum, who is now 89, worked at the shop at the hospital.

Kevin said: "I visited South Africa when I was 10, it was during apartheid and the beaches were segregated, that was the way it was then.

"My mum was brought up in that era of segregation, maybe that's what they settled here because it was a bit more inclusive.

"We visited family in Durban and Johannesburg. After we were married we went to Arlene's family in Australia and we thought of emigrating but it just wasn't for us.

"My dad's family was from Ireland so we had plenty of holidays in Donegal as well."

After leaving St Columba's High, he landed an apprenticeship in a garage and he spent 10 years in the trade, but he decided he needed a change.

Kevin, who lives in Inverkip, said: "The motor trade was a means to an end, it wasn't my preferred choice."

He left and did a course in mechatronics but he found it hard to get a job in that field.

Kevin was staying in Dougliehill in Port Glasgow at the time and was looking for work.

He went on labour exchange and this young girl looked at his hobbies on his CV; fishing, football and working with trainees in the garage and she told him there was a part-time job youth worker's job at the Larkfield Youth Cafe Project.

Kevin said: "I said I didn't know anything about youth work.

"I got interviewed by two secondary school pupils as the young people ran the project. It was quite pioneering at the time.

"I sailed through the interview but I thought I had no chance of getting the job but they took to me and I got it from 40/50 applicants.

"It changed my career vocation to people and youth work."

He went on to have a varied career and the project became the Inverclyde Youth Council  working at the Strone/Maukinhill as well as Street Work with I Youth Zone.

In his role with the Youth Council saw him working at Branchton for the first time as a team leader and also gave him the opportunity to gain a degree in 1999.

Kevin said: "I never had the educational background. It was mind-blowing, it took my work to a different level. It was hard, it wasn't in my family."

After a spell working at the Good Shepherd in Bishopton and with I Youth Zone with the council, the opportunity came up in Inverkip in 2016, which Kevin says was a challenge in a different way. It was going to a more affluent area, creating 'something from scratch'.

He added: "It was new challenge making it more sustainable, people have to pay a little for the service."

He has been married to Arlene, 54, ophthalmic nurse practitioner for more than 30 years, sharing their Sean, who is now 29, who is a welder/fabricator in Govan and they have a little grandson Deacon, who is three.

When he's not working Kevin enjoys playing the guitar (badly), so he says; reggae and Indie music, especially Colour Ocean Scene; fishing, he is on the committee of Greenock Angling Club; and he has also done a bit of football coaching in his time with Inverclyde Boys Club.

His other passion travelling around Scotland with Arlene in their VW Camper Van.