GM Live Well conference: Growing great everyday support in every neighbourhood – 19th March 2025
On Wednesday 19th March 2025, some of the team at VSNW and members of the GM VCFSE Leadership Group attended the GM Live Well conference at the beautiful Manchester Monastery in Gorton.
GM Live Well is Greater Manchester’s commitment to grow great everyday support in every neighbourhood. You can read more about it in our recent blog.
It was great to see the input of some GM VCFSE Leadership Group members at the event, including Action Together who led a workshop and Unlimited Potential who held a stall which asked attendees to consider what Live Well centres should include practicality.
To open the event, Alison Mckenzie-Folan, CEO of Wigan Council, shared some stark facts that highlighted the importance the Live Well approach:
- If you get actively connected in your community this year, the following year the likelihood of dying from premature death reduces by 50%
- You are 4 x more likely to find work through community and friend than the Job Centre
- If you’re living in supportive community you increase your good health by 27%
Members of Gorton Community then took to the stage to share more about the work being done in Gorton to positively impact the community, including regeneration of the Monastery itself.
The Elephants Trail shared one of their short films which articulates really well how the conditions and opportunities for happier and healthier communities can be created through everyday neighbourhood support – what GM Live Well is all about. Watch it here.
“Dedicated funding for the voluntary welfare state”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham promised “dedicated funding for the voluntary welfare state”. He set out his vision for 2030: a network of centres and spaces in neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester providing a range of positive, whole-person support, crowded with the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector. It would be a universal, ‘no wrong-door approach’.
Caroline Simpson, Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), spoke about the £20million about to flow into our communities, £10million of which will go directly into the hands of the GM VCFSE sector across the city-region via Live Well grants. A further £10million, from Central Government, is for GM to test an approach around economic inactivity, helping to reform employment support. This all links in to GM’s devolution journey.
Following an energising Afrofit performance from Bollyft Active CIC, participants had the opportunity to join breakout rooms. See the full programme here. We had the pleasure of attending ‘Community Cafes – Creating Third Spaces for Belonging and Support’, delivered by GM Ageing in Place Pathfinder, with input from community cafes in Moorside (Bury), Kirkholt (Rochdale) and Gorton (Manchester), and ‘Power in Place: Towards a GM Live Well Neighbourhood Model’ in the afternoon, where we heard from Innovation Unit, Local Trust, and directly from community organisations in Salford, Wigan and Trafford on their neighbourhood approach. A particular highlight was hearing from the great CommUNITY, based in Little Hulton, who are supported by Leadership Group members, Salford CVS.
“This is what grassroots health activism looks like, vibrant, alive, and full of rhythm.” Shamime Jam, Founder and Director, Bollyfit Active CIC (LinkedIn)
Over lunch, there were opportunities to engage in range of informal activities designed to give attendees a chance to discover Greater Manchester’s rich landscape of great, everyday support. This included music making with Music in Mind, seed planting as part of the Monastery’s GM Green Spaces Funding, bird box building with the local Men in Sheds Group, advice on community-owned spaces with the ‘We’re right here’ campaign, testing riding modified bikes from Wheels for All and so much more. There was even a bouncy castle!
A key theme of the day was hope. The question surrounding Live Well Centres is how we move from places of fear (the Job Centre) to places of hope. A second video from The Elephants Trial, raised awareness and understanding of creating places of hope towards good work, their links with and support for community-led health and well-being, and the potential for solutions to spread. Examples included Stretford Public Hall, the Lighthouse Project in Middleton and Platt Bridge Community in Wigan. Watch it here.
The ecosystem of VCFSE organisations across GM really came across. There were a whole range of incredible and inspiring speakers and stallholders including the Gorton Community, Sale West Community Centre, CommUNITY in Little Hulton, Northern Heart & Soul in Wigan, The Elephants Trail, African and Caribbean Mental Health Services, Spark Oldham, Hair to Help, Salford CVS, Petrus, Rochdale’s Anti-Poverty Foundation Group, Northern Roots and Back on Track, just to name just a few.
The focus of the afternoon was ‘Making Sense, Making Change: Strengthening great everyday support and community action’. We were joined by A Brilliant Thing, Unlimited Potential, Made by Mortals and GM Shapers, with contributions from The National Lottery Community Fund, Local Trust and GM leaders.
The National Lottery Community Fund shared more about the plans to change their funding in the coming year, the focus being communities, equity and the environment.
Rachel Rowney, COO at Local Trust, noted that to revitalise a place, it must be community-led – “there needs to be a strong ecology of local institutions”, clearly highlighting the importance of funding the VCFSE sector who provide significant support to communities, and enable them to have a voice in what affects them.
In conversation with Andy Burnham, Alison McGovern, MP and Minister for Employment, highlighted the need for a “bottom up reform journey”, with the pathway to employment being well supported as key. She also pointed to the leadership of Greater Manchester for the rest of the country to learn from.
Finally, a GM Live Well evidence map was shared to deepen understanding of the impact of community power, to help organisations understand how to demonstrate their own impact and deepen their own narrative around why more investment into communities will lead to better outcomes. Read it here.
Overall, it was great to hear a range of voices and lived experience during the event. The GM VCFSE Leadership Group will continue to advocate for the VCFSE sector and our role in GM Live Well.
