Venue: Methodist Central Hall, Manchester, M1 1JQ.

GM Live Well: Growing community power to tackle health and wellbeing inequalities

Communities shaping the places they live and the system of support around them is key to tackling health and wellbeing inequalities.

For the full agenda/details of the day, go to The full programme is linked here.

Across Greater Manchester, people and places are working in new and creative ways to ensure community voice is at the heart of decision-making, changing the way support is designed and delivered, and growing community power in their neighbourhoods. From community-led voice and influence networks to legislative theatre, to poverty truth commissions, communities are laying the vital groundwork to make their voices heard. Through these spaces, communities build deep understanding of what is needed to tackle inequalities in their neighbourhoods and activate their collective agency to affect change.

We know that it is not only about what happens in communities, but their relationship with decision-makers that creates lasting impact. Converting community power into direct action and change requires a fundamental shift in how systems value and work with communities. This requires reimagining the role of the public sector, co-designing collaborative ways of working, and shifting the culture of our systems so that communities are directly driving agendas to improve their quality of life.

Live Well will work alongside community and system leaders to learn about what it takes to grow community power and decision making and make it stick. In Greater Manchester this presents an opportunity to act as a trailblazer for doing government differently and to tackle persistent democratic challenges from misinformation and lack of trust to disparities, inequalities and citizen disengagement. Growing community power has the potential to not only effectively address these issues but importantly improve communities’ health and wellbeing and reduce demand on public services.

This event, Growing community power to tackle health and wellbeing inequalities, is being developed in partnership with GM Networks Connect, bringing together a range of digital, food poverty, climate, and homelessness social justice and action networks across GM to:

Seed connections across places and people in GM doing this work and grow the movement
Share stories, practice and learning about growing community power and decision-making
Explore what it takes to convert community power into direct action and lasting change

What is community power?

Community power and decision-making means supporting communities to have agency, choice and control over their local areas and lives. It is built on the belief that effective decision-making on health and wellbeing needs to be based on community voice, which requires an enabling system that can ensure people and communities are at the heart of decision making.

Community power can take a variety of forms and shapes. At this event, we will explore and learn about what it takes to:

Grow power within communities, including for example through community organising, neighbourhood councils and unions
Grow community-led spaces for positive change, through decision-making and co-production, including for example poverty truth commissions, legislative theatres and citizens assemblies
Grow system leaders’ capacity to centre and respond to community voice, ensuring people and communities are able to influence the system and are central to decisions about where they live and what they do

If you have previously expressed interest in contributing to this event, the team will be in touch shortly to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

If you haven’t yet expressed interest in a potential contribution, but would like to, please contact GMLiveWell@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk and the team will get back to you.

What is Live Well?

Live Well is Greater Manchester’s movement for community-led health and wellbeing, supporting healthier, happier and fairer communities by growing opportunities for everyone to Live Well.

Live Well will tackle health and wellbeing inequalities by changing how we work with communities and in our systems, to grow community power, action and wealth.

#GMLiveWell

gmlivewell@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

More information is available on the Fairer Health for All Academy and Live Well | Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership

GM Live Well: Growing community power...