Members of the GM=EqAl Working Group are increasingly involved in different strands of the new GM Integrated Care System (ICS). As part of this, a collaborative conversation was opened yesterday with the GM Population Health team, who are doing a lot of the important thinking about the shifts in practice required if we are to major reductions in health inequalities over the 

GM=EqAl's contribution to this work will take shape in the New Year, along with planning for an exciting project to develop a set of 'equalities standards' for Greater Manchester.

The GM=EqAl Inclusive Language Subgroup has published its new guidance for communicating about sexual orientation. As always, feedback is encouraged! See no. 6 on the list here.

Wishing you a peaceful and healthy festive season till the bulletin returns on 13th January.

A partnership project between GMCVO and the Greater Manchester BAME Network is underway to build a Social Enterprise Network and help deliver business support to social entrepreneurs from .

The new webpage has helpful resources, information, links and the chance to register to join the network, become a mentor or request business support to help you grow your social enterprise. 

GMCVO is running a short-term targeted project to produce recommendations for reducing cancer-related inequalities in Greater Manchester.

As part of this, we are gathering existing data on inequalities for marginalised groups as well as evidence of good practice and successful initiatives for reducing inequalities for specific groups.

We are able to contribute to people’s time to help us with this exercise and the deadline ha been extended to 31st January.

Flourish Together CIC is calling out to find more women of all ages, backgrounds and communities, as a force for social change, to come on their fourth Time to Grow Programme in Wigan and Greater Manchester in January. 

Time to Grow is for women who are looking to start or develop a venture and features a blend of ideas/values reflection, intensive social venture development training, network-building, peer-support and mentoring. 

To find out more about the Programme and to register, please contact info@flourishtogether.org.uk.

The aim of this survey, organised by the UK Commission on Bereavement, is to give everyone the opportunity to share their experiences of bereavement, including those who have English as a second language, young people and people who may find completing the form online difficult.

The survey organisers are reaching out to different communities to ensure the commission is diverse and inclusive and would like to especially hear from the wider Black Minority and South Asian communities and men.

Deadline: 31st December

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is working in partnership with Operation Black Vote (OBV) to deliver a leadership and development programme aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of people experiencing racial inequalities within civic and public life.

The Civic Leadership Programme is looking for people over the age of 18 (with an emphasis on 18-30 year olds) who live or work in Greater Manchester and want to gain experience in civic and public life and make a positive contribution to their areas and communities.

Deadline: 31st December

The Greater Manchester Youth Combined Authority (GMYCA) is an inclusive body comprising 42 young people aged between 11 and 18 (or up to 25 for those with additional needs) from 21 different youth organisations from across Greater Manchester. Member organisations serve a two-year term, and the Mayor is now seeking applications from youth organisations who are keen to get involved and become members.

Deadline: 21st January 

A new training programme aimed at tackling workforce skills challenges and hard-to-fill vacancies in the digital industry is being rolled out across Greater Manchester. 

With women accounting for 18 per cent of technical roles in the digital industry, the 22-month contract will target employed women across the city-region in order to improve diversity and identify progression routes within the industry. The ageing population and low-paid workers are two further cohorts being prioritised by the programme.

With 60 signatories, this statement is a reminder to the government that our human rights are the hidden foundations that help us all live together freely and fairly, a safety net to protect us all.

GM Health and Social Care Partnership are looking for individuals who are interested in training to becoming workforce planning practitioners and champions to help spread and raise awareness of integrated workforce planning across Greater Manchester.

Kelly Birtwell, researcher at the University of Manchester, is carrying out a piece of work to increase access to mental health support, and to mindfulness in particular. She is looking to connect with people from organisations that deliver mindfulness courses to people in disadvantaged areas, to discuss how she can shape her research and take it forward.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Kelly.birtwell@manchester.ac.uk or call her on 07901 115630.

Sporting Equals are looking for organisations who work with Black adult women to help explore experiences of participation in sport, exercise and fitness activities. Hosting organisations will be paid for hosting focus groups

Action Together publish a monthly funding bulletin showcasing current opportunities, accessed through the link below.

Action Together also have an online 'find funding' directory which you can access via this link.

Applications for grant funding are invited from registered charities, CICs and voluntary organisations who work with disadvantaged communities and/or people living within the Greater Manchester area. Grants can be used for the purchase or supply of equipment, amenities and actvities that will improve the general welfare of the individual or local community. The average grant award is £1,000.

The Big Give’s new Women and Girl’s Match Fund is open for applications from Monday 13th December to Tuesday 11th January. There will then be a week-long match funding campaign which will launch on International Women’s Day 2022, Tuesday 8th March.

Up to £25,000 of match funding is available per charity. Match funds have been provided by the Government's Tampon Tax fund.

Greater Manchester Poverty Action are seeking a Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research to help drive forward their influencing work. This is a full time, permanent position.

Deadline: 21st December 

Turn2Us are recruiting for the the post of a national Project Manager for their Gendered Poverty Programme. The post is a part time position offered on a fixed term contract until March 2023. 

Deadline: 3rd January 2022

Salford CVS are recruiting for a Development Worker (support and development for disabled people’s groups). The aim of this new fixed term position is to promote and enable better access to local services for disabled people living in Salford by capacity-building local D/deaf / disabled people-led, and impairment focused, VCSE groups and organisations.

Deadline: 7th January 2022 

In a collaboration between the University of Manchester's Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) and The Runnymede Trust, a new briefing highlights how the pandemic has impacted older people from ethnic minority groups.

The report outlines how older ethnic minority people are more at risk of exposure to the COVID-19 virus and to the social difficulties exacerbated by the pandemic due to longstanding inequalities in housing, health, employment and resources. These inequalities are (both historically and today) largely structural in nature. 

This report, by the Northern Health Science Alliance and N8 Research Partnership, paints a stark picture of growing inequality for children growing up in the North of England post-pandemic compared to those in the rest of the country.

Amongst their findings were that children in the North have a 27% chance of living in poverty compared to 20% in the rest of England and More than one in five children in the North are from an ethnic minority. These children are more likely to live in a deprived area than children from an ethnic minority in the rest of England.

This report from the Centre for Ageing Better finds that people in their 50s and 60s today face worse circumstances than the cohort before them, with one in five people in this age group likely to face multiple, long-term problems such as poor health and poor finances, and will be at risk of loneliness and isolation. It also highlights inequality faced by people from ethnic minority groups in this age group.

New research from the Education Policy Institute (EPI), The educational outcomes of refugee and asylum-seeking children in England, finds that asylum-seeking children who enter the UK separated from their parents are on average over three years behind non-migrant children at school by the time they take their GCSEs.

A new guide launched by the Centre for Ageing Better to support communications professionals and charities to represent ageing in a more positive and realistic way. The new guide helps organisations challenge ageism by urging them to move away from negative stereotypes and embrace realistic and diverse images of later life.

This article examines trends in life expectancy at birth up to 2020 and the impact of Covid-19 in 2020, gender differences, ethnic and geographical inequalities, the causes of the changing trends since 2011, and how the UK’s life expectancy compares with other countries.

Equality and Diversity UK have produced a Diversity calendar that provides a useful reminder of the dates of special religious holidays and awareness campaigns in 2022. To request a free bespoke version for your organisation, email  info@equalityanddiversity.co.uk

Join other autistic people, families and carers at one of Greater Manchester Autism Consortium's focus groups to have your say on the next Greater Manchester Autism Strategy which will be starting in April 2022. This follows the first ‘Making Greater Manchester Autism Friendly’ strategy 2019-2022. 

21st December 2021 10:00 -11:30am
6th January 2022 6:00 -7:30pm
7th January 2022 1:00 -2.30pm
12th January 2022 6:00 -7:30pm

Book your place now by visiting:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/have-your-say-on-the-next-greater-manchester-autism-strategy-tickets-225800353937 Or call 0161 998 4667.

The Anti-Racism Working Group are holding Anti-Racism Charter workshops for both the Black and minoritised women's sector/workers as well as the wider violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector. These sessions aim to further embed the anti-racist practice in the sector and to support the implementation of the Charter.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has unveiled the new portfolios which each Greater Manchester Combined Authority member will head up for the city-region.

This includes a change to which Council Leader will be the main contact for the VCSE sector. Cllr Arooj Shah, Leader of Oldham Council will move from the VCSE portfolio to take the Equalities, Inclusion and Cohesion portfolio.

56 organisations and groups across Greater Manchester recently came together to oppose the Government’s cruel and divisive #AntiRefugeeBill.

GM=EqAl is proud to be a signatory to the GM joint statement on the Nationality and Borders Bill, alongside many of our members.

UK broadcasters have committed to avoiding the use of the acronym BAME "wherever possible" following the publication of an industry report. This catch-all description for communities which experience racial inequality will be dropped in favour of the use of more specific terms to describe ethnicity. The report concluded there "was a lack of trust" around the term BAME.

The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 welcomed the findings from the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.