We are excited to have launched a new social investment fund for any social organisations based or working in Bolton, Oldham, Stockport or Wigan.

The Proper Good Investment (Local Access Partnership) fund offers affordable and accessible social investment designed to meet the needs of small and very small social enterprises and charities that trade at various stages of their development

Young Black men are over-represented in restrictive mental health settings, but are less likely to get early community-based mental health support. This report for the Centre for Mental Health (CMH) shares learning from a three-year project to promote the mental health and wellbeing of young Black men in Birmingham.

The project built upon the findings from CMH’s evaluation of an earlier pilot, Up My Street. Shifting the Dial has worked with more than 500 young Black men, offering peer support, mentoring, theatre productions, skills development and community events.

Find out about our changing role in Greater Manchester, what we have been up to during the 2020/2021 year and read about some of the inspiring organisations we have worked with and supported.

The topic for last year's Islomphobia Awareness month was 'Time for Change'. The latest report details what was achieved during this month of action.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority have launched the Greater Manchester Strategy - a strategy which sets out a route, over the next decade, to deliver a vision for the benefit of Greater Manchester's people, places and our planet.

This report shares the legacy of Ambition for Ageing by drawing on the lessons learned over 7 years of supporting projects to improve age-friendliness and social connections across a range of neighbourhoods.

Ambition for Ageing have released a new report that shares the findings from a research project that aimed to find out what kind of support older people from dispersed communities need to stay connected as they age.

Some key things to note from this month include:

• 71% of adults are still concerned about the risks of COVID-19, while 28% say they are not worried
• 61% of adults think face masks should continue to be mandatory in shops and on public transport
• 56% of adults say they would self-isolate if they had symptoms but felt well, 71% if they had symptoms but felt unwell
• 44% of adults think the media coverage of COVID-19 is about right; 35% think there is too little media coverage of COVID-19 currently and 9% think there is too much.

Free workshops on project Hidden disabilities and Long Covid in the African and Caribbean community.

About this event

Free workshops on

How to beat 'brain fog'
Lifting low mood
Fighting fatigue
Sleep issues
Workshops will be Online and In-person

Online dates

26/4, 03/05 and 10/05 at 10.00-11.45am

When you book on you will be sent information of where the online workshop will take place.

In person dates

19/05, 02/06, 16/06 and 30/6 at 10.00am -12.00pm

With light refreshments. Venue: Oakland House, Talbot Rd Old Trafford (TBC)

The post pandemic world is going to be challenging for VCSE organisations. Now is the time to review where you are now and where you need to be to ensure you can continue to deliver your mission. Skills for Growth – VCSE Support is a fully funded service that can help you do just that. Our dedicated VCSE Skills Coach will work with you to develop a tailored development plan and access the resources and advice you need.

Contact Sittu (sittu.ahmed@gmcvo.org.uk) for an initial chat about what we can offer.

TRC are pleased to announce that their Live Chat Service covering the Greater Manchester area, is now up & running on Wednesdays from 11.30 am – 2 pm.

During the session, the volunteer will create a safe space for you to talk at your own pace. We will help you to find ways of expressing difficult feelings and to talk about difficult situations. We can ask questions and help you explore your options, and if you ask us for information about other forms of support, we can help provide this too. 

This new Business Support and Funding Finder is designed to help business owners navigate the landscape of publicly backed business support in Greater Manchester.

Be the Business have a mission to empower small business owners in the UK to build productive and profitable businesses in the digital economy. In partnership with Mastercard, they are particularly looking to support and empower black and Asian leaders from micro and small businesses around the country with free resources and a personalised mentoring and Boards programmes. No eligibility criteria required.

PEACE are seeking bereaved relatives AND professionals (health, social care and community workers) to take part in a research study focused on end-of-life experiences of people of African and Caribbean descent, during the coronavirus pandemic. The study is important, because there have been many deaths amongst Black and Minority Ethnic communities during the pandemic, but it is known access to good end-of-life-care is often poor. What is not known, is why this happens and how it can be changed. The study addresses this gap in our understanding and aims to help improve end-of-life care for people of African and Caribbean descent.

A partnership project between GMCVO and the Greater Manchester BAME Network is underway to build a Greater Manchester BAME Social Enterprise Network and help deliver business support to BAME social entrepreneurs. Specifically for BAME social entrepreneurs, we strongly encourage you check out the new project webpage. It’s full of 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.

You can find out more about the network and project by contacting Hanif Alli at hanif.alli@gmcvo.org.uk

In partnership with Manchester City Council, AFRUCA has established the first service across Greater Manchester dedicated to providing support for parents of children at risk of county line trafficking and criminal exploitation. Our service will support 25 parents from BME communities over one year through the provision of a range of services.

Click on the leaf below to access the leaflet with further details on the service provided and full contact details. 

Does your social enterprise, community business or charity work to support individuals, communities or businesses in Greater Manchester?

GMCVO's social enterprise team are inviting you to a weekly drop-in session for social enterprises, community businesses and trading charities to discuss your questions and support needs. Our team will be on-hand to offer advice and guidance for all things social enterprise; including setting-up, funding, social impact and social investment.

So whether it's a quick question, or a more in-depth meeting you're after, drop in at your leisure and we'll provide a helping hand.

Testimonial from a recent attendee:

"thank you for your support on our call the other day. Starting a non profit brings so many stresses and unknowns, but you have really supported me and helped me feel at ease, explaining things simply and showing me that it can be done."

TRCs counselling waiting list is open for new referrals -

Face-to-face, Telephone or Video therapy options
Up to 26 sessions
Trauma informed counsellors
Make referral online from across
Greater Manchester

The ‘Nature for Health’ service is aimed at adults experiencing mental ill health and other related conditions. All participants will get support from our Link Worker and attend 6 x free weekly 2 hour gardening for wellbeing sessions at one of 7 fabulous community gardens across the City of Manchester.

Read the pdf for the Nature and Health Spring/Summer here.

EnterprisingYou provides self-employed people and gig economy workers with tailor-made support through dedicated business coaches, with help in areas such as personal finance, mentoring, marketing, recruitment and health and wellbeing.

The free programme which has supported more than 1,700 self-employed business owners across Greater Manchester since last March will continue until 2023.

The Addressing Imbalance programme from Good Finance aims to connect and engage with organisations led by people from racialised and LGBTQI communities as well as those led by women and people with disabilities.

The goal is to provide learning and resources to empower leaders with the tools they need to make an informed decision when considering social investment.

Work with Embrace Resilience to reduce overheads and improve staff training and support.

If you or your clients are currently spending more than £1 per course for accredited courses, read on.

With funding from the Big Lottery, we are in a position to deliver online learning and Learning Management Systems at well below commercial rates.

Embrace Resilience is a social enterprise with specialist expertise in delivering mental health and compliance training.

Best Value LMS on the Market

Start a Free Trial here.
If this is not for you right now, please feel free to forward this on to anyone you think relevant

Various workshops, 31st March - 31st December

Business owners and employers are invited to take part in the How To Festival organised by Flourish Together CIC and partners. How To is a unique pick-and-mix festival of webinars, information, inspiration and resources designed and led by women changemakers to support and inspire social and community enterprises and others leading social change.

You can access over 40 webinars of bite-sized learning sessions around health and wellbeing, creative and digital skills and running a social enterprise. Plus, you can attend quarterly in person networking events in Manchester.

Thursday 23rd June, Manchester

GMCVO and the GM Third Sector Research Network are hosting a free one-day event, funded by the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN), to consider how we can learn from failure. It’s something nobody likes to talk about but doing so could help us unlock useful insights, not only about what works but how it works.

The event will bring together staff, volunteers and researchers working in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in Greater Manchester for a day of reflections and discussions about what failure means and how telling stories of failure can enable learning.

Tuesday 26th April

The ‘GM Walking City Region Learning Event’ is an interactive and sense-making session that will focus on discussions around what’s been done, where we are now, and key priorities/actions moving forward to support walking across Greater Manchester.

This event is for individuals and organisations who currently support, or would like to support, increased walking in GM and will be held in Manchester City Centre (venue tbc).

The session is from 10am-12pm with an optional Invisible Cities Walking Tour from 12pm-12:30pm for those who’d like to join.

These workshops aim to empower local people to help themselves and each other. You can come to one or all of the workshops, which are split up as follows:

19 April:  Housing – Landlord and tenant responsibilities and how to deal with issues, Housing options in Manchester and help with housing costs

26 April:  Welfare benefits – An overview of welfare benefits, managing a Universal Credit claim and how to deal with issues

4 May:   Money – Working out a household budget, dealing with debts, finding out about other financial help and grants

All workshops run from 12pm – 3.30pm at St James’ Church, Moss Side

Contact me at ambyfawcett@manchestermind.org or call me at 07549 032 668 to book or to ask any questions.

Wednesday 27th April 13:00 - 14:00, Online

GMCA is seeking to provide contract funding for the facilitation of the Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel. They are looking for a VCSE organisation or small to medium-sized enterprise that has been actively involved in Greater Manchester (or a district of GM) in the last three years, and has experience of working with communities experiencing racial inequalities.

Organisations wishing to find out more about this opportunity are invited to attend this online supplier event where the tendering process and contract delivery requirements will be outlined, and interested parties can join a question and answer session before the tender is published.

To attend, please register via procurement@greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk

Thursday 28th April, Manchester

Digital4You is a brand new 4-week programme of support for Greater Manchester-based voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations with the aspiration to develop, reach more people and learn new skills.

Wed, 27 Apr 2022, 17:00

Manzil Banqueting Hall
29 Bury New Road
Cheetham Hill
M8 8EQ

Join us for an inspirational evening of short Emaan boosting lectures, heart melting Qur’an recitation by world famous Qur’an recitors, Nasheeds by renowned artists and a mouth-watering 3 course banquet Iftar dinner (table seated & serviced) in support of charity. Spectacular events not to be missed hosting and catering for hundreds of Muslims gathered together to break their fast in the blessed month of Ramadhaan with a luxurious Iftar dinner- creating a sense of Islamic unity.

28 Apr, 19:30
Khizra Mosque , 425 Cheetham Hill Rd

We are delighted to host this event with Khizra Mosque. We invite our friends, followers and partners to join us for and learn about the month of Ramadan and fasting in other faiths.

Thu, 28 Apr 2022, 09:30

We are thrilled to invite in the MACFEST team to share in our festival day this year 'Celebrating our cultural heritage at Freehold'. Muslim and non-Muslim children alike will get to immerse themselves in exciting workshops and events throughout the day that champion the traditions, customs, and people of the Islamic faith.

1st - 31st May 2022

The intention is to have different group walks taking place all over GM throughout the month of May to celebrate the joy of walking and to get more people moving. There is the option to either host/lead walks or to simply take part as participants, and because it’s walking they’re all free and open to everyone!

If you would like to host a walk please submit your entry before the 25th March.

The submission form, as well as a host of resources including FAQ’s and guidance on submitting a walk, can be found on the Festival website page here.

Read the Partner narrative here

Thursday 12th May, 18:00 - 19:30
Hybrid event: In-person - Peel Room, Bury Town Hall, Zoom link will be sent after registration
 
This event will explore how the disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on minoritised communities has affected young people, how to respond to the huge increase in mental health issues amongst young people, and what young people can do to build their, and their peers', resilience from now on?

Thu, May 12, 2022
12:00 PM – 1:00

Brooks Building, Manchester Metropolitan University
53 Bonsall Street
Hulme
M15 6GX

Based on my narrative walking research project, StoryWalks, which focuses on the racial politics of place-making, the work I will discuss one community resident's walking tour through the ethnic and historic neighborhood of San Jose Japantown (located in California in the United States), in which she focused on her own plant and tree maintenance as part of her larger commitment to an ethics of community care and sustainability. Sharing some video examples from the walk, I will discuss the ways in which trees and plantings are a part of field of relations that compose and are composed by racial subjectivities, place, community development, and cultural identity.

Friday, 13th May
Online

Khalid Ahmed from Unique Improvements will discuss how VCSE organisations have used research skills to evaluate their successes and difficulties in raising awareness about cancer.

Thursday 19th May, 09:30 - 13:00, People's History Museum, Manchester
 
This practical workshop will be led by the Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel - an advisory panel of community leaders and professionals working in the equality space.

Platforming leaders from a range of sectors, it will look at the recruitment, retention and development of people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Attendees will learn of the barriers that people face, and hear from organisations that have made positive steps to address them.

Monday - Tuesday, 23-24 May

The Wiener Holocaust Library and the Manchester Jewish Museum are hosting a two day event in May to raise awareness of the International Tracing Service (ITS) Digital Archive and its application in both academic and family research. This remarkable archive contains over 30 million documents from the Nazi era and the post war period, related to the fates of over 17.5 million people.
 
The event will feature talks from the Library’s Dr. Christine Schmidt and Elise Bath, RHUL’s Professor Dan Stone, Manchester University’s Professor Cathy Gelbin, Pamela Linden Aveyard from IWM North and others. There will also be an exhibition launch, advice for carrying out your own research into the experiences of people caught up in the Holocaust and the opportunity for one-on-one appointments with ITS Digital Archive researchers.
 
The event is free, but spaces are limited, so please register your interest here:
 

Click on the link below to access a wide range of current VCSE vacancies in Greater Manchester. You can also submit a form to get your own organisational vacancies listed, and there is also a board with trustee and volunteer vacancies, besides paid positions.

We currently have 58 external vacancies listed.

To support our conferencing team to provide excellent customer service to organisations booking meeting rooms - with the added bonus of working in a beautiful historic building! Deadline to apply: Friday 22nd April

It's that time again where we are planning our Elections to the Council of Governors which will run from April to June 2022.

At Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, our governors play a key role in representing the views of our patient, public and staff members, ensuring that our services meet the needs of our communities.

If you have an interest in our Trust and in helping us continue to deliver the best possible care to our patients, then please consider standing for election as a governor.

We have public governor vacancies in Bury, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside and Glossop and Stockport. Find more information here: Nominations (mi-nomination.com) If you are interested, you can get in touch here:https://www.mi-nomination.com/getinvolved/form/Interest

We are running a series of virtual information sessions, please contact us if you would like to attend or have a conversation about the role or election process: ftmembership.penninecare@nhs.net.

Here is a list of the information session dates:

3rd March 1.00 – 2.00 pm
15th March 11.00 – 12.00
14th April 1.00 – 2.00 pm
25th April 3.00 – 4.00 pm
29th April 10.30 – 11.30 am

We are currently recruiting for a number of roles as follows:

1.    Information and Advice Team Leader
To lead a successful Information and Advice team, ensuring that a timely, responsive and accessible service is provided to all clients. 

29.5 hours a week, £21,500 pro rata

Closing date: 9am Monday 25th April 2022

 2.    Bright Days Team Leader
To lead, develop and sustain an exciting ,innovative programme of health and wellbeing activities across Wigan Borough and in the home.

37 hours a week, Part time hours may also be considered.  £21,500 per annum

Closing date: 9am Monday 25th April 2022

3.    Publicity and Fundraising Manager
To design and develop an ambitious fundraising strategy to help us engage more supporters and partners to deliver our work and to raise awareness of the work that we do.

37 hours a week.  £25,000

Closing date: 9am Monday 25th April 2022

4.    Home Helpers
To support our shopping and cleaning service. 

Hours are variable to suit – most Home Helpers work between 12 and 24 hours a week.

£9.50 per hour

Applications accepted at any time.

Based at New Smithfield Market, Manchester M11 2WJ
Salary: £23,000 p.a.
Full-time, permanent contract; 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday

This new role will help us develop relationships with existing and new corporate supporters, alongside providing office support to the FSGM Operations team.Your excellent communication, time management and organisation skills will lend themselves to ensuring our corporate supporter visits run smoothly.   
Working as a key member of the Operations team, the successful candidate will also spend part of each week ensuring we are fulfilling our customer accounts effectively.
Full training will be provided, along with the opportunity to speak to the current post holder about the role.

For further information and an application pack please email recruitment@emergemanchester.co.uk

Closing date: noon on Monday 25th April 2022

Closing date: 27 April 2022
Contract Type: Full Time, Time Limited Role
Hours: 35 hours per week

3 x Grade 5 Data Assistant roles which we think would be great entry level posts for young people or anyone who is thinking about a change of career.

These new temporary roles will be key to improving and maintaining data quality in one of the largest systems in the Council. You will be working as part of a new dedicated team who will be working closely with the business to identify data inaccuracies, removing, and reducing duplications and errors. You will also work towards identifying improvements in methods of data collection and processing. You must be able to develop good working relationships with others in your team and key business contacts so that key project activities and deliverables are achieved to agreed deadlines.

35hrs hours per week
£24.042.20 p.a.
Fixed to April 2025 (extension subject to funding)
Kath Locke Centre, 123 Moss Lane East, M15 5DD (working across Greater Manchester)

We have a vacancy for a full time Community Engagement and Development Coordinator with experience of working within and developing projects/services for Black African, Black Caribbean and other ethnic minority communities; networking, developing and maintaining relationships/partnerships with key stakeholders, i.e., community members/groups, voluntary sector organisations, mainstream cancer support organisations, health professionals.

GMCVO are seeking an Organisational Support Officer on a full-time, permanent contract to help improve their policies, processes and systems to meet the needs of the organisation and its projects.

Deadline to apply: Tuesday 3rd May 2022, 9am

Soul Purpose 360 CIC is a coaching, mentoring and training social enterprise created for Black women in the community development space. We host a national network of Black women active in the sector and those with a desire to play active roles in their communities.

Hullo is a non-profit organisation that runs a freephone line to support people who need a chat in a safe, casual and non-judgmental environment.

They are looking for volunteers to join their family, they have a team of over 50 fully trained volunteers, but are always looking to add to the team. If you or anyone you know have a few hours available each week, then simply click on the button below to register your interest

Manchester Carnival 50 is coming!! Get involved! Register for the parade! Book your stall! Volunteer! Join J’ouvert! Get ready for 13th and 14th August 2022!! The full 2 day event will return to Alex Park!! Get on board for carnival 50!

Find out more here.

Alyson Malach, from Equality and Diversity UK Ltd is looking to hold round table discussions with young people, parents, people on probation, in education/training in all areas of Greater Manchester about how service providers meet/don’t meet their needs. Meetings will be held in person or virtually. 

The sessions will be used to produce a report on the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with recommendations to improve service provision and make sure services are more culturally competent and informed by consultation and collaboration with ethnically diverse communities. If you want to be involved or to hear more please contact Alyson directly via alyson@malach.co.uk

Impetus are open for applications to their Leadership Academy, a professional development programme supporting talent from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK youth sector to progress into senior leadership roles.

Since welcoming their first cohort of twelve participants to the Impetus Leadership Academy in October last year, seven participants have already been promoted or secured new roles.  

Impetus is now recruiting for their second cohort starting in October 2022. If you would be interested in applying or know someone who would benefit from this programme, please encourage them to apply by Monday 2 May. The programme is free for participants and you can check your eligibility and apply through Impetus’ website.

Grants up to £2,500 for groups that support young people challenged by abuse and addiction, young carers and those experiencing homelessness.

Deadline 31st April

GMCVO are supporting the launch of the new Recovery Loan Fund, offered by Social Investment Business to support trading charities, social enterprises and community businesses in the post-Covid recovery. The Recovery Loan Fund is intended for trading charities, social enterprises and community businesses with a viable business model who have been adversely affected by Covid-19.

To find out more about this fund please follow the link below or contact our social investment team on gmsocinvest@gmcvo.org.uk

The closing date for applications has been extended to 20th May 2022

This funding will support organisations to bring social action and youth empowerment opportunities to children and young people, to help prevent or overcome the effects of the disadvantages they face. We especially want to reach:

• organisations who focus on addressing issues of disadvantage affecting children and young people
• children and young people who have some experience of social action and want to develop their skills and experience to do more.
• children and young people who have no experience of social action work at all but want to find out what it is all about.
  

We will be launching two programmes about sharing power with children and young people; our Youth Social Action Fund and our We Move Youth Social Action Fund. The We Move Youth Social Action Fund is aimed specifically at Black led organisations and organisations that work with Black children and young people. You can find out more about the fund here.

The deadline for submitting application forms is Monday 23rd May at 11.30am.
Decisions will be communicated to applicants by the end of August 2022

The £150m Community Ownership Fund has been set up to help communities take ownership of assets and amenities at risk. GMCVO are offering organisations wishing to apply for funding under this scheme general support around business and financial planning. We can also work with you to potentially access social investment to meet the match funding requirements either from our own GM Social investment Funds or our national partners.

Round 3 will open in May 2022. 

If you are looking to apply to future rounds, please contact our team at gmsocinvest@gmcvo.org.uk.

You can find out more about the fund by clicking here. 

Through the Community Action Fund, UK Black Pride will distribute funding to organisations supporting LGBTQI+ Black people and people of colour across the UK. 

The fund is open to applicants from community groups, organisations, charities with less than a £1m annual turnover, religious groups or individuals providing they are based in the UK and have a bank account with a UK address. Funding for successful projects will be awarded in April 2022 and proposed activities will need to be delivered by 31 October 2022.

National Lottery Community Support Fund: Offer funding from £300 to £10,000 to support what matters to people and communities. Larger grants of £10,000+ are made through a variety of programmes that cover every nation within the United Kingdom. This kind of flexible, longer-term funding is aimed at organisations whose ambitions are shaped by the people they serve. And with the COVID-19 pandemic still with us, they will continue to support people and communities most adversely impacted by COVID-19.

GMCVO have launched year three of a grants programme to support mental wellbeing in communities of identity or experience. Initially, micro-grants of £100 - £750 are available for not-for-profit faith organisations.

A further round of micro-grants open to organisations with an annual income under £50,000 will be launched next month.

Lloyds Bank Foundation is funding small and local charities, investing in their work helping people overcome complex social issues across England and Wales. They are supporting charities with an annual income of £25,000 to £1 million with a proven track record of helping people on a journey of positive change through in-depth, holistic and person-centred support. Funding is unrestricted, including around core costs, and tailored development support to help your charity be more effective.

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Activity Fund aims to use sport and physical activity as a means of bringing a community together and tackling inequalities via awards of between £300 and £10,000 from a pot of £5 million of National Lottery funding. They always have more applications than they’re able to fund and so their priority is to support projects working with people in disadvantaged communities.

Our exciting 3-year plan is set out in the Share Offer documentation and was launched on Feb 15th. The final prospectus can be seen on the webpage: www.emergerecycling.co.uk/share-offer

APPLICATION FOR COMMUNITY SHARES

THE BUSINESS CASE
 

The Arnold Clark Community Fund provides financial help to community groups and charities that had been significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. It is open to all UK-registered charities and local community groups who fall into their eligibility criteria. The fund is also open to community interest companies, charitable incorporated organisations and social enterprises. Successful applicants will receive up to £1,000.

Deadline: 30th June

Beware of the Bull have rounded up the latest funding opportunities. Read it at the link below.

Grants up to £10,000 for projects that provide opportunities for disadvantaged children and young people to fulfil their potential.

Deadline 31st July

I would like to share with you the opportunity to participate in a Clinical Psychology doctoral student project that is being conducted at the University of Manchester. This project is being supervised within our research unit, PRIME-RU.

We would like to recruit a diverse sample of mothers living in the UK with a child aged 0-2 years to complete an anonymous survey about parenting and mental wellbeing. There is also an opportunity to enter an optional prize draw for a gift card.

Alyson Malach from Equality and Diversity UK Ltd is carrying out research on the lived experience of ethnically diverse children, teens, adults in schools, colleges, university and workplaces. She has created four separate surveys to share with ethnically diverse people you can reach. The research findings will be written up and shared with those that have supported the project before it is published.

Schools
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/eduk-race-survey-school-students

Colleges
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/eduk-race-survey-college-students

Universities
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/eduk-race-survey-university-students

Workplaces
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/eduk-race-survey-staff

Across the country, integrated care partnerships (ICP) are being established to enable health and care organisations to better work together to plan and deliver health and care services; to improve outcomes in population health and healthcare;  to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access; to enhance productivity and value for money; and to help the NHS support broader social and economic development. The creation of the Greater Manchester (GM) ICP is the latest stage in the city region’s journey to closer working which has developed since our health and social care devolution deal in February 2015.

The GM ICP is currently developing its Strategy, also known as its 5 Year Plan, which sets out the over-arching vision for the new system. The strategy will describe the partnership’s aims, objectives and priorities for health and care in GM and will explain what the system intends to do to achieve these goals.

To help shape this strategy, the GM ICP is currently running a ‘Big Conversation’ with anyone who lives or works in Greater Manchester to get feedback, thoughts and ideas on what should be included.  For further information and for a chance to win one of four x £250 Love2Shop vouchers, please visit www.gmhsc.org.uk/event/the-big-conversation and complete the short survey.

The survey will close at midnight on Sunday 8th May 2022. Winners will be drawn at random and notified by Friday 13th May 2022.

Manchester City Council and Manchester Health Care Commissioning have commissioned Forever Consulting to find out what support voluntary and community groups and social enterprises in Manchester need to deliver their work and achieve their goals.

They’ve developed a short survey that explores what your organisation would like support with, and how you would like to receive it.

Deadline: Monday 25th April

Greater Manchester is establishing a Community Wealth Hub to support and grow co-operatives, mutuals, social and community enterprises.

A six-month co-design process has begun and Greater Manchester Combined Authority now want to hear your thoughts on the proposals, and how you would like to get involved. If you are a Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise organisation in Greater Manchester who trades, or aspires to trade, we encourage you to have your say.

Deadline: Friday April 29th

Generation Rent is working with the LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity akt to research discrimination in the private rental sector and would like to engage with  private renters, regardless of their gender identity or sexuality, to complete their survey about their experiences. Please note, some of the questions focus on the respondent's sexuality and gender identity as well as ethnicity, mental and physical health and their benefits status.

Alyson Malach, from Equality and Diversity UK Ltd is looking to hold round table discussions with young people, parents, people on probation, in education/training in all areas of Greater Manchester about how service providers meet/don’t meet their needs. Meetings will be held in person or virtually. 

The sessions will be used to produce a report on the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats with recommendations to improve service provision and make sure services are more culturally competent and informed by consultation and collaboration with ethnically diverse communities. If you want to be involved or to hear more please contact Alyson directly via alyson@malach.co.uk

If you work for a charity or a non-profit organisation, social sector organisation or a funder, based in the UK we’d love to hear your views about your digital skills and support needs.