Next Meeting – 21st May

The next Changemakers meeting will be on Wednesday 21 May, once again at Cross Street Chapel – see map here.

This meeting will start sharp at 7.00pm. Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm. The meeting will close at 8.30pm.

We have started to explore some of the issues raised in the last meeting and will talk about which issues to further research. We will also talk about membership of Changemakers and what it involves.

We very much hope to see you or representatives of your organisation at the next meeting as we work together to make Manchester greater.

Progress at the last Meeting

The meeting on 30 April was an important one for moving Changemakers on as an organisation. As well as tackling some of the nuts and bolts of establishing Changemakers in Manchester, we started looking to the future in terms of some of the first issues we might want to work at. It was encouraging to see so many new faces, and we offer a special welcome to those of you who joined us for the first time.

Planning for Action

A lively debate in discussion in groups raised the following concerns that people felt were of real importance for them and their communities:

• Mental Health – lack of services, and among young people.
• Asylum Seekers and Refugees (6) – destitution; access to health care; bad housing; poor community integration; human rights.
• Fear of crime and the effects of crime (3); fear of being a witness.
• Gang culture, the hopelessness and disenfranchisement of young people.
• Inequality of resources, jobs, transport.
• Demonisation of young people (3); lack of productive employment; need for mentors and role-models; more resources for young people.
• Privatisation of public spaces in Manchester, e.g. Piccadilly Gardens.
• Lack of public consultation, and often of poor quality.
• Capacity Building of small organisations (2) and networking.
• Neighbourhood breakdown, and need to rebuild communities.
• Family Breakdown (3).
• Debt (2).
• Improved inter-faith dialogue and interfaith work (2).
• Environmental concerns – litter, recycling, greenhouse effect, transport.
• Public transport.
• Support for working mothers.
• Accountability of government and police.
• Victimisation and stigmatisation of groups, e.g. young people.
• The effect of foreign policy on local communities and groups.
• Drugs and alcohol use.

Two of these issues have been raised repeatedly in previous meetings:

• the gang, gun and crime situation which breeds fear in local neighbourhoods and poisons the life of young people growing up in parts of the city
• the issues facing refugees and asylum seekers, and particularly the attempt by the government to deprive failed asylum seekers of primary health care

These are obviously issues which are already on the agenda of many local organisations and we need to understand what our particular contribution might be to working on them. So at our next meeting on 21 May we will hear directly from people who have knowledge of these issues and how they might be addressed, and most importantly how we might be able to add value to those campaigns.

Building our Organisation

It was also really encouraging that people volunteered to take us forward in terms of establishing Changemakers as a constituted organisation to which people will soon be able to make a formal commitment:

• Bob Day from Roby URC, Longsight is heading a group to finalise a constitution for Changemakers. Copies of the proposed constitution will be available at the next meeting with a view to finally agreeing that constitution at our meeting in June. This will help us to move on from our temporary governance arrangements.
• Dr Vincent Pattison from Manchester University is bringing people together to look at recruitment to Changemakers – what it will mean to be in membership and how we can ensure that we have a good number of very different organisations who commit to working with each other.
• Hilary Evans from St Peter’s Church, Blackley will take a lead with Lorraine Shaw on planning for the next training programmes which we will be running with the support of the Gamaliel Foundation in September.
• Paul Keeble from Urban Presence will be working with Church Action on Poverty staff to help us secure solid start-up funding for Changemakers.

Stakeholders

Until we are formally constituted as an organization no-one can be a member. Instead we encouraged people for the time being to think of themselves as stakeholders – those who have a real interest in building Changemakers, and are prepared to make commitments to see that come about.

It was very encouraging that a good number of people at the meeting were able to see themselves in that way. In this initial stage of building Changemakers, stakeholders are those who

• are prepared to attend meetings and bring others with them
• are willing to work to bring their own organisation into membership of Changemakers
• are willing to work to bring other organisations into membership
• are prepared to go on training and to encourage others to do the same.

What will Changemakers be about?

As there were many new faces at the last meeting it seems important to spell out once again what sort of organisation we are hoping to establish in Manchester. Changemakers will be:

• A large, independent coalition of different local organisations committed to working together for the common good of Manchester
• Aimed at tackling local issues that are not being addressed in other ways
• An organisation that trains hundreds of people to take part in public life
• An organisation which builds effective and respectful relationships directly with power holders and service providers
• An organisation which will be highly respected for its ability to engage thousands of people in creative solutions to the problems they face in their communities

The next Changemakers meeting will be on Wednesday 21 May, once again at Cross Street Chapel. Please note that in view of comments from the last meeting this meeting will start a half hour later than previously advertised. We will begin the meeting sharp at 7.00pm. Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm. The meeting will close at 8.30pm.

We very much hope to see you or representatives of your organisation at the next meeting as we work together to make Manchester greater.

Revd Daniel Burton, Vicar of Cheetham LEP

Temporary Chair of Changemakers

Hello Manchester!

Welcome to the ChangeMakers temporary blog. This blog aims to help you understand more about ChangeMakers as it is formed and to encourage you and your organisation to join ChangeMakers and make Manchester a better City for all people.

ChangeMakers is just in it’s infancy but already over 80 organisation are interested in being a part of this exciting venture!

When there is new information or upcoming meetings or events, you will hear about them here, so please keep coming back or simply subscribe to our RSS feed.