Latest


  • Women’s Voices – International Women’s Day 2021

    By Women's Voices Member

    Earlier this year two ‘tribes’ of women came together to deliver a week of activities to celebrate women as part of International Women’s Day on the 8th of March 2021 and explore this year’s theme ‘choose to challenge’. “It came at a perfect time for me, not been involved in anything, despite wanting to” “Right […]


  • GROW Traineeships – recruiting remotely during Covid

    By Charlotte Clapham

    ICM are currently busy planning the final year of the GROW Trainee programme. In doing so we have been reflecting on our last recruitment cycle back in November, which saw us welcome four new GROW Trainees to the ICM team. This year we have Lily based at Back on Track, Steve on the Housing First […]


  • Women’s Voices Movement: Community Reporting

    By Women's Voices Member

    Over the past few months, Women’s Voices Movement group partnered with People’s Voice Media to undertake a peer research project to give voice to women’s lives during lockdown. Eight members of the group were trained in the community reporting model.  Community reporting is a storytelling movement that support people to record and share stories of […]


  • ICM is looking for a Research Partner to explore lived experience employment

    By Matt Johnson

    Inspiring Change Manchester is an 8 year, National Lottery Community Fund programme, designed to help improve outcomes for people facing multiple disadvantage, which includes; homelessness, substance misuse, mental health issues and involvement in the criminal justice system.www.inspiringchangemanchester.shelter.org.uk/ It forms part of the National Lottery’s Fulfilling Lives Programme, a £112 Million investment over 8 years (2014 […]


  • ICM Closes to New Referrals

    By Matt Johnson

    As Inspiring Change Manchester approaches the final year of our project, unfortunately the time has come to announce that we are no longer able to take on any new people. We are therefore now closed to new referrals.  We know that building long term relationships and gaining trust with people, there is a higher likelihood […]


  • Suicide Prevention Day 2020 – Survival

    By Tess Tainton

    Content warning: This piece discusses suicide in a way that some readers may find triggering. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie.  14th May is my survivaversary. It’s a word I made up to turn something negative into something positive. That date is when I tried to end […]


  • When it comes to co-production, we all need a little openness and honesty!

    By James Found

    Recently we’ve had the chance to reflect on the types of changes we have seen across Inspiring Change Manchester (ICM) through trying to meaningfully involve people with lived experience in the design and delivery of our project. Working together with our partner agency Groundswell (www.groundswell.org.uk/) we have been developing an evaluation of our involvement work, […]


  • Co-Production – Call it what it is!

    By Tess Tainton

    Tess Tainton is the Involvement Coordinator at ICM. In this blog she shares her views on the issues around correct use of the term coproduction. When I hear the word ‘co-production’ my heart sinks. It’s not because I don’t agree with it, because I do; it’s because of the conversations which surround it and the […]


  • Co Production Week 2020

    By Charlotte Clapham

    As part of Co-Production Week, Charlotte Clapham, our GROW Traineeship Development Officer at Inspiring Change Manchester, talks about the importance of coproduction, and the barriers to doing it properly. This week is co-production week, and therefore a chance for people, services and organisations around the UK to celebrate, advocate for and raise awareness of co-production. […]


  • Multiple Disadvantage Day 2020 #SeeTheFullPicture

    By Matt Johnson

    The 1st July 2020 marks the second annual Multiple Disadvantage Day, a campaign led by the Fulfilling Lives programme, raising awareness to the challenges experienced by people facing multiple disadvantages, who are among the most vulnerable and most marginalised members of our society. Multiple disadvantage is recognised as a co-occurring combination of complex challenges, such […]



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