10GM Blog: Where People Meet and Belong – Launching Spaces of Hope and Connection
In this blog, Kelly Duke, Projects and Partnerships Manager at 10GM, reflects on the joyful launch of the Spaces of Hope and Connection programme as part of the Live Well Spring Festival. She captures the energy, creativity and shared commitment in the room as VCSE organisations, communities and public sector partners came together to celebrate a bold investment in community‑led change across Greater Manchester.
Kelly shares key moments from the event — from powerful speeches and poetry to honest conversations about equity — and looks ahead to the next phase of the journey: co‑designing the programme with communities. The blog invites readers to join in shaping what comes next, with communities leading the way.
Author
Kelly Duke, Projects and Partnerships Manager, 10GM
Published
Type
10GM Blog
Theme
Live Well
We’re thrilled to share that thanks to National Lottery players, 10GM, on behalf of Greater Manchester Live Well, will receive £16.5 million over four years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest community funder.
This investment in Live Well Spaces of Hope and Connection will create a network of 100+ inclusive, community-led and owned spaces across Greater Manchester where people can meet, belong and find everyday support.
Prioritising communities facing the greatest inequalities, the investment will strengthen social infrastructure and grow community action, power and wealth. Powered by the Live Well movement, VCSE organisations, public services and residents will come together to share power, change systems and shape healthier, fairer, more connected places.
As we begin to plan the co-design phase of the Spaces of Hope and Connection programme – alongside Local Infrastructure Organisation’s (LIOs), Greater Manchester Equality Alliance, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, The Innovation Unit, and communities across Greater Manchester – my thoughts keep returning to the energy in the room at our launch event.
On 12th March 2026, as part of the Live Well Spring Festival, over 80 friends, partners and colleagues from across the VCSE and public sector came together at Social Refuge for a truly joyful celebration of community-led change. It was amazing to be surrounded by people passionate about growing community power and supporting social infrastructure in Greater Manchester, and to feel what the incredible £16.5 million investment from The National Lottery Community Fund meant in that room. The excitement was palpable; everyone I spoke to raved about the energy in the room with huge smiles on their faces.
Liz Windsor-Welsh, 10GM Director and CEO of Action Together, opened the event by grounding us in the purpose of the Live Well Spaces of Hope & Connection programme and the GM Live Well movement – a reminder that sharing power, changing systems and shaping healthier, fairer, more connected places must start with prioritising communities facing the greatest inequalities.
There was a real wealth of knowledge, lived experience and expertise from across the VCSE sector in the room, and Ayisatu Emore, Greater Manchester Equality Alliance Partnership Manager, expertly wove their voices into the event, alongside speeches from Mayor Andy Burnham (Mayor of Greater Manchester) and Dame Julia Cleverdon (Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund).
Andy championed the power of communities in leading the way, reminding us:
“This is how we build a fairer, more inclusive Greater Manchester where everyone can get the support they need and no one and no place is left behind” – Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester
Dame Julia Cleverdon had the whole room laughing while also inspiring collective pride and ambition. Her recognition that “What we do in Greater Manchester can be a blueprint for the rest of the country” captured the confidence and sense of possibility in the room perfectly.
I adored the poetry performances about Spaces of Hope and Connection from Folashade Alonge (De Butterfly CIC and GM Shapers) and Paddy Tierney (Elephants Trail); they genuinely moved and challenged the room.
If Paddy hadn’t mentioned that he wasn’t a poet and that he had been inspired by his colleague, Shannon, to write and perform, I would never have known! You could have heard a pin drop as everyone hung on every word.
When Darren Knight, Chief Executive of George House Trust and VCSE rep for the Live Well Board, and Jules Palfreyman, Chair of GM Equality Alliance, both spoke to the importance of equity, their honesty was highly valued. It was so important for everyone to be reminded that equity must be integral to the programme, from design to delivery.
As the event concluded, hearing voices from across the VCSE sector sharing their reflections on what Spaces of Hope and Connection meant to them and what they were excited about next, felt like a collective turning point. It was clear there was a shared commitment across Greater Manchester to be involved and shape this work together from the ground up.
What I loved most about the launch event was the welcome balance of challenge and humour alongside a genuine desire to listen, to learn and to trust communities to lead the way.
If you’d like to see more from the day, my 10GM colleague, Kasim, who is part of Action Together, brilliantly captured the day for us (thanks, Kasim!)
What’s next?
Now we get on to the really exciting part – codesigning the programme with Greater Manchester’s communities. Working with our locality and equity partners, we expect the programme to reach into communities across Greater Manchester who are experiencing the deepest and most persistent inequalities, particularly people affected by poverty, poor health, isolation, discrimination and barriers to opportunity.
Our focus is on working alongside residents in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods, people with lived experience of hardship or exclusion, Global Majority and refugee communities, disabled and neurodivergent people, unpaid carers, older people, children and young people, and people experiencing food insecurity.
We also aim to support community groups, grassroots organisations and VCSE leaders by strengthening community spaces, growing community power and supporting communities to steward the social infrastructure they rely on.
In the spirit of codesign, we don’t know exactly what this is going to look like yet, but we plan to keep you updated along the way.
That’s all for now,
Kelly, Projects and Partnerships Manager at 10GM
Find out more about the programme
Live Well Spaces of Hope and Connection
Thanks to National Lottery players, 10GM, on behalf of Greater Manchester Live Well, will receive £16.5 million over four years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest community funder.
This investment in Live Well Spaces of Hope and Connection will create a network of 100+ inclusive, community-led and owned spaces across Greater Manchester where people can meet, belong and find everyday support.
Prioritising communities facing the greatest inequalities, the investment will strengthen social infrastructure and grow community action, power and wealth. Powered by the Live Well movement, VCSE organisations, public services and residents will come together to share power, change systems and shape healthier, fairer, more connected places.
