Gorton Central
The Pitch
Problem statement
Gorton & Abbey Hey have some fantastic assets including the new HideOut Youth Zone, excellent transport links, new housing, VCSE organisations and excellent greenspaces. Yet it remains the highest priority neighbourhood within central Manchester and is an area of ‘significant deprivation and poor health’ demonstrating there is still much needed work to do for reducing health inequalities together. Health and life outcomes for residents are poor compared with other parts of Manchester and England with high levels of poverty, unemployment and mental health. We are looking to change that through our new community wealth building and working together for a long, healthy and happy lives.
Solution
We are refurbishing a pre-loved but well worn community centre. At the heart of our vision is food, as the starter for eating-well, living-well, enterprise and employment. The funding will be used to refurbish a tired kitchen so we can provide more cooking workshops in a safe and happy space. Specifically, £7500 of the funding will be used for kitchen cabinets, white goods, equipment and a new floor. £2,500 will be used to pay for tutors, equipment and consumables for community cooking classes. This will allow more people to access cooking classes that equip people with the skills and confidence to cook from scratch, improve budgeting skills and make new friends.
Why are we best placed to deliver?
Healthy Me Healthy Communities (HMHC) will be celebrating 10 years of reducing health inequalities together for long, healthy and happy lives and is a well-respected social enterprise. HMHC has been extremely successful in growing since its start-up in 2013 to a well-respected social enterprise. Since 2013 we have been able to pilot, test and perfect what we do and how we do it. HMHC has been at the forefront for developing innovative ways to engage and involve residents and collaborate with partners for tackling the causes of life and health inequalities. In that time, we have created some strong and excellent partnerships in Manchester with organisations and services.
Focus Areas
Delivery plan
Budget breakdown
| Kitchen cabinets | £3,000 |
| Kitchen white goods | £1,500 |
| Kitchen equipment | £500 |
| Kitchen fitting | £2,000 |
| Floor and tiling | £500 |
| Food workshops | £2,500 |
Beneficiaries
450 people
Expected impact
Our work improves the health and life outcomes for residents in several ways and creates positive outcomes for the individual, household, community and Manchester-wide, including: - People have improved access to healthy and affordable meals. - Less people in poverty and reduced impact of poverty. - Improved social connections resulting in reduced social isolation. - Improved employability with volunteer opportunities, placements, entry and accredited training, job-club and benefits advice. - Improved health outcomes by connecting and supporting residents to access social-prescribing services and services that address the underlying causes of poor health.
Track record
Healthy Me Healthy Communities (HMHC) is celebrating 10 years of reducing health inequalities together for long, healthy and happy lives and is a well-respected social enterprise. - 6 Community Grocers pre-Covid, with average weekly attendance of 325 members making a collective weekly saving of £3250 - 302 COVID19 welfare calls completed at the onset and over 250 ‘stay at home’ packs distributed to members and volunteers containing self-care and wellbeing items, and printed service information - 35 volunteers returning or new to HMHC following Covid receiving updated training and Covid induction - 85 residents achieving level-2 qualifications Since attending the Grocer I have taken part in: “employment support, courses, events and activities for my children” “Cooking course, holiday hunger events for children, Eid and Christmas party with children, information fairs” “I have had a health-check and came back to the cooking classes”