Across Greater Manchester we’ve seen youth and play providers from the public and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sectors lead an incredible response across communities, and at a GM level.
Subsequently, we believe that now is the right time to bring together the diversity of providers and children and young people to drive the agenda for change as we respond to the ongoing crisis, start to understand the emerging issues, and build a new reality.
All of us recognise how children and young people are marginalised or overlooked and we want to work together to build a strong alliance to address this and support children and young people across Greater Manchester.
Given the unequal impact of COVID-19 on some groups, we are especially keen to support those minoritised by factors such as racism, classism, LGBTphobia, ableism, sexism, other forms of discrimination and the intersection between them.
As a start, we want to bring together providers - large and small - from the VCSE sector and Local Authority Youth Services to hold discussions together. This is not about creating more bureaucracy, but exploring how we can best serve children and young people, individually, collectively and as a system.
At present, this is a principle discussed by a small alliance of the willing. To expand and strengthen support for the ideas, we will be exploring this opportunity further over two phases.
Phase one:
GM Youth and Play providers are invited to complete an online survey exploring the concept behind a potential alliance of youth organisations across GM.
Phase two:
An inaugural meeting will be called to explore some of the questions / themes generated from the online survey. This is to gauge the appetite for the type of collaborations and action that can be further developed across GM.
The deadline for completion is 5pm on Monday 15th June
The survey also allows you to register your interest in being involved in the next steps of this work, including the inaugural meeting.
With very best wishes,
Sally Carr - Joint Chief Executive and Operational Director, The Proud Trust
Simone Spray - Chief Executive, 42nd Street
Alex Fairweather - Chief Executive, Greater Manchester Youth Network
Roger Harding - Chief Executive, RECLAIM Project
Stuart Dunne - Chief Executive, Youth Focus North West
Lisa Harvey Nebil - Head of Youth Strategy & Engagement, Manchester City Council
Mike Wild - Chief Executive, Macc
Justin Watson - Director, Young Manchester