One year on – what's changed, and what's next?
A year ago, Greater Manchester launched its Participation Playbook to help communities have more say in the decisions, services and places that affect their lives.
Now it's time to celebrate how far it’s come, share what has been learned and explore what happens next.
Join the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) as they #PressPlay on the next chapter of participation and community power in Greater Manchester.
GMCA will bring together community members, voluntary organisations, public service leaders, local and national government partners and funders to explore how they can give communities more opportunities, resources and power to shape change.
What to expect
Hear from the Mayor: GM Mayor Bev Craig will share her ambitions for participation and community power and what they mean for Greater Manchester's future.
Celebrate progress and share learning: Hear directly from people and organisations who have put the Participation Playbook into practice over the past year. Find out what's worked, what they've learned and the difference it's making to communities and public services.
Make connections: Meet people and organisations from across Greater Manchester and beyond who are working with communities to strengthen participation and community-led change.
Shape what's next: Share your ideas and explore how we can build on our progress, strengthen community power and influence the future of participation locally and nationally.
Why participation matters and why now
GMCA want to build a Greater Manchester where communities aren't just consulted but have a genuine say in the decisions, services and places that affect their lives.
This is about more than listening and consultation. It's about sharing power, building on the strengths of communities and involving people in shaping the services and decisions that affect them.
Across Greater Manchester, communities, public services and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise organisations are already finding new ways to work together.
From citizens' assemblies and participatory budgeting to community-led projects and co-design, people across our city-region are showing what can happen when communities are involved in making decisions.
The GM Participation Playbook brings this work together, sharing practical approaches to help communities and public services work together and share power.
As public services look to prevent problems earlier and work differently with communities, participation is becoming even more important.
National ambitions to rewire the state, alongside a new era of devolution and community empowerment, create an opportunity to rethink where power sits and how decisions are made. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act, Pride in Place, and renewed investment in neighbourhoods, high streets and community ownership signal a growing emphasis on putting communities at the heart of shaping their places.
Greater Manchester has an opportunity to help lead this shift. Through GM Live Well, our growing movement for community power and a renewed city-region ambition for participation, we are building on the strengths, relationships and innovations already flourishing across our neighbourhoods and communities.
This is our moment to move from participation as something we do, to participation as part of how we work, govern and make decisions.