What could a healthy and empowered Manchester look like in 2038? That’s the question a ‘Town Anywhere’ event aimed to answer as a new Manchester Advocacy Alliance officially launched.  

Residents and organisations from across the city gathered at St Thomas Centre for a two-day event hosted by voice and rights charity VoiceAbility in partnership with the Manchester Local Care Organisation and Town Anywhere. On the first day ‘Town Anywhere: Manchester’ participants stepped into an imaginary place to create a fictional future – but came away with very real ideas of what could be possible in Manchester through collaboration. The focus was on creating a place where everyone can live healthy lives, empowered to speak up for how they want to live and the care they want to draw on and provide. A whole town was built to showcase some of these ideas, with the following day’s ‘Explore Town Anywhere’ exhibition an opportunity for others to step into a future which included a ‘Wishing Well Centre’ focused on combining mental and physical wellbeing activities with nature, a ‘Communication for All’ Circle about accessible communication through listening, and a ‘Town Cradle’ for community decision-making. Among the participants was Raizah Quallatein Mwawanga, who said: “Personally I’ve never experienced anything like this before. I thought it would just be collecting information to help create a strategic plan. I’ve seen a lot of innovation and creativity. When I look at the different models people have created in the time that we’ve been here, I could not imagine people could come up with masterpieces of what we want to do. So for me it’s been a very rewarding experience, and I’m glad I came.” Ideas from the event will be taken forward by the newly-formed Manchester Advocacy Alliance, a network of people and organisations working together to enable more people to speak up for themselves, their friends, family and community when it comes to their health and care.

The alliance – run by VoiceAbility and funded by Manchester City Council – is also about enabling more people to understand their health and social care rights and gain the tools and skills to speak up for those rights. VoiceAbility have been commissioned by Manchester City Council on behalf of Manchester Local Care Organisation, to develop and support a network that can go further than simply providing statutory advocacy – Manchester Advocacy Alliance. VoiceAbility want more people to understand their key health and social care rights, and to have tools and support to exercise these rights when decisions are being made about their care and treatment. VoiceAbility want more people to be able to advocate for themselves, for their friends and family at earlier points, before statutory advocacy is triggered.

VoiceAbility’s Trish Maunder, the community development coordinator for the alliance, said: “If we just focus on the current day and the problems we experience then it really limits our ideas of what is possible. An event like this really helps people to imagine a different future. A world where people can advocate for themselves, their friends, their family and their community, and that their rights over their health and care are upheld. By raising our ambitions and sharing ideas, we have planted seeds which can grow. As an alliance we’ll be getting together to work out how we take these forward using the connections and community that we’ve built. For me personally it was a reminder that I’m pushing on an open door and that, if we make enough connections, we can achieve a better future.”  

Ruth Ben-Tovim, who co-founded Town Anywhere, was one of the facilitators for the Manchester event. She said: “It’s been brilliant to bring Town Anywhere to Manchester. We’ve had a really lively, focused and creative event, and what’s really struck me is how people have been saying there’s been a lot of different people but a lot of commonality in what people want to see. It’s been about open spaces, food sovereignty, care, learning, inclusion. We’ve had a focus on empowerment, voice, inclusion and healthy lives, and you can see that in all the different ventures on display. It’s been fantastic to be here, and I really hope that the ideas that were developed in Town Anywhere can be brought back to Manchester in 2025 and beyond.” 

Liz Goodger, Senior Commissioning Manager at the Manchester Local Care Organisation, added: “The event was a great opportunity to leave my lanyard behind and focus on what a great future for health and care could look like. I am hoping that the energy and positivity we generated will feed into a great start for the Manchester Advocacy Alliance.” 

If you could not attend Town Anywhere, you can still have your say – visit www.voiceability.org/maa for more information on how, as well as how to become part of the Manchester Advocacy Alliance.

VoiceAbility also provides free advocacy to support people in Manchester to be heard in decisions about their health, care and wellbeing. For more information visit www.voiceability.org/manchester. To make an enquiry or referral, you can also email helpline@voiceability.org or call free on 0300 303 1660.