If you are involved in any sort of social change at a national, regional or local level, we want to hear from you! Take the SMK Annual Campaigner and Changemaker Survey NOW! Only FOUR DAYS LEFT! https://forms.office.com/e/M2L9N2HUyZ #SMKCampaignerSurvey

Just for context.... One trillion seconds is equal to more than 31,600 YEARS. Assuming a 35 hour week, 1trillion a year is an hourly rate of over 549 million.

📣MDF are looking for a Lived Experience Project Worker to join them and help embed lived experience into their work and other MACC projects. This is a brilliant opportunity to be part of the amazing work done by MDF. Applications close on 19 November. migrantdestitution.co.uk/ruthrose-vis...

Manchester Council of Mosques have issued this statement in sadness, shock and solidarity with the Jewish community about this attack at the synagogue in Manchester

Big Doughnutty News. Just out in Nature: the all-new 2025 Doughnut. Transformed from a single-year snapshot to an annual global monitor of 21st century social & ecological thriving. Available to all in an open-access paper by @andrewlfanning.bsky.social and me. 🧵 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tomorrow night is the Spirit of Manchester Awards 2025. Celebrating amazing community stories from across Manchester. Follow #SpiritOfMcr25 to find out who wins this trophy...

roll-out of social prescribing in England's primary care system www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... Rapid ⬆️ in Px Doesn't appear to a rapid increase in the £ available for services to which people are referred If this were referrals to orthopaedics that wouldn't be ok not ok in this context

🍂 Don’t miss out – the deadline for GM Walking Grants is just days away! Your project could help people keep moving and connecting even as the weather turns colder. ✅ Apply today: buff.ly/7ELkUcE

Britain has seen an acute living standards slowdown over the past 20 years. This has affected incomes across the distribution. A typical family today would be £20,000 richer if incomes had continued growing at the same rate since 2005, when the Foundation was founded. ⤵️ buff.ly/NuhNFF9

Our Volunteer Fair on St Anne's Square is well underway. @mcrcommcentral.bsky.social

📢 VCSE orgs in GM: Could £5k help you deliver health & wellbeing projects for unpaid carers from global majority communities? Apply now 👉 buff.ly/FIsELxx ⏰ Deadline: 12PM, 30 Sept. Info session: 18 Sept, 12–1pm.

Pay ratio disclosure alone won’t fix a system designed to reward shareholder returns over social value. Shifting away from shareholder-first business models would allow workplaces where power and profits are shared fairly. 2/2

Excessive CEO pay is no longer an outlier, it is systemic – a structural feature of our economy. Mandatory reporting of how much more CEOs are being paid than their workers could challenge extreme wealth accumulation. But... 1/2

This pay ratio gap seems to grow bigger every time I read about it. It should be unacceptable. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Earlier today, we heard the Chancellor @RachelReevesMP set out details of the government's multi-year spending review. She said it would 'ensure that renewal is felt in people's everyday lives'. 🔽 1/5

Volunteering is not in decline. On the contrary, it is thriving in many grassroots organisations. But it is a different kind of relationship as I explain in this blog 👇

We are pleased to announce that we will be collaborating with @meetthemancunian.bsky.social podcast, hosted by Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, for #SpiritOfMcr25! The podcast focuses on amplifying the voices of those making a difference in the community and spreading positive change in Greater Manchester.

We're hosting an event to launch the research we've done into the #ClimateAction work being done by local VCSE organisations.... booking details below

It's now a tradition of #VolunteersWeek that we announce the WINNER of the Spirit of Manchester Young Volunteer of the Year Award 2025.... #SpiritOfMcr25

Worth a read & a share.

Truly shocking. 700,000 families already in poverty to be pulled even deeper by record cuts to disability support. Newly released internal government figures lay bare the real extent of the cruel damage these cuts will inflict. 1/3 www.theguardian.com/society/2025....

This is a new image from #JWST. The bright points with spikes are stars in the Milky Way. Everything else is a galaxy. Everything. Else. Is. A. Galaxy.

LGBT+ Sector Statement on Supreme Court Ruling

Just recorded a great chat with Jonathan Fink on his @siliconcurtain.bsky.social podcast this week, alongside my partner Jez. We spoke about our trips to #Lviv for British people, what’s happening in #Ukraine, and a few other bits too. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ATl8...

New Scottish #communitywealthbuilding video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIzb...

Sad news. We worked with Nick on running some Social Media Surgeries in Manchester some years ago. I remember him as a friendly, encouraging guy who was happy to share what he'd learned. RIP

🚨BREAKING: Today's Supreme Court judgment is disappointing. Make no mistake, legal gender recognition is a human right. We all have the right to live free from discrimination and fear. Trans rights are human rights.

GMCA’s Foundational Economy Innovation Fund is providing support to organisations in Greater Manchester’s “foundational economy”. This includes retail, hospitality, and leisure, as well as health & social care, early education, and childcare 👉

On just getting started - and building today's mutualist eco-system. As some of you know, I am more and more convinced this is a route for future public services - a bit more about it here from the brilliant Sara Horowitz @ssireview.bsky.social ssir.org/articles/ent...

🎟️ Tickets now on sale for CWB Summit 2025! 📅 3 July | 📍Manchester Join changemakers, grassroots leaders and policymakers to explore how local democracy and community wealth building can shape fairer economies. 🎤 Andy Burnham, Grace Blakeley + more 🔗 cles.org.uk/events/cwb-s...

Struggling with data in your small VCFSE organisation? Help shape a session for the VCSE Data and Intelligence Peer Learning Network on tackling data challenges with limited resources. Join 10GM's online co-design event on 23rd April::

Today is the 5th anniversary of the death of my best friend Sue Murphy. RIP Sue. If you want to mark this anniversary by donating to causes close to Sue's heart, the details are here: MASH- mash.org.uk/donate/ Reach Out to the Community- CIO - donate.giveasyoulive.com/donate?cid=2...

Especially true in minoritised communities. Time and again, faith organisations and under-resourced community groups are expected to be in the frontline of responding. It's freely given effort, but the constant reliance on it by other parts of the system looks uncomfortably close to exploitation.

Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating.

This government's attempt to justify cutting benefits has completely fallen apart. They're slashing support for ill and disabled people to meet their arbitrary fiscal rules. @pollardtom.bsky.social reacts to the cuts announced in the spring statement

The Chancellor said today that she would not do anything to put household finances in danger Yet the government’s own assessment shows their cuts to health related benefits risk pushing 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children 📢 Their assessment also found... 1/3

The OBR has not yet been able to forecast any employment gain from the cuts/changes to incapacity & disability benefits MPs are being asked to support around £6.5bn of cuts & increased conditionality for ill & disabled people without any clear assessment of what it will achieve

Stealth social security cuts bring neither stability nor security to struggling families and will push child poverty even higher. Growth and better living standards are not achieved by taking money from families with the least...

Tens of thousands of people will be hit by “knock-on impact” of PIP cuts. Unpaid carers face losing carer’s allowance if their family member loses eligibility for disability benefits - a devastating double loss. Me and @patrickjbutler.bsky.social report. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Made in Manchester: Ardwick-born Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947), MP for Jarrow, played a big part in the 1936 Jarrow March of the unemployed to London to petition for the right to work, and became minister of education in the 1945 Labour government. 1/6

Why & What with our partners One Education Music & Brighter Sound 🔗link in bio 🔗 your DONATION this week will be DOUBLED by Big Give #artsforimpact 🔊 music by schoolchildren 🔊

Our @biggiveorg effort is go! donate.biggive.org/campaign/a05... Please support & share. With ever decreasing funding for music education, we turn to you wonderful humans for support. We thank you for your support as we endeavour together!

Diving into the detail of the green paper reveals problems… 🔴big cuts for people with high hardship risk 🔴 more restrictive gateway to getting support than the tories had proposed 🔴 extends conditionality but unclear how to decide who is subject to what conditions Read more ⬇️

In response to the government's announcement today on plans to cut incapacity and disability benefits, we have issued the following statement- highlighting how these cuts could deepen child poverty. We also share concerns from young people, living in poverty, who will be impacted.

The majority of people do see their earnings change month-to month, and sometimes by a lot. Read our analysis, which reveals the true extent of earning volatility in the UK ⤵️ buff.ly/o82JiA4

🎧 New Episode Out! Join me on Meet the Mancunian as I chat with Jolene Sheehan, social entrepreneur & founder of Joy Ethic! 📌 Listen: www.meetthemancunian.co.uk #Wellbeing 💆‍♀️ #SocialEntrepreneurship 💡 #Community 🤝 #GM #Manchester 🏙️ #SocialImpact ❤️ #NonProfit 🤲 #Podcast 🎧 @mcrcommcentral.bsky.social

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Spirit of Manchester Awards 2025! Who do you want to see up on stage at the awards? Submit your nominations no later than the 6 May for them to be in with a chance of getting shortlisted! Submit yours here: manchestercommunityc...

One of our most prestigious awards for the Spirit of Manchester is the 'Dr Sylvia Sham Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Voluntary Sector'. Find out more about Dr Sylvia Sham in Mike Wild's words: lnkd.in/eFZ5YWgD Nominate for this year's Spirit of Manchester Awards: lnkd.in/eHQN3jTe

Trust is essential for cooperation/coordination/performance at work. Trust is a dynamic process, not static, fuelled by reciprocity: people responding to positive actions with other positive actions sfu.ca/complex-syst.... By simonfraseru.bsky.social. Indepth: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...