What is Live Well?
Live Well is Greater Manchester approach to community led health and wellbeing and is part of Andy Burnham’s Manifesto and that “everyone in every community to have daily access to support and advice to improve their physical and mental health and socio-economic status”.
Being able to Live Well can mean different things to different people:
- Enjoying life
- Having purpose
- A good job
- Being in a warm and safe house
- People to spend time with and care about
- Being represented
- Having a voice and a say in decisions about my life
The neighbourhoods we live in and the communities we are a part of, help us live a healthy, happy life. They help us feel supported, connected and resilient through a variety of information, activities, and networks.
In Tameside, there are numerous organisations within VCFSE sector focused around supporting people’s health and wellbeing and make a huge contribution to keeping residents healthy and well.
Tameside is one of the ‘Accelerator sites’ for the Live Well programme and we are working with the Innovation Unit and GMCA to to shift thinking in Tameside around the need and recognition of community led wellbeing and prevention.
We want to:
- Showcase what is available across communities in Tameside to support prevention
- Facilitate conversations through the system on where we can work together
- Support the development of a Prevention Framework for this activity and encourage more investment in Tameside
live well quotes 2 by Action Together
In Tameside, we are using the power of stories to connect and create change
In September 2024, we held a storytelling workshop with leaders from VCFSE organisations to share stories about how the community keeps people healthy and well in Tameside.
We invited colleagues from Population Health to listen to powerful impact stories from Anthony Seddon Fund, Prime Active Communities, New Life Church, West African Development and how their work is changing the lives of local people.
Through these stories, we heard the positive outcomes for local people as result of feeling supported, with the trust and relationships that are built over the long term. Here is what we heard:
Live Well Tameside | Jo Saunders - New Life Church
Live Well Tameside | Ashlea & Matt Frederick, Stuart Gosling - New Life Church
Live Well Tameside | Mark Turton - Prime Active Communities
Live Well Tameside | Alade Sanni & Hakeel Qureshi - West African Development
Live Well Tameside | Ben James - The Anthony Seddon Fund
Stories have the power to connect and create change, and we want to capture and showcase many more of these stories. We will be using a range of different storytelling and methodologies to have the biggest impact. Through these stories we will continue to gather outcomes, which showcase the role the VCFSE sector plays as a key partner in prevention.
How to get involved?
At our Voluntary Sector Summit in April, we are inviting VCFSE sector organisation to be part of the Live Well journey, and work with us to co-design Community-led Wellbeing principles, that describe the behaviours, values and hopes of the VCFSE sector and our contribution to keeping residents healthy and well, within the wider Tameside system.
We will share the stories collated through Live Well so far and hear from you and how your group / organisation supports people to live well in Tameside.
You can find out more and book a place here.
Alternatively, if you are a group or organisation that has a story to tell about the way your work has improved the life of local person / community?
You can send us your stories and how to get involved: development@actiontogether.org.uk
- What was going on for this person?
- How did you first connect?
- What support did they get in their community?
- What impact did that support have?
- What changed for this person?