Organisations of Hope

Addressing health inequalities and inequities in Greater Manchester.

Organisations of Hope poster

Key people: Dr Simon Parry, Dr Angela Whitecross, Julie McCarthy, Hebe Reilly, Dr Luke Munford, Dr Helen Hawley-Hague, Dr Claire Forbes, Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt.

Project Partners: NHS Greater Manchester / Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cartwheel Arts, 42nd Street, Dementia United, Action Together

Organisations of Hope has helped build a creative health research coalition to address this question:

How can creativity, culture, and heritage address health inequities in Greater Manchester?

About the project

Building a Creative Health Coalition

Greater Manchester is home to a wide range of arts and cultural organisations, charities, and health and care providers. These assets support the health and wellbeing of our diverse communities.

However, community assets are not necessarily located where they are most needed, nor are they always well resourced, and they can be difficult to find or access.

We have tried to understand better how creative health assets are spread across Greater Manchester. We have also explored different communities’ access to these assets. What stops people from accessing them? What helps assets become more accessible?

What are Creative Health Assets 

Creative health assets might include a park, a dance club, a choir or a community centre. We have tried to understand where these assets are and what residents would appreciate more of in their neighbourhoods.

We have also examined how these assets improve people’s health and wellbeing and tackle the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on mental health and well-being.

We have also explored how creative assets work together in networks and integrate with health and care systems.

Where did this all begin?

Despite Greater Manchester’s strong people focus and forward thinking, residents in Greater Manchester have, on average, worse health outcomes than people living in other areas of the UK, both for physical and mental health. Most striking is how these poor health outcomes vary across the city region, impacting some areas and communities more than others.

To address these issues, Greater Manchester has committed to becoming the world’s first creative health city region and launched its creative health strategy in November 2022. The aim behind this is for creative and cultural activities to have a positive impact on people’s health and mental wellbeing and address health inequities.

Organisations of Hope has supported this aim by developing further understanding of Greater Manchester’s creative health assets.

Funding

Organisations of Hope was funded (2022-2023) by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). In 2021, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) established the £26 million Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Inequalities investment, which has enabled AHRC to fund several research projects that examine how to scale-up small, local approaches to tackle health inequalities. Organisations of Hope is one of these research projects.

Professor Helen Chatterjee, AHRC’s Health Inequalities Programme Director, remarked on the necessity of these projects for creating a fairer and more equitable society, that they guarantee shared infrastructure and spaces serve the entire community and play their part in addressing inequality.

"It is exciting to consider how bringing together and rethinking the use of cultural assets in these regions might change health outcomes for their communities."

Professor Helen Chatterjee / AHRC’s Health Inequalities Programme Director

University of Manchester Research Institute provided further to support to continue the work (2023-2024). 

It is exciting to consider how bringing together and rethinking the use of cultural assets in these regions might change health outcomes for their communities.

Professor Helen Chatterjee / AHRC’s Health Inequalities Programme Director