Category: Health and Wellbeing

We’re staring into each other’s houses. It’s about Day 23 of lockdown. “I’ve got about half an hour and then I’m manning the Covid helpline,” says Lisa.

Lisa Brown is the community builder for the Ardwick area, employed by charity Forever Manchester to make connections between people and local organisations and, well, build the community.

It was surprising to read a flyer, way back in 2014, about growing vegetables in an inner-city area, produced by a housing association which had recently taken over the local housing stock. Good luck with that!

I say ‘way back’ as so much has happened since then. There’s now a resident-led group that looks after the day-to-day management of a newly built allotment site surrounded by new or refurbished homes.

There is already a queue outside the door when I arrive. Chanelle, her mum Nita and friend Lauren are next up. “Would you like the little carrots or the big ones?” asks volunteer Linda as she accompanies Chanelle around the shelves.

“Oh, the big ones definitely,” says Chanelle.

Mo’s role at Brunswick Church has changed a lot in the the last ten years. “Back then there wasn’t that much for me to do but now I’m really busy,” she says. “The services that people could access locally have all but disappeared – places like the Citizens Advice – and so people come to us now.”