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Cast your vote for the Best Community Space Spirit of Manchester Award 2016

Award criteria - Voting is now closed
A community space can be a piece of land or a building available for use by the community. Organisations needed to show:

  • Best use of a community space
  • How the space is seen as central within the community
  • The impact it has within the local community

Please read all the options below, and cast your vote at the bottom of the page. The winner will be announced in early August.
Please note: there is only one vote per person, due to the set-up of the poll only one vote can be cast per computer as a vote is identified by an IP address.

Voting opened on 1 July 2016 and closed on 31 July 2016

The winner will be invited to attend the Spirit of Manchester Awards 2016 Ceremony to receive their award. The film of the winning Best Community Space, made by our Community Reporters, will be shown on the night.

Friends of Angel Meadow
Friends of Angel Meadow (FOAM) was formed by residents in 2004 to support the regeneration of St Michael’s Flags and Angel Meadow and preserve this important historical piece of Manchester. The area has since been transformed from an abandoned site into a green retreat amid the bustle of the city.

As well as local residents, we attract interest and support from people from all over Manchester and beyond.

Activities include:
• Regular litter picking and gardening sessions
• Building and maintenance of bird and bat boxes
• Guided history walks and active social media history site
• Genealogy research into the life and histories of those buried in the park
• Community events
• Community voice - We liaise with Manchester City Council, GMP and local businesses to work together to improve the neighbourhood.
• Fundraising for all of the above

Come rain or shine members turn out to do what is needed to keep the park and the neighbourhood looking at its best and it would be a great boost for them to get recognition via this award.

Website: www.friends-of-angel-meadow.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/angelmeadow/
Twitter: @MeadowAngels


Growing in the City
Growing in the City (GITC) is a community food growing and educational project based in East Manchester. Operating from a former derelict plot of land owned by Church of the Resurrection and St. Barnabas, the community have transformed this unloved space into a vibrant community food growing garden. Today, it is a garden but much more, working with a range of users to deliver initiatives to build the capacity of the local community, and engender a real 'spirit of Manchester'!

The garden is open and accessible to range of users and supported groups from across the area. It is also home to its Men’s Shed Manchester project, a targeted activity for mid/older aged men Members share existing and learn new skills to create wildlife feeders/ shelters, build garden furniture from reclaimed wood, some which are sold to fund their group.

Through shared activity, the project overcomes social isolation, volunteering opportunities, improves self-esteem and confidence and provides a range of emotional, physical and mental wellbeing outcomes of participants.

GITC have been successful in drawing down funds to create a pocket park forest garden in the adjacent churchyard for the community to enjoy and are also starting a bee keeping project.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GrowingintheCity
Twitter: @Growinthecity


The LGBT Centre
The LGBT Centre goes above and beyond to help make people feel welcome and safe in their building. Staff are always friendly and the atmosphere is cosy and warm. No matter who you are, you will feel welcome in this space. Staff are also really happy to help you with any concerns, whether LGBT related or not. A true community resource and an invaluable support space for so many people.

The LGBT Centre is a fantastic space - a building and community centre. The building is run by the Proud Trust who does ground-breaking work supporting young LGBT people, their friends, families and allies.

The centre includes a community cafe which provides great homemade, nourishing food for those on the Oxford Road corridor at a good price with a friendly inclusive environment.

The café also offers meaningful volunteer opportunities for young people who might struggle to get work experience elsewhere. This also includes the possibility of doing outdoor work at the café organic allotment. Since the cafe has opened it continues to grow in popularity with those in the local area.

The centre also offers space to other community groups, and importantly offers a rare alcohol-free environment close and accessible in the centre of the city, crucial for some of the user groups. What's really special about this centre is the level of care that goes into everything, and the attention to the whole picture, and this includes the incredibly ambitious plans to rebuild and expand the centre in an effort to continue to secure this rather unique space in the city for generations yet to come.

Website: www.lgbtcentremcr.co.uk
Twitter: @TheProudTrust


LGBT Foundation’s Community Resource Centre

The LGBT Foundation’s Community Resource Centre is a vital part of Manchester’s LGBT Community. It is a hub for smaller, independent community organisations and societies to run their services and hold their group sessions and meetings. It allows these groups to engage with each other, develop services and working relationships that can become beneficial for themselves and their service-users.

The building is also used by larger organisations as well as being used for sexual health clinics, counselling, workshops, training and community meetings.

It is an alternative to the commercial Gay Scene and offers a quiet, respite from the chaos of the Gay Village during busy times, such as Manchester Gay Pride and Sparkle.

Although the building is in the heart of the Gay Village its entrance is discreet on Richmond Street, making it easy for nervous service-users to use. The spaces available are very safe and welcoming and are accessible to all.

The staff are friendly but professional and are always ready to try and accommodate other’s needs, often, even at short notice.

Without such a space Manchester’s Gay Village would have few alternatives to the bars and club scene and thus would be much poorer for it.

Website: https://lgbt.foundation/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheLGF/
Twitter: @LGBTfdn


Merseybank Estate Group
Merseybank Estate Group had an aspiration to build on local interest for food growing and the environment, to create a community garden 'hub' of activity. They focussed on a piece of land that had laid neglected and dormant for 30+ years, a real blight on the community, which itself is infamously a classic food desert.

The group worked on engaging the broader local community from day one; with the ethos being if local people were involved in the creation and design they would be more likely to maintain interest and manage the space. This involved not only all the legal details with the landowner and funding discussions, through to organising and facilitating public facing design workshops and actually getting their hands dirty clearing and creating the space.

They wanted to create a space that could not only be used for growing food and meeting as a community, but that also had a theme. This theme was ‘growing in recycled materials’; utilising old baths, pallets and gutters for example to grow food in. This therefore has boosted local knowledge and understanding into recycling, landfill aversion, as well as climate change and the benefits of local food.


Whitemoss Club for Young People

Whitemoss Community Centre is celebrating its' 60th anniversary (1956-2016) this year and has improved its' space over these many years.

It has expanded the internal, external and surrounding perimeter with many businesses investing and many successful grants and donations which have been pledged during last year and continually for many years which ultimately has improved the impact within the North Manchester Community. The spaces inside and outside has brought in the investment to be able to offer children, young people families and friends and our ever aging community.

Six days a week we offer our space to many local people within Charlestown (North Manchester) and we are known as the HUB within the community.

On Monday and Friday evenings there are opportunities for young and older volunteers to run activities for children aged 8-11 years to enjoy sports, arts/crafts, IT Work, music studio, sensory room activities, outdoor games, gardening and to get involved in environmental projects.

On Tuesday and Thursday evenings there are similar activities for young people aged 12-19 years and an after School Club for children aged 6-11 years. On Wednesday evenings there is football training for local teams and other local projects.

We engage and encourage children, young people and older volunteers to run sessions, such as Well Arty, Rathbone Army training and FC Utd coaching opportunities. Age Friendly Manchester runs a weekly luncheon club for 30 senior citizens, there is also a work club, monthly film show for the elderly, a base for local clean ups and the Charlestown TARA committee meetings and The Nomads local trips out to the seaside for over 500 registered North Manchester residents.

Website: https://whitemossyouth.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @WhitemossClub