1.Background

Manchester Local Care Organisation and partners including Manchester City Council, Manchester Foundation Trust, Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust are working in collaboration with the Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN) other Black-led voluntary sector organisations and local businesses in North Manchester to promote inclusion, increase residents’ voices, and strengthen community resilience.  

The objective of this initiative was to promote collaboration between multi-agencies and Black led organisations working across North Manchester in order to maximise service offers to communities and ultimately improve health outcomes.    

Many years of inequity and delayed access to local services have left the Black community with poorer health outcomes and not much input to decision making. The current COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected this community and shone a light on the historic inequalities.  

The North Manchester Inclusion Partnership  was formed approximately a year ago – groups from across North Manchester were invited and the focus was on the Black African Caribbean community. The initial reasons for the group forming were due to the detrimental health impact that covid was having to this community and the low uptake in the covid vaccination. This group would aim to build trust in the community, build connections, share key messages and try and improve health and wellbeing outcomes to those from minority backgrounds.