Gorton Hub Community Engagement Project
“Working together to help everybody in Gorton live well.”
About the Gorton Hub Community Engagement Project
Between Autumn 2026 and early summer 2027 Shared Future are coordinating a community engagement and system change project at Gorton Hub. Funded as part of Manchester’s Live Well initiative, the aim is that the Hub becomes the best possible resource for local residents to live well.
This means creating opportunities for social connection and ensuring access to support that promotes better health and wellbeing, education, housing and financial stability. A Hub where residents and community organisations will also play an increasingly active role in shaping decisions about how the Hub operates and the services it provides.
Find out more about the project at the bottom of this page.
As the project develops there will be a number of ways you can get involved. Such as joining one of the Action Learning Sets, being on the Co-design group, or becoming a Community Reporter. We’ll be updating the ‘Take Part’ section immediately below with opportunities as they come up.
Take Part In…
Action Learning
Starting this September you will be able to register to join one of our Action Learning Sets.
Register to join an Action Learning Set below.
PLEASE NOTE: We cannot accept any more registrations after the 22nd October 2026.
If you need to register another way, you can email us.
We are also running a Lunchtime Online Information session about Action Learning on Monday 5th October.
Join us by registering at this link.
Still undecided? For more information on other ways to get involved, find out more below:
More information about this project
Click on the boxes to open them and find out more!
Gorton Hub opened almost four years ago to bring together a range of services under one roof to make it easier for people to access support. The centre is well used with lots of visitors and community activities every week.
New funding through the Live Well programme gives us the chance to build on that foundation. We have an opportunity to deepen the relationships between the services and partners working in the building, and to open up new ways for residents and the community to shape how the hub develops.
This coincides with other developments already under way. The area’s wider housing and regeneration plans, the Pride in Place programme, and physical improvements to the Hub itself, including a new community cafe and the potential of an NHS community diagnostic and treatment facility, opening on the top floor.
Together, these create real momentum, and this programme will help make sure that this translates into stronger relationships and a building that works even better for everyone who uses it.
Shared Future CIC is an independent Manchester based organisation, experienced in democratic participation and community empowerment.
Over six months we will be working with residents and services co-located in the Hub to explore what a stronger, more active community role in shaping the building’s future could look like.
Supported by Manchester City Council’s Live Well funding, we’ll be starting by convening a co-design group. This will be a group of people who know the Hub, the area and the services well. Non-salaried people taking part will be remunerated for their time. The co-design group will act as our guides, advisors and keep the project to account, ensuring activities are relevant and appropriate.
Our first step is a series of one-to-one conversations with the Hub’s service providers including:
● JobCentrePlus
● Gorton Medical Centre and Manchester Local Care Organisation
● One Manchester
● Gorton Library
● Manchester Adult Education Service
● Manchester City Council
● Local VCFSE Organisations
These conversations will help us to:
● Understand the great engagement already happening, and where there’s appetite to do more.
● Map out how decisions get made across the building, and where community perspectives could add real value.
● Identify who else should be part of the conversation as the programme develops.
From there, after establishing the co-design group, two connected strands will bring energy and momentum to the programme:
● An Action Learning programme with community leaders, residents and staff. Action Learning brings diverse people together to work through issues, share ideas and challenge perceptions in a trusting, supportive environment.
● A Community Reporter project, using creative storytelling to capture how residents and the wider community see and experience the Hub today — surfacing great stories as well as fresh ideas.
This initial stage of the programme will close with a co-production event where the learning from the project will be shared. A diverse range of stakeholders will come together to develop proposals on how to embed Live Well’s principles of community participation and leadership into the next era of Gorton Hub.
The work is being led by Jez Hall, Caroline Tosal-Suprun and Amanda Preece from Shared Future CIC.
If you want more information about this project, in the first instance contact Jez on 07963 706106 or by emailing jez.hall@sharedfuturecic.org.uk.
You can also download our 2 page project explainer (PDF format)
We’d love to hear from you.