New Economy North Social #2 & Democracy Network Co-Working Day
We have two great opportunities to bring people together in September. The first is with the Democracy Network who have brought their monthly co-working day on the road and will be holding a space for those working in and on democracy or just active citizens who want to work with other likeminded citizens.
The co-working day will be on 6th September 9.30 – 5 in SODA 01.01, Digital Innovation Lab, SODA Building at Manchester Metropolitan University; you can sign up here as space is limited.
The co-working day will be followed by our next social which will take place on Wednesday 6th September from 6 – 8pm in The Grove, Grosvenor Building, Manchester Metropolitan University. You can sign up here. There’ll be refreshments and a bar where you can buy alcoholic drinks if you want.
You’re welcome to come to one or both.
New Economy North Socials are a joint venture between CLES, IPPR North, Metropolis, NEON and People’s Powerhouse. They aim to provide a space for those working in or interested in new economy practice and social change. What’s great about them is they’re in the North so it’s an opportunity for Northerners to come together share their work and thoughts.
Our second social will see us exploring: what would a manifesto for the North look like. Ahead of the party conferences what would the North’s own manifesto look like? Bring your thoughts and ideas, hear from our panel, discuss how we develop our democracy so more of us in the North have a say on decisions that affect our lives, explore who is doing interesting things in the North that the rest of us can learn from.
Speakers announced are:
Paul Dennett is the City Mayor of Salford. He was elected Councillor for Langworthy in 2012 and held the Strategic Assistant Mayor position until 2016 focusing on equalities, cohesion, technology, change, urban transformation, innovation, prosperity, growth and workforce.
Paul has a long history of campaigning on social issues and since becoming City Mayor has campaigned for equality, financial inclusion, the living wage, social value, anti poverty and critically providing the public/private environment to tackle the housing crisis.
Sacha Bedding leads the charity The Wharton Trust, a social action hub in the Dyke House area of Hartlepool. Dyke House is one of the top 2% of deprived wards in the UK. The charity is based at a community and resource centre called The Annexe, which has become a centre for resident-led regeneration.
Sacha’s work includes addressing barriers to accessing employment and training opportunities and how to counter the accompanying issues that arise when living in area of deprivation. He is also a campaign leader for the We’re Right Here, Campaign for Community Power.
Roukagia (“Ru-ka-ya”) Afan is a Manchester-based LLM Healthcare Law student of Syrian and Ukrainian heritage.
She is an award-winning activist and campaigner who works to tackle Islamophobia and create more inclusive environments which champion women and young people from global majority backgrounds. For many years, she has been pursuing her passion of accelerating social justice and change with youth and women’s NGOs across the North and internationally.
She serves on the Board of Trustees at Young Manchester as the co-Chair. More recently, she has started working as the APPG Officer for the APPG on Muslim Women. Roukagia is also the founding President of the initiative ‘Muslim Northern Women’ – a student-led society at the University of Manchester which works to challenge and dismantle Islamophobia towards Muslim women and girls.
Dr Lucy Montague is co-author of the book ‘High Street: How out town centres can bounce back from the retail crisis’ (RIBA Publishing, 2023) – the major output of a 3-year research project investigating the future of the high street through 100 case studies. She is a Senior Lecturer at Manchester School of Architecture and programme leader of the MA Architecture & Urbanism. Lucy researches widely across urban design and has particular expertise in research with, for and through practice. In 2019, Lucy founded the innovative URBED+ for research, advocacy and public engagement in urban design. She has previously held positions at The Bartlett, Huddersfield and Edinburgh, and worked internationally for consultancies in masterplanning, regeneration, retail and residential.
