The Big Article For The Big Event 2024

So, it's about 9:50am. We've just arrived at St Peters Pavilion. The Big Event - lead by the Borough Wide Community Network - starts at 10am. We still need to set up our gorgeous little stall. As it turns out, 10 minutes is not enough to unload about a couple years worth of slick Healthwatch merch. Sorry Yemi, we probably should of listened to you when you said you wanted to plan out our trip proper. So, a slight kerfuffle later, and we're ready. The man in charge of the event gets chatting.

So, what was The Big Event all about? Well, apart from being big, it was really about connecting the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprises (VCFSE) sector all together. Meet other big figures and organizations, make some connections to help you down the road and secure some funding for your next big project from the funders speaking. Essentially, it was all about networking so everyone can work together better to make some real change in our world. A good idea, we'd say! A disorganised and uncooperative community could never make change like one who stands on a united front - which is exactly the point Wigan Council wanted to make when they gave a little presentation.

Andrea - not our Andrea, another Andrea, from the council -, the assistant director of health and wellbeing at Wigan Council was our first speaker. Her key points were simple:

1. The council needs to start working much closer with local orgs, rather than simply having a transactional relationship with the VCFSE sector

2. Life is tough right now and the future will be too, and our best route to change is each-other.  The council is going to let the VCFSE sector lead the way for change

3. In Andreas own words 'We're at the beginning, not the end - it's not a one night stand'

Essentially, the council want to help make positive change, but recognise themselves as being a barrier towards it, and they want to change. They want to foster better relations with the community. They have surveyed that pride in Wigan still exists, but it's at risk, and they want to turn that round. A good quote we caught was this little rugby analogy:

'It's easy to complain from the sidelines, but it's hard to put on the shirt and tackle'

Which, yeah, it's quite hard to disagree. As an organsiation who try and push for real change, we see this. The council themselves were met with some uproar, specifically from some of the faith sector reps, who seemed to feel their presentation was all smoke and mirrors, and what they were talking about doing was already being done by interfaith orgs. We were also introduced to their latest movement, called Progress With Unity made up various orgs like The Brick, Fur Clemt, Age UK and Groundworks (To name a few), the symbolism behind their new logo and their 2 new missions through this movement

1. Create fair opportunities for all children, families, residents and businesses

2. Make all our towns and neighborhoods flourish for all who live in then 

Health Inequalities, With Colin Greenhalgh

Next up, Colin Greenhalgh from the aforementioned Groundworks. His key point? See above. Colin dropped some very interesting statistics, like how 1/3rd of Wiganers are living in the top 20% of deprived areas, how 74% of Wigan adults are obese, how 17.4% of Wigan children live in poverty. This started a talk about the Prevention Transformation Board, and their goals for improving our health.

• Reduce smoking prevalence through full implementation of the Smokefree Wigan Plan

• •Reduce alcohol related harm by implementing a whole system approach to alcohol focused on prevention and early help. 

• Make it easier for people to eat well

• Create the conditions to make it easier for people to be active

• Help people build positive ways to improve their wellbeing and resilience by actively promoting the rich assets and opportunities that exist

• Give priority to health inequalities in our approach to prevention ensuring resident voice and lived experience is at the heart of all we do

According to Colin, there's around 30k volunteers spread across 1500 VCFSE orgs in the local area, which then lead into a talk about the Wigan Borough Accord Group, a group made up of various orgs like Wigan and Leigh Hospice, Embrace, Wigan and Leigh Community Charity and ReMade. This accord group works with the Greater Manchester accord to make real change. Their commitments being:

1. - We will work together to achieve a permanent reduction in inequalities and inequity

2. - We will embed the VCFSE sector as a key delivery partner of services for communities

3. We will build a financially resilient VCFSE sector that is resourced to address our biggest challenges

4. We will grow the role of the VCFSE sector as an integral part of a resilient and inclusive economy

5. We will build on our existing strengths to build the best VCFSE ecosystem in England

6. We will put into place meaningful mechanisms to make co-design of local services the norm

7. We will fulfil the potential for building productive relationships between the VCFSE, public and private sectors to address inequity

8. We will put in place a comprehensive workforce programme to support organisational and workforce development

After we had talks about these groups, we moved straight into the big lunch break. Can I just say, the muffins? Get them next year, or I will.

So, what's the big takeaway so far?

No, it wasn't a Subway. Essentially, there's loads of groups all working together to improve our lives. And this event? It's brought them all closer. Admittedly, these parts were definitely more for someone attending the event, but hey, makes for a mildly interesting read right? Another takeaway, especially during the lunch break is that 1. The food was great, and 2. We made a friend! Sue, from AgeUK. Hi Sue! She was sat on the stall next to ours, so she came over and joined us for our chats. Lovely woman pictured to the right who even told us about how she helps with AgeUK's local groups to get the older generation out and about - which is really something to look into if you're of that age and don't do a massive amount, they sound fun. Otherwise, we met some people from MyLifeLegacy, Church Against Poverty and Our Business.

Meet The Funders

Now we enter the second phase of The Big Event and really, the meat of it. The funders. Remember how I mentioned earlier about a big point of the event was to link up funders to organisations for social good? Well, they all gave a little speech and that's how they got matched up. I won't bog you down with too many details, we're not even at the incident with the car and the field yet, if you're interested in these funders for - well - funding, use the links provided. Otherwise, here's some recaps.

The Wigan Cultural Development Fund - Neil, the leader of this chat, told us all about how they did the 'match fund' through The Turnpike Gallery. Essentially, they have £25,000 to play with this year. If you're being funded, they can match up to £2000 of this and give you that on top. Apparently, the applications are very easy too!

Forever Manchester - This was lead by either Beth or Kelly (whoever the quirky one was.). Not Vicky, their colleague who was off ill. In their words 'shoutout Vicky'. They can provide around £1000 with plans to up this amount in the future, and mainly support grassroots organisations.

GMCVO - Led by Allison, these guys already support 83 organisations with a grand lifetime total of £5.6 million, into the Greater Manchester economy. This went on a while, but the key takeaway is if your project is high risk,get in touch.

National Lottery - I would regale you with the details, but they didn't end up attending! Maybe next time.

Duchy Of Lancaster - The Duchy (Founded in the 1300s, by the way, wow!) came to chat about royal lieutenantships, how they oversee areas for the royal family and how so much of the kings treasury actually goes into charity, charities they were looking for at this event! Essentially, apply for funding through them and you'd be getting the crown jewels (Well, maybe not).

The Heritage Fund - Also through the National Lottery, this groups focus is preserving nature and our cultural artifacts (eg. A castle!)

Last but not least, the great car kerfuffle.

Have you noticed I like the word kerfuffle yet? So, the events coming to a close, the Q&A just ended, we're packing bags with pens and bookmarks and whatever else we have to unload onto unsuspecting gift bag recipients, and it's pouring down outside. We offload some gift bags, Yemi has a quick toilet visit, and we march onwards into the car on the muddy field of a car park. Sit in, then vroom, goes the car. But it doesn't move. No, it sits still like the lazy beast it is. You see, it turns out parking on the only spot that isn't supported by a platform is a bad idea. The car is stuck and torrential rains are pouring. Sorry Yemi, we'll let you drive next time. Cue about 2 hours of Lee giggling like a mad man and Yemi putting his heart and soul into getting this car unstuck. Pushing it, putting things under it, nothing worked. We all just ended up with sodden clothes. It was getting later and later, George was taking his sweet time picking us up (Thanks though George, the effort was appreciated, but you just can't beat school traffic.) and our little angel showed up. Sam, the random man from Ram Resurfacing picking up his daughter from school who was absolutely filming us. He got a shovel, got to work and basically just pushed the car with his one hand. I do worry the we need to go to the gym. He had saved us, he was thanked and just as quick as this mythical man came, he left. He saved us, basically. Aftermath pictured. My shoes however...

So, all in all? Fun and useful event. If you're interested, we'd recommend going to the next one in 2025. But do try and keep your car out of mud. And if you want to join us in our next adventure, come volunteer with us and experience these antics first hand!