Homelessness with Fran Darlington-Pollock

A warm Mancunian welcome to all my listeners. Presenting Season 6, Episode 4 of the #MeettheMancunian #podcast #mancunian #manchester #homelessness #community #socialimpact #nonprofit #socialenterprise #worldhabitatday. I'm Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, your friendly host.

In the fourth episode, the Meet the Mancunian podcast talks to Fran Darlington-Pollock [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran-darlington-pollock-744ab124], CEO, Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity [https://gmmayorscharity.org.uk/] about tackling homelessness in Greater Manchester by providing grants to over 160 organisations working in homelessness. Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity works across 3 themes – emergency response, places and spaces and targeted prevention.

Fran shares how A Bed Every Night is a universal offer to anyone who is rough sleeping in Greater Manchester. The offer includes a bed, food, shelter, and wraparound support to help people move into more stable accommodation. It's universal and unique in Greater Manchester. She also shares how they are diversifying their fundraising and planning events that resonate with how people in Greater Manchester want to engage including walks, school campaigns and Bus Pulls.

Did you know:

· Manchester has some of the highest levels of homelessness in the UK – according to statistics published by Shelter in January 2023, Manchester ranks third-highest in the country for people experiencing homelessness per capita, with around 7,407 people (one in 74 people) experiencing homelessness. (Source: Manchester Homelessness Partnership) [https://mhp.org.uk/homelessness-in-manchester/]

· Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity played a key role in funding the establishment of the flagship 'A Bed Every Night' [https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/greater-manchester-s-expansion-of-a-bed-every-night-prevents-major-rise-in-rough-sleeping/] programme, which continues to accommodate approximately 600 people every night. This initiative has reduced rough sleeping numbers across Greater Manchester by 75% since the peak in rough sleeping in 2017.

· This episode is being released ahead of World Habitat Day [https://urbanoctober.unhabitat.org/whd#:~:text=On%202%20October%202023%2C%20the,their%20economies%20to%20benefit%20residents.] (2 October 2023), which talks about the importance of every person having a home.

Time stamps of key moments in the podcast episode & transcript:

00:04:05 sharing her passion for addressing structural inequality

00:07:10 talking about Greater Manchester Mayor's Charity

00:09:30 key focus areas as new CEO

00:11:33 some of the challenges she had to overcome

00:16:33 advice for other organisations looking to tackle homelessness

Listen to the episode and read the transcript on www.meetthemancunian.co.uk [http://www.meetthemancunian.co.uk/]