Healthy Me Healthy Communities has been providing neighbourhood health and wellbeing services to people across Manchester since 2012.
Rich Browning set up Healthy Me Healthy Communities (HMHC) in 2012 after a long history in the statutory sector, working in adult education and public health.
Here he shares our vision and the personal experiences that spurred him on to set up a social enterprise that would help people overcome poverty social exclusion and discrimination.
He moved to Manchester in 2003 after growing up in North Staffordshire and believes it was his childhood there that spurred him on to set up a community interest company that would help people overcome social exclusion and discrimination.
That opportunity came just over 12 years ago when he got an offer of voluntary redundancy and decided to start building community engagement and development projects in Fallowfield, Longsight and Rusholme. One of the early successes was a film club offering screenings and socials for people in the area who were experiencing loneliness.
The momentum started to grow.
Building on the success of our first Community Grocer in 2015, we received further investment from the housing association, One Manchester, resulting in our first member of staff. Then Manchester Health Care and Commissioning gave us their first big contract. Both were key milestones in the business as Rich explains:
I wasn’t salaried for the first three to four years, and it was only when investment was secured that I could get paid. The investment meant we were able to bring in a deputy and a project manager, and we haven’t looked back since.
One of the Community Grocer projects was at Gorton Community Centre, where we started delivering food services in 2017. The centre, which was run at the time by local volunteers, closed during the pandemic and afterwards there was an opportunity to reopen and use the space to help people living with mental health issues, as well as older people in the community. Gorton Central was born – another of our milestones.
Over £1 million in investment has been secured since then and there are some ambitious plans for the HQ since we took on a 25-year lease from Manchester City Council in January.
It is Rich’s drive to alleviate food poverty that led him to his recent appointment as Vice-Chair of the Manchester Food Board, which brings together decision- makers from across Manchester’s economic, health, environment, housing, farming and social sectors to look at how food can be used to bring about positive, meaningful and lasting change for a sustainable food system. But, most importantly, what we will be working towards is making a big impact on people's lives and creating lasting change for communities. It feels as if there is a real drive now and something special is happening to make Manchester fairer for all.
