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Live Well Community Fund

JULY 2025

What?  

With £80,000 of Live Well funding from Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Bolton CVS and Bolton Public Health team are trailing a new community-led approach to tackle health inequalities and enable people to Live Well.  

Where?  

Working with our colleagues in Bolton Public Health’s team we collectively identified the area of focus to be Bolton Central South Neighbourhood. Looking at this neighbourhood through data-lenses shows it is an area that experiences the most health inequalities.   

Who? 

The Live Well Design Group is made up of local residents, active community members, people who work in the neighbourhood and statutory organisations. So far, they have been tasked with: 

  1. Figuring out what the key priorities are for this neighbourhood 
  1. Figuring out what’s missing 
  1. Asset mapping what is working well and who is already doing great work  

With £40,000 of the Live Well funding, they’ll decide who and how to distribute funding to Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise organisations and groups (VCSE) working in Bolton Central South, based on what the Design Group feel is most needed.  

Why?  

We hope that by handing over decision-making power to the local community, who know their area and the experiences of people living there, we will develop the best solutions to support people to Live Well. 

We already see glimpses of this through receiving comments like: 

“This way of working is something that has been needed for a long time in Bolton” – VCSE Leader at engagement sessions 

“It’s amazing that you have managed to get so many people in the same room with a shared goal and purpose” – Design Group member at a Design Jam session  

“I’m going to say this session has made me feel a bit disconnected – but let me explain – I mean, disconnected from the old ways of working! This new way of working is what we need in this community to build cohesion and develop interconnectedness” – Design Group member at a Design Jam session 

When?  

This pilot project kicked off in early 2025 and will run until summer 2026. With very short timeframes and key decisions needing to be reached, The Design Group have met for a Design Jam session, roughly, every 2 weeks. They have been working extremely hard and at pace to ensure people in their communities can be given opportunities to Live Well and thrive. 

How?  

After much deliberation, our Design Group have collectively come up with the following priorities for this neighbourhood:  

  1. Activities for young people (not just social, activities where young people can learn or develop skills) 
  1. Activities to tackle isolation 
  1. Activities that promote being active 
  1. Activities that promote community cohesion 

For the Design Group, community cohesion means bringing together people of different ages, cultures, ethnicities, religions, and abilities. It’s about connecting people to reduce isolation, working together in the best interest of the community, and creating a real sense of belonging for the people that live here. That means learning to trust one another and seeing our differences as strengths, not barriers. 

Decisions have been made on how to best utilise the £40,000. The Design Group have decided:  

The Final Decisions

The Design Group decided to split the funding between:

Bolton CVS will be approaching the organisations identified shortly.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this pilot program – you are all amazing! We are very excited to see where our discussions take us next and continue working with you to enable a stronger, more resilient VCSE sector.   

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