Over the past year and more, a diverse network of peer-led support groups and creative, community-rooted approaches took shape across Manchester, offering new ways to support people living with mental health challenges and their families. These initiatives prioritised relational care, lived experience, and collective learning, and emerged organically in response to gaps in statutory provision.

The event held on Saturday 4th October at Ascension Church in Hulme was shaped as a space to “share the harvest” — to reflect on what had come to fruition, explore what had been learned through the season of growth, and consider what needed to be nurtured or reimagined going forward.

Designed as an open and expressive environment, the day invited contributions through discussion, art, writing, movement, and other forms of creative or embodied communication. Rather than following a rigid structure, the agenda remained flexible, evolving in response to the ideas, emotions, and energies brought into the space.