One Month Since Choose for Cheetham!

A month ago, over 200 young people, their families, and community members came together at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Cheetham Hill to decide how £230,000 should be invested in their community. This was a BIG moment in the Hope for Cheetham project, a youth initiative driven by local people in Cheetham Hill that aims to support every child and young person in the area to achieve their hopes and ambitions.

Hope for Cheetham is supported by national funders, the Youth Endowment Fund and the #iwill Fund, who are interested in enabling youth activities that reduce the risk of involvement in violence or crime while encouraging social action and positive contributions to the community and the environment.

The ‘Hope for Cheetham Fund’ was developed through consultations with local children and young people, who outlined their priorities for investment, including safety, arts, sports, and career development opportunities. Beyond this, they also voiced their views on how funding decisions should be made. Many young people highlighted the difficulty of judging projects solely on written applications and stressed the importance of hearing directly from the applicants themselves. In response, we designed a participatory process that culminated in Choose for Cheetham.

The event saw 21 youth-focused projects - from mentoring schemes and cooking classes to AI workshops and steel-pan music sessions - pitch their ideas to an audience of over 200 local young people and community members. At Choose for Cheetham, young people had the opportunity to interact with market stalls run by the applying organisations, hear presentations, and vote for their four favourite projects. This youth vote was supplemented by an additional community vote later in the week, ensuring the decisions were made by the people who matter most: those who live and work in Cheetham Hill.

The result? A genuinely youth-driven funding process, designed by the community for the community. This participatory approach ensures that resources are allocated where they’re most needed. It’s not just about funding projects—it’s about empowering young people, fostering collaboration, and strengthening community connections. One participant captured it perfectly: “It’s how it should be—giving young people a voice, exactly what they deserve.”

With £230,000 to distribute and over £500,000 worth of applications, the young voters had some tough decisions to make. But through their collective decision-making, they helped decide which projects would receive funding. Congratulations to the following organisations who have secured funding for the next year to deliver their projects in Cheetham Hill:

• Abraham Moss Primary School: After-school and holiday clubs; outdoor forest school; parental support for parents of children with SEND and self-protection classes for young women.

• Abraham Moss Warriors: 5 projects designed by young people – a youth club for over 55s, school buddies peer support project, homework support, junior park run and monthly bulb planting, gardening and litter picks.

• Bike It Walk It CIC: Cycling and road safety sessions, access to nature sessions and DIY sessions teaching repairs for bikes and personal items

• Groundwork GM: Achievement coaching, an open access youth club and environmental social action

• Guidance Hub: Leadership, campaigning and team building sessions for young girls from a south Asian or BME background.

• Iziko Next Gen: ‘Black Girls World Club’ - inspirational talks, socials, life skills and cultural enrichment sessions for black and BME girls.

• Muslim Northern Women x Al-Hilal: ‘Riyah Cheetham Programme’ for Muslim girls and young women to inspire confidence and tackle Islamophobia.

• New Testament Church of God: ‘Cheetham Youth Steel Band’ workshops teaching steel pans, including history, culture and performances.

• One Million Mentors: School based 1-2-1 mentoring for 70 young people.

• Wai Yin Society: After school maths and English support, holiday activities and safe spaces for new migrant families.

This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a lasting change in how funding is distributed in our community. Choose for Cheetham is proof that when young people are trusted to take the lead, incredible things happen. We look forward to seeing how these projects will shape the future of Cheetham Hill!