I am Me, You are You, We are One

FN4M works with and across all faith communities and age groups in Manchester. We work with a range of faith leaders and members of faith communities, voluntary sector and statutory sector personnel, working with a wide range of members from diverse communities. We work with faith leaders and others on a range of health, social care and well-being initiatives, as well as mental health and homelessness issues.

We have been working successfully for 16 years with grant funding from the City Council, Near Neighbours, Awards for All and the Home Office for particular projects. This funding has come to an end and we desperately need further funding to keep the Manchester Multifaith Centre open and our part-time workers employed.

Due to the Covid-19 crisis we have had to cancel public events on Safeguarding, Climate Change and a training event on suicide prevention for faith leaders. Other events bringing people together to explore each others' faith traditions around holy days and activities have been postponed or cancelled over the next couple of months. Sessions in schools have also been cancelled and others are likely to be cancelled as well.

We are looking to organise some replacement activities online at present, which include safeguarding, suicide prevention, loneliness, domestic violence and mental health needs, as well as topics relating to religious celebrations of diverse faith communities during this period. These are likely to take more time, effort and resourcefulness and we will need to involve experts in some of these fields, many of whom are working at capacity in the present circumstances. We have seen from our work in the last fortnight how much these are needed.