Building Community Trust in Preventive Healthcare
Our Business GM, Greater Manchester’s Directory for empowering the social economy is partnering with systems change agency, Noisy Cricket, to bring together and share learning around community-engaged healthcare.
In the wake of GMCA’s launch of the pioneering Live Well programme in 2024, and the GM Integrated Care Board’s ambition to establish the city region as a national trailblazer through the establishment of a Prevention Demonstrator, Our Business and Noisy Cricket are bringing together progressive projects and services from across the ten boroughs to help inspire current practice, encourage collaboration and inform future investment in this space.
Facilitated by Noisy Cricket’s founder, Lauren Coulman, the Co-operatives UK hosted event on Wednesday 1st October 2025 will bring together community initiatives, collective endeavours, cross-sector partnerships and place-based programmes to ensure both community and cross-sector lenses on the potential of preventative healthcare.
Designed to allow attendees to engage in meandering exploration, there’ll be diverse perspectives on offer, sharing successes, failures and practical actions to take away. Focusing on how to build trust in alternative approaches to healthcare, we’ll collectively learn about the impact of community engagement on patient outcomes and how it enhances the delivery of healthcare interventions.
With Scott Darraugh from Our Business GM and GMCA’s Eve Holt providing context on the importance of the social economy’s role in reducing pressure on the healthcare systems and improving the health of Greater Manchester’s residents, Our Business GM and Noisy Cricket’s event promises deep learning and rich inspiration on how we can better work collectively in the service of our communities.
Lunch, beverages, space to network and opportunities to openly explore building community trust in healthcare will all be provided.
SPEAKERS
Lauren Coulman | Noisy Cricket
Hosting and facilitating the shared learning event on building trust in preventive healthcare, Lauren Coulman is a social entrepreneur, systems transformation coach and consultant, and issues writer, and founded the social enterprise Noisy Cricket in 2016. Focused on creating reciprocally nurturing systems. The organisation uses a systemic approach, bringing together stakeholders across communities and sectors, to co-create innovative new solutions for society and enabling a more connected, conscious and creative world.
Kate Simpson | Social adVentures and Our Business
Opening up the conversation on building community trust, Kate Simpson is Service Director at Social adVentures, a pioneering health and wellbeing social enterprise based in Manchester. With over 15 years’ leadership experience across health, social care, and social enterprise, she has driven substantial organisational growth, service innovation, and funding success. Since 2016, Kate has led diverse adult services supporting 1,500+ people annually, embedding robust safeguarding, impact measurement, and governance systems while expanding provision into social prescribing, preventative health, and skills development. She represents Social adVentures nationally, influencing policy on cardiovascular health, diabetes, and social value measurement, and sits on multiple regional safeguarding and funding panels. Recognised for strategic insight and collaborative leadership, Kate is passionate about designing community services that achieve measurable outcomes and lasting social impact.
Eve Holt | GMCA and Live Well
Providing closing comments on preventative healthcare, GMCA’s Eve Holt works on joining dots and making things happen, across our key Greater Manchester priorities and ensuring health, equity and sustainability is at the heart of everything. A long-standing community organiser and policy-maker passionate about people, participation, place and planet. Career spans leadership in VCFSE sector as social entrepreneur and Strategic Director of Greater Manchester Moving, public office as a Manchester Councillor, and 15 years as a Public Law and Human Rights Solicitor.
Shamime Jan | Bollyfit
Bringing a community perspective to building trust in preventative healthcare, Shamime Jan is the Founder and Director of BollyFit Active CIC and BollyFit Training Ltd, organisations dedicated to empowering women through health, fitness, and wellbeing. With over 10 years of experience, she has pioneered culturally tailored programmes that address weight management, diabetes prevention, trauma awareness, and emotional healing. BollyFit’s innovative approach has been delivered in partnership with the NHS, Public Health, and GP surgeries, and is accredited by Active IQ. Passionate about tackling health inequalities, Shamime has trained and inspired women across England to become community leaders, building healthier, more confident, and more connected communities.
Darren Knight | Georges House Trust and the PASH Project
Bringing a partnership perspective to building trust in preventative healthcare, Darren Knight is the Chief Executive of George House Trust, a charity working for a world where HIV holds no one back. Darren has spent the last 20 years in the charity sector, driven by a belief in equity, inclusion, and the power of community. Darren is passionate about creating opportunities for people to thrive and ensuring that lived experience shapes change. Alongside his role at George House Trust, he serves as a trustee of Lloyd’s Bank Foundation, a trustee of the drug checking charity The Loop, and he is Chair of the Board at The Octagon Theatre.
Gemma Roberts | Bolton CVS and Unlocking Well Project
Bringing a locality perspective to building trust in preventative healthcare, Gemma Roberts is part of the Unlocking Wellbeing in Bolton partnership, bringing together voluntary and statutory sectors to improve support for carers in Bolton. Through collaboration, Unlocking Well identified key challenges and shaped Bolton’s Carers Strategy, driving real system change. Using sports and arts, the partnership have found creative ways to reach hidden carers and address health inequalities. Stronger governance, a new data pipeline, and carer-led leadership ensure carers’ voices are central at every level. With an Empathy Charter and key worker model, Unlocking Well have engaged hard-to-reach communities and strengthened assessments, with more carers identified, lasting system improvements, and a legacy of collaboration which is transforming support across Bolton.
For more information on the event, contact enquiries@ourbusinessgm.co.uk or hello@noisycricket.org.uk.
