About this Event
Unleashed: North West
6 October 2026
11am - 3pm
Friends' Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Manchester, M2 5NS
Join the movement for change. With young people’s voices at the centre, these sessions are set to inspire creative organisations and freelancers by delving into youth-led practice and skills development. This year, we will feature a range of keynote speakers, each representing a different sector, who will share their approaches and experience of embedding youth voice in their work. Their insights will highlight the cross-over between arts and other fields, exploring what the arts sector can learn from wider practice, and equally, what unique perspectives the arts can offer in return.
Building on the success of our Reality Check online events, these sessions will provide practical guidance, resources, and useful insights. Attendees will have opportunities to learn and be inspired, network with professionals from their region, share ideas, form collaborations, and contribute to the ongoing development of the arts sector.
Please note: The sessions will take place from 11:00 to 15:00 at the following venues and dates:
- South West session: Friday, 17 April 2026 – Playland, Portsmouth
- East session: Wednesday, 17 June 2026 – The Junction, Cambridge
- North West session: Tuesday, 6 October 2026 – Friends' Meeting House, Manchester
Spaces are limited. To ensure your place, please register soon. Join us in supporting young people’s role in the arts, engaging with other sectors, and broadening creative expertise for wider benefit. For any queries, accessibility requirements, or group bookings, please contact [email protected]
Agenda
In the morning participants will hear from and have the opportunity to talk to 4 young speakers who share about their leadership and youth voice journey and what has both helped and not helped, surfacing some assumptions and mistakes that organisations and adults often make and offering practical advice on what they can really do to support young people to take the lead:
- Conor Warren (he/him) from North Devon, who set up a mental health support charity for young people when he was just 14 and now in his early 20s and is its CEO (Spark UK)
- Fatima Bangoura (she/her) from Manchester, who talks about what helped her to progress from programme participant at YouthLeads UK to employment and beyond – really good material about helping young people to get into and thrive in the workplace
- Jason Simpson (they/them) from Middleton near Manchester, who speaks about growing up in a small town with few opportunities for young people and the massive difference that an arts centre with effective outreach can have, and how best to connect with young people in meaningful ways
- Joshua Brown Smith (he / him) from London, an activist and now youth voice consultant who talks about his experiences as a young black man and his work in youth justice, and the most effective actions that organisations can take to empower young people and the traps to avoid, including ‘weaponised safeguarding’.
After a short networking break, during which you are welcome to bring your own lunch and/or talk to our young speakers, there are two practical afternoon workshops, both of which you can take part in:
- One about models of youth voice and youth leadership, which enable participants to reflect honestly on where they are in their youth voice / youth leadership practice, where they want to be and how to get there, as well as an opportunity to share their practice with others
- One about youth-led placemaking, with a focus on increasing community cohesion and belonging. This comes particularly from Artswork’s practice in this area – we enable children and young people to articulate what they love about where they live but also what could be better and how they would like to change it, before investing in them to lead and deliver that change through big creative projects. This workshop is led by two Placemaking Creative Producers (Sanna Malik and Beccy East) who enable participants to do practical work on how they could start or develop this kind of work, and again enable participants to share their existing practice with others.
Event venue & nearby stays
Friends' Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
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