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On Friday 5 June, I was excited to volunteer in support of â€™&²Ô²ú²õ±è;³Ù±ð²Ô³Ù³ó&²Ô²ú²õ±è;¹ó±ð²õ³Ù¾±±¹²¹±ô.&²Ô²ú²õ±è;±õ’v±ð&²Ô²ú²õ±è;²ú±ð±ð²Ô â€™s Graduate Intern for eight months, having completed an MA in History in 2025. In my role, I’ve supported the delivery of Creative Manchester’s communications and engagement goals through a number of research-focused events and activities.

Engagement with community organisations is central to Creative Manchester’s strategy. Through partnerships with cultural institutions and community organisations, including Manchester Histories, the Platform supports the University’s commitment to social responsibility as a civic university.

Manchester Histories is a charity that works collaboratively with communities across the city to share their diverse histories. Their festival, held every two years, is a unique celebration of the city’s heritage and histories, with the tenth edition taking on â€˜Civic Pride’ as its central theme. The theme proved worthy of a landmark celebration, giving the festival a strong sense of place and belonging. With talks ranging from Manchester’s urban development to its musical and club histories, the day was a valuable reappraisal of the lesser-known histories that shape Manchester’s civic identity. 

My role focused primarily on supporting the festival’s delivery through attendee check-in and stewarding. Meeting so many people, each bringing their own perspective on history but joined in celebration, was an amazing experience. This included my fellow volunteers - some new, some vastly experienced in volunteering across Manchester’s cultural institutions and communities. What was clear to see, and what made the experience so enjoyable, was the community built around the festival and the wider histories it promoted. 

The culmination of the day was the screening of a film celebrating the community legacy of the Champs Camp boxing gym in Moss Side. Champs Camp was the UK’s first Black boxing gym, founded in the 1980s as a response to social deprivation and unrest in the area. Since 2025, a  led by University of Manchester Professor Hannah Barker and Rachel Hetherington at Manchester Histories has sought to reaffirm the legacy of the gym by creating a permanent archive. The project sheds light on the gym’s continued impact on Moss Side’s communities, an impact that spans generations and the wider region. The audience - characterised by its diverse, multi-generational makeup - was given a glimpse of the vast work that has gone into this project in collaboration with the community surrounding the gym. 

The aims of the archival project are numerous - digitised tapes of bouts, oral histories, a new website to host the project, and an open day held on Saturday 6 June - are outcomes that prioritise community engagement through active participation. However, the most exciting example of community collaboration within the project was the film debuted at the festival. Co-created by students from , which supports young people from Moss Side through a wide cultural curriculum, the Champs Camp film demonstrates the gym’s continued role as a safe space for young people in the area. Heritage has the power to be inclusive, to preserve and regenerate the legacies of community spaces for generations to experience together. 

History has always fascinated me, not simply as a record of the distant past, but as something more tangible in the present: something that helps shape how communities understand themselves. It has enormous potential for social inclusion and civic belonging, especially at a local level. Seeing the communities that Manchester Histories support through their engagement work was inspiring. Volunteering also introduced me to a community and an inclusive, welcoming environment that I hope to remain connected with.  

ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½ offers all employees up to three days of special leave for volunteering purposes in line with its Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement Plan. To find out more about getting involved, visit the  or email volunteering@manchester.ac.uk.