Ardwick Climate Action, a group based in Ardwick, Manchester, working with University of Manchester researchers, has been recognised for its work by The Health Creation Alliance.

The Health Creation Alliance awarded the group Best health creating approach to seeking and using community insight award which they will pick up at a Partnership Summit on 21 October.

Since 2022, Ardwick Climate Action has conducted research in partnership with The University of Manchester which showed that local communities are an important way to understand where local sources of pollution are and looked at barriers to less polluting forms of travel.

They have launched multiple initiatives, including developing a green route that local people can use to avoid the excessive pollution, closing a section of the A6 for a community day and creating a series of green spaces that serve to educate and engage local people.

They connected communities with researchers, listened and responded to their health concerns, ran a series of planting projects across Ardwick and launched a new ‘Green Route’ marked by interactive ‘Wayfinders’.

The project received widespread acclaim, including extensive media coverage, parliamentary attention, a public exhibition and included the local Co-op Academy Medlock as part of the official ‘School Street’ project.

The Green Route has been integrated into a local school’s activities, showing the power of genuinely community-engaged research to drive health creation for lasting change.

One of the lead researchers, Prof. Sheena Cruickshank said: “Collaborative working between local communities and our researchers was vital to understand the barriers for active travel and the issues that most impacted residents. By engaging with communities we can promote awareness of the risks of pollution to health and do more meaningful research that best meets the needs of those most impacted by pollution.”

Dan Musaheb, Co-Founder of Ardwick Climate Action said: “Ardwick residents together with The University of Manchester researchers, have co-created solutions for healthier, safer and more sustainable urban transformation in their local area. At it’s heart is community action, and through our strategic partnership with The University of Manchester, we have delivered much needed infrastructure. The Green Route project supports public health, education of nature and biodiversity, whilst inviting people to take up alternative routes who may have never stepped into the community”.

• Read more about Ardwick Climate Action here

The Health Creation Alliance is a national cross-sector movement improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequity through Health Creation.

A not-for-profit community interest company, their membership comprises professionals from different sectors and levels of seniority, community leaders, and people with lived experience of poverty, trauma or discrimination working together as equal partners.