The University of Manchester is part of the Greater Manchester Higher collaborative network along with four other universities and 12 further education colleges across the region. For eight years, our University is proud to have worked with Greater Manchester Higher to hold the Care Leaver Awards, a lively awards ceremony filled with joy and celebration that highlights the achievements of young care leavers across Greater Manchester.

Unfortunately, like many other events this year, our in-person celebration could not go ahead as we had hoped. However, we didn’t want to let the achievements of all of these brilliant young people across the region go unnoticed and so, the 2–6 November marked our first Greater Manchester Care Leavers Week #GMCLW!

We asked people from across the region to share with us the achievements and talents of care leavers in their lives and it’s safe to say that we were not short of submissions! We were overwhelmed with positive responses as stories flooded in.

All of the care leaver’s achievements were shared through our social media platforms using the hashtag #GMCLW. We celebrated young people making a difference in their community, stepping up to the frontline through the pandemic, gaining their independence, completing apprenticeships, raising money for charity and so much more!

Our congratulations were echoed as videos were submitted by actress Jennie McAlpine (better known as as Fizz from Coronation Street), poet and Chancellor of The University of Manchester Lemn Sissay MBE and charity CEO and Deputy Lieutenant of Manchester Saeed Atcha MBE.

A huge thank you goes to all of those who got involved during the week by following and sharing #GMCLW content.

If you would like to catch up on everything from the celebration week, please follow GMHigher on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For further information email gmhigher@manchester.ac.uk.