2025/26
Our impact
2025/26 Our impact
What we do
Learning
Our learning programme offers a quality, exciting, and varied timetable of courses and activities. It’s designed around the subjects members want to learn about, including a focus on essential skills, life skills, pre-employment skills, psycho-education and creative activities.
523 people took part in learning activities
Support
Tailored support from a caseworker to people who can benefit from guidance in a particular area such as wellbeing, employability, or moving on from convictions. We also provide wraparound support for those experiencing severe forms of disadvantage.
714 people accessed 1:1 support
Community
Our community of members and volunteers is a safe, inclusive space where people feel they belong and make a fresh start. Members can talk to staff about challenges they are facing, meet people from all kinds of backgrounds and make connections safely.
1353 people made up our community
Influencing
We believe we can take positive action to make things fairer. We are committed to using our expertise and the voices of our members to bring about positive change. We do this through joining forums, speaking at events, talking to policymakers and delivering training.
We reached over 1000 sector professionals
Our work in context
The map below shows the home postcodes of our 1138 members in 2025/26. It's evidence that people came to Back on Track from all parts of Greater Manchester.
We believe many people are not given a fair chance. We believe in a Greater Manchester where inequalities are reduced, where people lead fulfilling lives, communities are safe, and all voices are heard. And we believe we can take positive action to make things fairer.
How change happens
We use our own outcomes measurement tool which captures change on a number of metrics - and the impact our support is having on the individual.
It’s based on our theory of change - that long-term change can start to happen when people make small, achievable changes in areas like social connections, sense of safety and self-image.
Our data shows that people rate themselves significantly higher in these factors after just a few months of support.
Learning
We believe learning is a gateway to progress
in all aspects of life.
Our timetable of free courses is the heart of our work. In 2025 we introduced a host of exciting new projects, as well as old favourites like cookery, creative arts and walking.
There were so many highlights, from poetry to exploring local canals. One group even wrote and acted in their own short film, which was premiered at Home cinema. And in feedback members told us they wanted more physical and fitness activities, so we introduced yoga to the timetable. We stepped up our digital support. We ran drop-ins to teach people how to set up their devices and use apps, so they could use tech at home.
It was a big team effort - many courses were run in partnership with organisations, and we couldn’t have done it without our brilliant volunteers.
Spotlight
Art in the park
Spotlight
Art in the park
More than 60 of our members worked on a project about the history of three parks near our centre in Ancoats: Phillips Park, Queens Park, and Sandhills.
With help from local historians, friends of the parks, and park rangers, our members found all kinds of information about how the parks were created, why they’re so important for their communities, and how people have used them over the last 150 years.
Then they got creative! They produced artwork, poems, and personal stories in response to what they found. But they didn’t stop there.
They also helped to create a website where they told the story of the project and parks and showed off some of their creative work. They also installed posts in the parks, so that anyone visiting can find the website and find out more for themselves!
“The project was a huge leap forward I made doing something very new - It was a very special moment I'll cherish forever!”
“The project was a huge leap forward I made doing something very new - It was a very special moment I'll cherish forever!”
Support
We believe everyone has potential and something to offer.
In 2025 we provided one-to-one support to 714 people who needed extra tailored support. We opened our new support hub in our extended premises where members can participate in creative activities and meet their individual project worker to work on particular goals.
This year, we also extended our range of support services with a new employment programme known as Trailblazer which helped 75 people to remove the additional barriers they face to get into work.
Like our other support projects, these programmes work because members can build trust with their dedicated “navigator” who is on hand to guide them through the challenges they face.
Spotlight
Trailblazer
Spotlight
Trailblazer
For many people who are supported on our employability programmes, work can seem a long way off. People like Lucy.
For her, building stability was the vital first step. Neurodivergent, living with a long-term health condition, and with a history of problematic substance use, Lucy needed a consistent, person-centred approach, with particular sensitivity to change, trust, and routine. These are at the heart of all the support we provide.
With the help of her Back on Track keyworker, Lucy has put together an impressive list of achievements already! She’s improved her money awareness, appointment management, and daily organisation, as well as her confidence in social settings. She’s also developed important skills for work, such as communication, teamwork, and self-reflection.
These are the essential foundations for future progression into further learning, volunteering or employment, together with the motivation that our members gain from seeing those gradual steps build into real progress.
For many people who are supported on our employability programmes, work can seem a long way off. People like Lucy.
For her, building stability was the vital first step. Neurodivergent, living with a long-term health condition, and with a history of problematic substance use, Lucy needed a consistent, person-centred approach, with particular sensitivity to change, trust, and routine. These are at the heart of all the support we provide.
With the help of her Back on Track keyworker, Lucy has put together an impressive list of achievements already! She’s improved her money awareness, appointment management, and daily organisation, as well as her confidence in social settings. She’s also developed important skills for work, such as communication, teamwork, and self-reflection.
These are the essential foundations for future progression into further learning, volunteering or employment, together with the motivation that our members gain from seeing those gradual steps build into real progress.
“I am in such a better position than I was this time last year. I don’t want to be bed rotting again, and I won’t because I know I have support and classes to come back to.”
“I am in such a better position than I was this time last year. I don’t want to be bed rotting again, and I won’t because I know I have support and classes to come back to.”
Community
We believe that when people feel safe and find connection they can thrive.
Our members have very different journeys, backgrounds and stories, but were all brought to Back on Track by their experience of multiple disadvantage. Together with our team of brilliant volunteers they form a unique, vibrant and diverse community.
A series of cultural celebration days, promoting tolerance and countering division, were a highlight to many people.
Crucially our team provided the extra support that people need to be able to keep attending - things like mental health, debt and housing issues.
Our cafe remained the heart of the community. We formed a brilliant new partnership with our local Aldi, who made twice weekly donations of food - fighting food poverty and reducing waste.
Spotlight
Member welfare
Spotlight
Member welfare
What’s in a name? Our “duty officers” are on shift every morning and every afternoon to provide support with whatever might arise in our learning centre that day. That might make their role sound dull. Far from it.
Sometimes it’s a worrying letter a member has received from an agency or professional. Sometimes it’s simple support to log into an email account or a new phone. Sometimes it’s someone who’s really struggling with their mental health. Where we can help, we do, and where we aren’t qualified or able to do so, we’ll help find someone who can.
That support is the special ingredient that makes our members feel included in our community. Being there for them creates the trust that makes them feel comfortable and gives them a vital sense of belonging.
Wellbeing support, life skills advisor, community champion: our duty officers are the glue that bind our community together.
What’s in a name? Our “duty officers” are on shift every morning and every afternoon to provide support with whatever might arise in our learning centre that day. That might make their role sound dull. Far from it.
Sometimes it’s a worrying letter a member has received from an agency or professional. Sometimes it’s simple support to log into an email account or a new phone. Sometimes it’s someone who’s really struggling with their mental health. Where we can help, we do, and where we aren’t qualified or able to do so, we’ll help find someone who can.
That support is the special ingredient that makes our members feel included in our community. Being there for them creates the trust that makes them feel comfortable and gives them a vital sense of belonging.
Wellbeing support, life skills advisor, community champion: our duty officers are the glue that bind our community together.
“I feel like a real person again compared to before coming to Back on Track, when I was really isolated.”
“I feel like a real person again compared to before coming to Back on Track, when I was really isolated. It’s a safe place to come to where people accept me as I am.”
Influencing
We believe that we can take positive action to make things fairer.
Members of our community face so many barriers - like unfair recruitment practices and services that don’t take their needs into account. One of our key strategic aims is to use our position to change things for the better.
2025 saw us signficantly ramp up our influencing work - speaking at conferences, delivering training and working with academics to capture and share the impact of our work. We even took our message into local schools, raising awareness of our work with teenagers through the First Give programme.
We delivered training on subjects including trauma awareness and fair recruitment to over 150 sector professionals including teams from local authorities, housing groups and charities.
The future is getting more of our community involved and to bring employers on board the inclusive employment movement.
Spotlight
Voices for Change
Spotlight
Voices for Change
We’re passionate about driving meaningful change in employment. We also know that change that reflects people’s lived experience cannot happen without their voices at the centre.
A group of our members came together for a series of sessions to discuss what inclusive employment looks like, create artworks, and design awareness training.
The result was Voices for Change. It’s a multi-format guide that comes from real experiences, real barriers, and real things that would have made a difference in the past – and that can make a difference now.
The guide is designed to be practical, honest, and easy to use. We want employers to see that inclusive employment isn’t complicated, and it doesn’t require huge changes – just small, thoughtful actions that benefit everyone.
Over the next 12 months our members are going to take their training out to more employers, spreading the word and creating real opportunities for fair work.
“Being in this group has made me feel uplifted and motivated me towards continuing with my volunteering and into employment.”
We’re passionate about driving meaningful change in employment. We also know that change that reflects people’s lived experience cannot happen without their voices at the centre.
A group of our members came together for a series of sessions to discuss what inclusive employment looks like, create artworks, and design awareness training.
The result was Voices for Change. It’s a multi-format guide that comes from real experiences, real barriers, and real things that would have made a difference in the past – and that can make a difference now.
The guide is designed to be practical, honest, and easy to use. We want employers to see that inclusive employment isn’t complicated, and it doesn’t require huge changes – just small, thoughtful actions that benefit everyone.
Over the next 12 months our members are going to take their training out to more employers, spreading the word and creating real opportunities for fair work.
“Being in this group has made me feel uplifted and motivated me towards continuing with my volunteering and into employment.”
thanks to our funders
National Lottery Community Fund
Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Manchester City Council
The Growth Company
Henry Smith Foundation
Albert Gubay Foundation
The Charity Service
Garfield Weston Foundation
Newby Trust
Tangerine Trust
Historic England
Openwork Foundation
Edward Holt Trust
Procure Plus
CRH Charitable Trust
Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust
29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
Criffel Charitable Trust
Rest 22
Co-op Local Community Fund
Edward Holt Trust
Procure Plus
