Empowering youth through play with Ryan Miemczyk

Meet the Mancunian-10.7-Ryan Miemczyk transcript

Intro

[00:00:00] Hello listeners and welcome to season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester. I'm your host, Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, offering you a warm Mancunian welcome.

[00:00:14] I'm delighted to bring to you Season 10 where I celebrate social impact community heroes across Manchester. I hope dear listener, you can learn from their life experiences, the challenges they've overcome and their passion for their cause. My aim for the Meet the Mancunian podcast is to encourage you to live your life with purpose and impact, inspired by the stories my guests share every Tuesday throughout the season.

[00:00:40] You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or my website www.meetthemancunian.co.uk. Get ready for another season full of thought-provoking conversations and life changing stories.

Episode 7: Meet Ryan Miemczyk

[00:00:54] Welcome to the seventh episode of Season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester.

[00:01:03] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Passionate about supporting the youth? We hear from Ryan Miemczyk, Chair of Trustees, Manchester Young Lives in this episode.

[00:01:10] In Ryan's own words.

[00:01:12] Ryan Miemczyk: We are getting much clearer as a charity as to what we think we empower young people with. In my day job, I talk about impact being the thing that those young people achieve by themselves, whereas the outcomes are the things that we are trying to achieve in partnership with them. So those are the changes in strengths, assets, or capabilities. And for us, those changes are improvements in social connection, employability skills, improved feelings of safety, increases in self-esteem, happiness, wellbeing.

[00:01:41] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much, Ryan, for joining me today. Excited to hear all about the good work that you're doing to support the youth.

Ryan's Journey into Youth Support

[00:01:47] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: So, what sparked your interest in supporting the youth? Was there some defining moment in your journey?

[00:01:53] Ryan Miemczyk: I think my own personal journey; I've been within the social space since I was about 17. So, we're now some 20 odd years onwards. I worked in mental health units. I've worked as an appropriate adult. I've worked for the NSPCC on their helpline, neuro rehab wards, you name it.

[00:02:14] I've done that area of work, and seeing the challenges faced by younger people who are in a position where they're developing, and overcoming those, I think really set the trajectory. So passionate that we support them in the best way possible and that links quite to, my professional space, and also my sort of volunteering space. And it links well with my personal passion, which is sports.

[00:02:38] So the link between Manchester Young Lives and all of that just seems perfect and appropriate. And obviously Manchester Young Lives is there to help support and develop those young people through play.

[00:02:49] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's really great to hear how it started and how you're bringing your passion for youth and sports together.

Manchester Young Lives: History and Mission

[00:02:56] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: But tell us more about how you got involved with Manchester Young Lives and what does it do?

[00:03:00] Ryan Miemczyk: I'm going to do it a disservice here possibly. We are over 50 odd years old. I took over chairing Manchester Young Lives from a really committed group of individuals who had been there from the very start. So, we were lucky enough that I've got some real world experience of adventure playgrounds.

[00:03:19] We had numerous sites. We now have three, which but these were of created from slum clearances in Manchester back in like 1960s. And they were literally youth workers and people going out and making space for play and recreation, and they've got the children involved building these structures in terms of swing slides, that sort of thing out of the materials that are available.

[00:03:42] So there's some incredible history to this kind of community involvement, this spirit of bringing people through collaboration and pay. And again, there's amazing people at the end of every charity that I'm fortunate to be involved with or work with who are just trying to do the right thing. And I think that really shines through in the spirit of Manchester Young Lives. I got involved. And that kind of collaborated all in one in approach.

[00:04:05] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And do you to talk a little bit about what the offer is? Is it all about, like you said, play and collaboration? What does that mean? And what age group are you targeting?

[00:04:14] Ryan Miemczyk: We have quite a varied offer at the moment. Our core improving people's lives. So empowering young people through play and recreation. Over the past number of years, we've swayed into the alternative education provision. And that was difficulties engaging people and education doesn't fit for all people at all times. And we wanted to be able to utilise some of the skills we had to do that.

[00:04:41] We were a registered school for a while. We've moved aside from that and moved that into more about employment and moving children in or joining young people into most successful used provision at the moment. But I would say that our core delivery, the stuff that we really want to focus on is to bring people back to play and recreation.

[00:05:02] I think we had up to 4,000 children a year using those services a couple of years ago. Obviously, we dipped off during the pandemic and we're returning to levels similar. And that's really important. It gives so many opportunities. I talk in my day job about purpose and the activities that we do is delivering free time space to be sociable, to learn those skills of interaction that maybe aren't as easy to come by. And like I think it's incredibly valuable to provide that space away from formalised education where kids can just be kids to be quite honest.

[00:05:36] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's lovely to hear about both the employability and like you said, the play element, which is so important when we live in a computerised, mobile centric, TV focused world.

Challenges and Impact

[00:05:48] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What are some of the obstacles you've had to overcome in your work? What are the big challenges?

[00:05:54] Ryan Miemczyk: I think your listeners probably know the answer to this. As usual, it's about funding. Often, it's about sustainable funding. Funders are very keen to help out and to provide a source of funding to help with certainty year in year out of chasing that funding. Anything for me that takes you away from what your core purpose is a bit of a distraction.

[00:06:15] So I think one of the big things for us was the pandemic. The silver lining to it is that people, as I say, came together. They gave generously, they helped out after that went away. And it's difficult to not get just sucked into that chasing support and cash.

[00:06:32] We are incredibly lucky. We do have strong supporters. Little jobs that really do make a difference. Painting walls, putting struts up in the adventure playground to make them safe again so that the kids can actually be there and play and can do it in a safe manner. So every little does help, but that is one of the biggest challenges, making sure that we're getting out there and being able to deal with the demand that is very prevalent at this moment in time.

[00:06:57] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: We do hear that a lot and we totally understand as well.

[00:07:02] What is the impact that you would say that you've made so far? You've talked a little bit about the stories and please feel free to share some of the impact.

[00:07:11] Ryan Miemczyk: Keen to do is empower those children to achieve their potential. We are getting much clearer as a charity as to what we think we empower young people with. In my day job, I talk about impact being the thing that those young people achieve by themselves, whereas the outcomes are the things that we are trying to achieve in partnership with them.

[00:07:30] So those are the changes in strengths, assets, or capabilities. And for us, those changes are improvements in social connection, employability skills, improved feelings of safety increases in self-esteem, happiness, wellbeing. Can be a big one. Just having a safe space to be and to exist in. So we think we affect all of those elements. And increasing improving them, that leads to them achieving better life trajectories and going off and actually achieving what they want to achieve.

[00:08:00] As I say, that for me is the impact down the line. Equally there is short term wins that are somewhat intangible. But they are the stories. Just hearing some of the children we work with, can't afford football boots, for example, and they end up in a position where we're able to provide some of that through some of the funding that we get through our partners in We Love Manchester and the Manchester Council. And they end up going and playing for local football teams or academies and things like that and achieving and living sort of their dreams. And that couldn't have happened without some of the support.

[00:08:32] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's really impactful and I love that. The football boots, like you said, it's an enabler. It just allows them to go and follow their dreams and also all the things that you've talked about. I love it about happiness but also increased confidence and self-esteem. It's really important because young people need these social skills to succeed in the world. And you're helping with that.

Misunderstandings and Buzzwords

[00:08:55] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Is there something that some people have often misunderstood about the field you work in that you'd like to maybe myth bust.

[00:09:01] Ryan Miemczyk: It's more a case, I think being slightly too far aside from the field to fully understand and appreciate the challenges that exist. One of the biggest issues I think I have, and I mentioned that I'm a keen listener to your podcast. And that episode with Matt Richardson on social value, he started talking about the use of buzzwords and things like that.

[00:09:22] And in my day job, they get thrown around quite frequently. And people, it's about resilience. It's about the impact of changes being brought about in plain English, and also to make sure it's in the language that's appropriate to the person. And one of the biggest buzzwords that really me every time I hear it, is about deprivation. Everybody talks about deprivation now because of the government work that took place.

[00:09:43] And it's an easy way of us tying a post code to title of this is a really deprived area. But that doesn't, it's not money. It's not necessarily cash that changes that. We talk about ' a poverty of opportunity' and changing a poverty of opportunity is way more difficult than just throwing money at a problem.

[00:10:02] It's about giving people access to good schooling, removing the fear of crime, about improving access to healthcare. But to achieve them, it's incredibly difficult to do so because they require infrastructure, they require resource, they require support, they require understanding and knowledge and motivation as well to act. So I think that's probably the biggest one that I think I would highlight for some of the listeners, which is it doesn't stop at deprivation, it stops at plain English and explaining what that actually means.

[00:10:33] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I really like that about the poverty of opportunity as something to think about and how the community can come together, the business, government, public sector, individuals, volunteers to help with those opportunities. Not everything can be solved, of course, through the community, but it makes it a little more tangible.

[00:10:53] Whereas if you say it's a deprived area, okay, fine, what can I do? But, maybe people don't have reading facilities. We can create a community library. That feels more real.

[00:11:02] Ryan Miemczyk: It's very real. And you've reminded me of a story from NSPCC. And we talked about disincentivised marginals of people who are on the outside who you want to engage, but you can't quite do it.

[00:11:14] By all means, you can pay money towards, their travel and things like that. And one of the examples we'd had was where we cited the NSPCC's Manchester branch. And one of the issues we had was moving children to and from places wasn't necessarily the cost of it because we know bus fares in Manchester are incredibly cheap.

[00:11:31] But actually what happens if that is three buses and, four hours and they've got to change. That's the bit about making it available for everybody and the poverty of opportunity potentially playing a really big impact and actually getting people to those appointments so they can engage and improve and, learn.

[00:11:48] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Absolutely. Like you said, it's all down to the real experience of people. It's all very well to say we've got the scheme, but if nobody can reach it or the right people can't, or the hard-to-reach people can't come to it. We need to consider, what can you do differently? Like you've considered expansion to the three locations you're in.

Advice for Making an Impact

[00:12:10] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What's your top tip for people looking to make an impact in their community? If you've got listeners from now over 50 countries and they might be looking for advice.

[00:12:20] Ryan Miemczyk: So in my day job, we start everything with purpose, you should be unashamedly pursuing that purpose. There's an amazing story about the British Olympic rowing team that won gold back at the Olympics a number of years ago, and they just had this single thing about does the boat go faster? So does it make the boat go faster? Which was all about what they ate, how they trained, how they slept, all of that sort of stuff. They were just unashamedly about everything does it make the boat go faster?

[00:12:49] I think the same thing applies to charity purpose. You should be really clear about what it is. So be really concise and specific about what it is. I actually as of this morning popped something up on social media. We'd looked at 10,000 charity purpose statements. We dragged them off the internet. We did some research on that, and what we found was, I think the average length is like 69 words, which is just way too much, way, way too much.

[00:13:14] You should be able to pitch this immediately and understand. We work at about eight to ten is probably a strong indicator of what we should look for, but it should be plain English. It should be clear. You should know exactly what it is, and that should improve your purpose alignment. So always worth checking that out. Make sure that you all understand it.

[00:13:32] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much. Like for me, I want to have a purpose in everything I do. Not a charity, but the podcast is part of that and it's really important to me. And I can totally understand that if you don't have your purpose clear and you don't have your, almost your niche, like what's your lens that you're taking on the world and the services you're offering, you can get pulled in many directions. And that's exactly what you're saying as a watch out to stay away from.

[00:14:01] An opportunity now, Ryan, for you to talk about anything that I haven't asked you about or maybe talk about at the other charity you're supporting as well.

Ryan's Other Charitable Work

[00:14:08] Ryan Miemczyk: Thank you very much. You are doing an amazing job on the podcast to shine a light on Manchester and the underbelly of work that's going on, and I don't think we necessarily appreciate it.

[00:14:18] I'm lucky enough that I'm involved in two charities Manchester Young Lives who I've mentioned, and also YMCA Manchester who are doing incredible things as well. There's a lot to be said about the efforts that are going into that and how people are being innovative in terms of programmes and such.

[00:14:33] And we're actually working very closely with them at the moment to try and evidence some of that. They're doing some great stuff along the lines of social prescribing, getting people into gym. In that kind of sphere and looking for help, then I would thoroughly recommend getting in contact with YMCA Manchester there.

[00:14:51] I would also like to highlight the fact that my passion is small charities, and I think there's a lot to be said about trying to evidence what we do and what we do so well within Manchester which is difficult.

[00:15:05] It is something that I think a lot of people struggle with. I think we shouldn't be a little bit less British about things. And actually be prepared to shout about the good things that we're doing. We've been lucky in the work that I currently do to be able to shout about things and in certain circumstances, double income for charities.

[00:15:25] And I think you only do that if you are a little bit brash about it. And you're able to share the difference you're making. Measuring the right things. And the only people who really know about what those right things are the beneficiaries. So whether you use beneficiary term or service users or whatever else, make sure the people that you're actually trying to affect are involved in that process. And then, reach out for help, support, share, learning, speak to other charities.

[00:15:48] I think that's what I love to see happen within Manchester. Don't be afraid as well. We are very good at this kind of publication bias of just talking about the stuff that people want to hear, something controversial or something amazing. Actually, the stuff where it doesn't work is just as important. Otherwise, we never end up addressing the more difficult to reach people or because we only talk about the low hanging fruit, easy to win. So I'd say make sure you are also reporting on the good, the bad, and the ugly.

[00:16:18] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Really great advice and thank you so much for sharing about YMCA Manchester, as well as your advice for smaller charities to consider evidencing their impact and hearing from the beneficiary experience. But you're absolutely right. No charity exists if the beneficiaries aren't benefiting. So that's so important.

Signature Questions

[00:16:39] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Ryan, I'm going to move to the signature questions I ask all my guests, and this is different every season. So this one is about what makes Manchester a unique place for social impact work.

[00:16:50] Ryan Miemczyk: That's a very good question. I've heard this mentioned, I think everybody's got their own take on what makes Manchester and that Mancunian spirit. I think if I reflect on it, I think I see Manchester as gritty. I think that spirit and by gritty, I'm going to define it using the research. We've got this incredible ability to persevere through adversity. So perseverance and effort and continue along that pathway, that continuation of interest whilst that happens, and I think that makes Manchester a really special place.

[00:17:22] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I love that, and I've really seen that as well. People have really come together for me, helping me meet so many charities, over a hundred of them. But also, just from all the stories of collaboration that I do hear, it is really wonderful to see that. And like you said, it's shaped by the lived experiences of the city.

[00:17:45] If you could have dinner with any historical figure in Manchester, who would it be with and why?

[00:17:50] Ryan Miemczyk: That's a toughie. Who do you pick? I'm not sure I want to go down the historical route. It's very easy to go for Turing or something like that, but I've got a real soft spot for the people who are doing good today. And I think there's some incredible well-known people like Maxine Peak, for example, who are doing incredible things for the arts and for the women's movement. And I think my rationale for slightly tweaking your question in the answer is that I'd love to be able to take that and help increase the impact that we can make.

[00:18:18] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's fine. I shall grant you dinner with Maxine Peak and more for women empowerment. Why not?

[00:18:25] If you were to create a social impact superhero, what powers would they have and what cause would they fight for?

[00:18:33] Ryan Miemczyk: These are brilliant. I do a lot of reading and my reading's quite wide at the moment. I'm reading a book that was recommended by a friend called Die With Zero, which is by Bill Perkins. And he makes the point at the very beginning of that book that we exchange money for time's the only real important thing, for the human race.

[00:18:53] I'm going to say if I could have a superhero, it would be a Bernard's watch type character. So that ability to stop time, but not necessarily just for yourself, but for everybody to give them a little bit more time. And whether they choose to use that to reflect or to do some social good that's up to them. But I think time, if I could give people more time, that would be my superpower.

[00:19:13] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And what's the cause you're fighting for?

[00:19:15] Ryan Miemczyk: Oh, there's so many. There's so many. My personal cause in this point, I think is...

[00:19:20] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Catch people in permanent play. That sounds really nice.

[00:19:24] What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

[00:19:27] Ryan Miemczyk: I think I learned this lesson from a very young age, much to the dismay of my mother, which is the power of curiosity. I think I was probably about nine years old and possibly unsupervised. I took my mother's microwave to pieces because I wanted to understand what it looked like and how it worked. That curiosity and play effectively, I think is incredibly important.

[00:19:50] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you. That's a great life lesson and more to the power of curiosity and just keeping, always learning.

[00:19:56] How can interested people reach out to you and learn more? Where can they find Manchester Young Lives? Where can they find YMCA? You want to give out your own personal handles as well?

[00:20:07] Ryan Miemczyk: You can reach out to YMCA Manchester and Manchester Young Lives. You'll be able to find them. Hit Google. They're the first results that come out for those two. And they're amazing people, so don't feel like you are struggling to reach out to them. We're there. We're prepared and happy to pick up the phone.

[00:20:22] Me personally, I'd love to hear from people who are struggling with understanding and maximising their impact. Particularly small charities. If you're out there, I offer a freebie Friday, I call it, which means I give out a bit of free time on a Friday morning.

[00:20:38] You can find me on blue sky of all of the new social media platforms. And it's just Ryan Miemczyk. Type that into Blue Sky and you'll find me. And you can book a session through even if you want to just not take a session and spam me with dog.

[00:20:52] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And that sounds like something I do. Send you the dog pictures.

[00:20:57] Is there a funny or a heartwarming story you'd like to share with listeners to end the podcast?

[00:21:03] Ryan Miemczyk: Yes. I can give you a story, which I think talks about the importance of beneficiaries being involved with the work that you do. I'm not going to name the charity, but there's a rather large charity that we were working with. They were trying to work through what are the changes that they achieved with their beneficiaries, what the outcomes. What they thought they were doing was they thought they were saving animals who may be in a position where they're either suffering or likely to suffer as a result of financial issues for the owners.

[00:21:34] When we did the work to actually speak to the beneficiaries, I was taken aback. I ended up doing interviews with owners and I sort of said what is the difference this makes to you being able to get for your animal veterinary care in this case. Has it stopped the suffering and all that sort of stuff. And they said no, because there wouldn't ever be any suffering. I would never let that happen.

[00:21:54] And prior to this intervention, I would go into debt. I would take out lines of credit, I would do anything for my animals. And we suddenly realised that that charity wasn't saving animals or increasing animal wellbeing. What they were doing was they were relieving the financial burden and stress, and improving the wellbeing of the owners who were, as I say, taking out huge loans. So really important. Speak to the people that you work with. I think that's the hopefully heartwarming story to take away at the end of this.

[00:22:23] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I also like that the animals are benefiting either from their owners or from this charity as well. So that's important to me as an animal welfare person.

[00:22:32] So thank you so much, Ryan. It's been great to talk to you and thanks for sharing your own experience and also talking about freebie Friday, which sounds quite nice. And maybe some of the charities might take you up on that. Thanks for your time.

[00:22:46] Ryan Miemczyk: You are absolutely welcome. Thank you so much.

Outro

[00:22:47] Ryan, I really enjoyed learning about supporting adventure play in the youth.

[00:22:52] Dear listener, thank you so much for listening to the seventh episode of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, season 10. I hope today's episode has inspired you to make positive change wherever you live. I hope today's episode has inspired you to make positive change wherever you live.

[00:23:09] Tune in every Tuesday for a new episode or log on to www.meetthemancunian.co.uk to listen to all the episodes and learn more about my podcasting story.

[00:23:21] Next week on Tuesday, 8 April 2025, I speak to Nikki Banks about supporting charities with funding.

[00:23:29] It is wonderful to hear from you, dear listener, you can share your story or send me a message on my website www.meetthemancunian.co.uk or on social media @MeettheMancunian on Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky, and @MeettheMancunianPodcast on YouTube.

[00:23:48] Thank you to my wonderful community of listeners. Remember your voice, your story, and your actions matter. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and let's inspire even more positive change to a better kinder world. And until next time, let's continue making Manchester and beyond a place of greater impact, compassion, and action.