Meet the Mancunian - Talking homelessness with Lauren Rosegreen

Transcript: Meet the Mancunian - Lauren Rosegreen

Intro

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, Season Four. I'm Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, your friendly host. On the streets and nooks of Manchester, my inspiring Mancunian guests tackle their causes with grit and passion. They are leaders, worker bees, and community hosts, and they share their stories to inspire you all through this season.

Relax, grab a brew and listen in to the Meet the Mancunian podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, or any of your favorite podcasting platforms. You can also check out all the episodes on my new website, www.meetthemancunian.co.uk.

Looking to help the homeless overcome poverty? We hear from Lauren Rosegreen, Business Development Manager, Invisible Cities; Trustee, Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity and Policy and Influence Manager, MACC.

Episode 6

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: In this episode, I'm delighted to introduce my guest, Lauren Rose Green, Policy and Influence Manager, MACC. Thanks so much, Lauren, for taking the time on a Sunday morning.

Lauren Rosegreen: No worries. Thanks for having me.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm looking forward to hearing all about the lots of volunteering and full-time work that you're doing for so many different charities.

So tell us first about your passion for helping the homeless. How did that come about?

Lauren Rosegreen: I'm from a little village in the Midlands and I never really realized that homelessness was all around me because a lot of the people I went to school with were obviously affected by hidden homelessness.

But it just was never really in my vision. It was never really something I was aware of. And then I came to Manchester for University in 2016 and the amount of rough sleepers that I saw when I arrived in the city was just so shocking. So I started to kind of learn more and understand more about homelessness and then actually realised that back home, so many people were homeless themselves.

So really for me, it was moving to a big city and, and seeing people who were rough sleeping. And then understanding a little bit more about the causes. And also just like the variety of homelessness across the UK.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: We had another guest Risha Lancaster from Coffee for Craig, who talked about different types of homelessness. So maybe just one thing to ask is what is, what do you mean by hidden homelessness?

Lauren Rosegreen: Yeah, so hidden homelessness is anything that you can't specifically see. So, it could be people living in shelters in temporary accommodations. It could be people, sofa surfing, sustaining on friends' sofas, living in people's garages, basically anybody who doesn't have a secure home.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you. And you've got involved with Invisible Cities and they've got a very interesting concept. So tell us about that.

Lauren Rosegreen: Yes. So for the last two years, I was the sales and business development manager for Invisible Cities. So we're a national social enterprise training people who've experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides in the city centre.

So the whole idea is to kind of break down the barriers and the stigmas and the stereotypes that surround homelessness, but also to empower people with lived experience to share their stories in the context of the city. Because people who've lived experiences of homelessness, know all about the city, especially if they've been a rough sleeper and they know parts of the city that maybe we've just walked past every day and they used to call home. So the whole kind of premise is to listen and to see the city through their eyes.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That does sound really interesting. Is there anything else you want to tell us about Invisible Cities?

Lauren Rosegreen: So Invisible Cities actually operates in a few different cities.

Lauren Rosegreen: So we're in Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, and Manchester. And expanding into more cities as well to continue our impact. And as a social enterprise, a hundred percent of the profits go directly back into the local homeless community. So whether that be through training and workshops, confidence building, or kind of smaller social impact projects working with other organisations like Coffee for Craig you mentioned before to kind of work collaboratively to solve homelessness, which is huge. But yeah, that's kind of the whole premise of Invisible Cities is to give back to that community. Thank you.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: And then you've been involved with the Greater Manchester's Mayor's charity as a trustee. So tell us about that

Lauren Rosegreen: Yeah, so I've been a trustee now for almost a year and I'm absolutely loving it. So I'm the youngest trustee. And. I basically joined the Greater Manchester Mayor's charity, whose aim is to end homelessness across Greater Manchester. So Andy Burnham's the main patron, he donates part of his wages every month towards the mayor's charity.

And we are effectively a grant giver. So we receive donations, we do fundraising, and then we distribute grants across Greater Manchester to smaller organizations or, not necessarily smaller, but to other organizations who are delivering either frontline work or preventative measures or people in the places and spaces kind of scene, so people who are working towards secure housing, et cetera.

And I really, really enjoy being a trustee. It's very different from working almost frontline because you do a lot more strategy, but the kind of thing that I bring is diversity and inclusion angle and also being able to amplify voices of people with lived experience because I'm around them all the time.

And so they're the kind of things I try to bring to board meetings because everybody else on the board is kind of involved in many different ways. Everyone contributes different skills, but that's the thing that's quite niche for me, is that I'm very well embedded in the homelessness ecosystem in Greater Manchester.

And also if we are talking about something or an idea for something or who to give grants to, I can kind of go back and speak with people with lived experience and see what their thoughts are. Or you know, if we do a marketing campaign around something, I can go and ask people and they'll be like, oh, actually I'd prefer if you worded things like this or these particular people aren't being represented.

So yeah, I really, really enjoy being able to offer something slightly different to the board.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you. And then you've also said that you're involved with MACC. So what do you do there? And you're very busy, aren't you?

Lauren Rosegreen: So I've just become the policy and influence manager at MACC. So MACC is a Manchester-based charity that supports the voluntary community and social enterprise sector in Manchester.

As the policy and influence manager that effectively means that I am supporting that sector. To influence policy decisions. So again, amplifying voices of people with lived experience, but also people who work in that area who are sector leaders to actually influence the changes in policy in the city rather than it coming almost like top down.

We bridge the gap between the two. So I still do a lot in homelessness cause that is the area that I'm super passionate about. But also kind of moving more into working with refugees and asylum seekers, and then just an array of things. We've been doing a lot of work with the health sector and how healthcare marries up with the voluntary community, and social enterprise sector.

So it's a lot of bridging that gap and making sure that Manchester makes really informed policy decisions. So yeah, really, really interesting.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you. And I'd love to hear more as that develops, it could be a very interesting charity to talk to.

What impact have you made so far?

Lauren Rosegreen: Wow, that's a big question.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I'm happy for you to take this from Invisible Cities Angle or any of the charities you are involved with because you've had the longest time with them, isn’t it?

Lauren Rosegreen: So, yeah, I think with Invisible everything is so individualised. So we would do training sessions every week. And for me, the biggest impact is seeing somebody that comes to us and they don't really engage in any other way in the city. And they kind of just turn up and sit and listen. And then in a few months' time, they might start joining in with some of the workshops and then, within a year, they're like leading workshops. We have this one person who's in my mind in particular, who hardly spoke when he first arrived, and now he can deliver presentations and he can go to other, like charities and other organisations delivering workshops. He now volunteers at a big museum. So for me, the impact is seeing the personal growth. With invisible cities, we make a huge impact on a small number of people. And that's kind of what we felt was the best business model. And you really can see it. And I loved seeing that growth individually with everybody.

In terms of MACC as well, very similar. We help organizations to kind of like expand the work that they're doing and if they're super confident and super leaders in their sector. They can only go so far if the policy doesn't reflect it. So again, that's how we make an impact is by helping that to be kind of relayed citywide, and you can see how we take an organisation and the work they're doing and just basically amplify them. Use what we do to amplify them. They're the ones doing the great work. The policymakers, they're the ones who know what they're doing with all the policy, and we just kind of link them.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that, Lauren. And absolutely. That personal impact, and personal growth that you're seeing through you know, each member of the Invisible Cities community is, is so powerful.

And of course, policy and advocacy is also really, important because like you said, we don't want laws and rules to be and, and me and supportive measures to be top down, but you want to have the community involvement, so great to share that.

How can interested people reach out to you and learn more? How can they reach you? How can they reach your charities?

Lauren Rosegreen: So Invisible Cities and MACC, you can just reach out to us via the website. In terms of me personally, LinkedIn's probably best, love a little bit of LinkedIn. So I'm Lauren Rosegreen and there is actually only one of me on LinkedIn.

So that's quite nice and easy and I'm always keen to speak with people who are looking to collaborate, people who are interested in the voluntary community, social enterprise sector. Even if you're coming at it from a corporate perspective and how to help more than happy to have a chat and kind of point you in the right direction. And also anybody who is interested in maybe becoming a trustee or somebody who would like to start working in that sector. I didn't really have any kind of mentor when I was trying to pave my way in this industry, and it's super hard. So more than happy for people to reach out and ask for any advice as well.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you. That's, a great offer and I'm sure listeners will take you up on that. What advice would you have for somebody looking to start something similar in another part of the world? As I said, we were listeners from 41 countries and you know, maybe they get inspired or maybe somebody in another part of the UK gets inspired.

Lauren Rosegreen: Yeah, so I think in terms of starting, and the biggest piece of advice is just to go for it. Nothing's going to be perfect. You know, Invisible Cities is a great example. Like it's such an amazing concept. But it didn't happen overnight and it really was a learning and we were constantly learning all the time with it.

It’s still not a hundred percent perfect, nothing ever is. And I think especially if it's something that's involving vulnerable people. working almost like in a frontline-type service. It's never ever going to be perfect. So you just got to go for it and learn as you go along. So that would be my first thing is just to do it.

And that, my second thing would be to try and surround yourself with people who champion you. That's something that I've really done over the past couple of years and even just with, you know, being introduced to this podcast is somebody that I met through work. And yeah, it's surrounding yourself with other people either doing similar things or the people who really believe in what it is that you are trying to do and bouncing off each other. Because having that community, whether that comes from like your family, whether it comes from friends or if it's in a work setting, creating those people around you. That will hold you accountable, but also people that will get excited when you have your small wins.

Because when you're first starting out, it will be the small little things like setting up your email address. That's a huge thing. Like it takes time starting your website even if there's nothing on it, you know, just getting every, those little things set up. I think if you surround yourself, people who are like, that's amazing, like, I'll take that for a coffee because you set your website up, then it inspires you to keep going.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's such a great tip. You know this bit because it's the small wins. It's the small milestones on that big journey. Otherwise, the journey can seem very daunting, can't it? Because you're like, oh wow. We've got these amazing super goals and they're not going to happen overnight. So that is really good to see and I'm probably going to apply it.

I just set up my website, so I need to find somebody who's gonna take me out for coffee now. That is a good one.

Now an opportunity now for you to talk about anything that I haven't asked you about? Anything coming up in the next few months that maybe you want to share with listeners?

Lauren Rosegreen: So I'm actually involved in quite a few other projects across Manchester and Greater Manchester. So Blank Faces, they're the UK's first fashion label aimed to end homelessness. And they're based in Glasgow, but are hoping to kind of expand into Manchester. So I've been helping with that expansion.

And their concept is just really cool, so I just wanted to share it really. What they do is they speak with people with lived experience of [00:14:00] homelessness and listen to their stories, and then they partner up with up-and-coming designers, students, et cetera, and they will take those stories and, and make them into really like, you know, fashion-forward designs.

Obviously the whole brand is super sustainable, ethical, a lot of it's sourced and made in the UK. So there's all of those kinds of things that we are looking to do with our lives and with them with fashion. And then with the designs, the percentage of the profits goes towards the person whose story it is, every time something's sold.

The graphic designers get to do something really interesting and to take a concept and to kind of run with it. And then at the end of the year, once the overheads are all covered, everything extra gets donated back into the homelessness ecosystem. So it's really kind of trying to engage with stories very similar to invisible cities where it's amplifying voices, but just in a very different way.

And through an industry that typically is very exclusive and actually, it's trying to expand that and say that fashion can be for everybody, and actually in the clothes that we choose to wear, we can make a statement and we can engage with the community that we would never be able to engage with before.

So yeah, really it's just, a kind of watch this space as they move into Manchester. But as well if anybody's interested or if anyone's like into fashion or anything like that feel free to have a look at their website, the Blank Faces.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thanks so much for sharing about Blank Faces. I did check out Blank Faces. I did check out their website and I was very, very inspired by the concept and again, I did see some similarities between, yeah, Invisible Cities and them. Again, using lived experiences in a different way to give you that tour guide. And here it's about you know, making fashion sustainable, eco-friendly, and, you know, a really nice way to give back.

So thanks for sharing those.

I'm going to now come over to the signature questions that I ask all my guests, and I'd ask you to first describe the Mancunian spirit in a word or a phrase.

Lauren Rosegreen: Ooh, that's so good. I think. Oh gosh, that's really hard. And I want to say something good.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Take your time. No problem at all.

Lauren Rosegreen: When I think about the Mancunian spirit, I think about working together. So I think about collaboration. And empowering each other. You know, even if it's just in a simple context of if you're running for the bus, someone will hold their hand out and keep the bus there for you. Or if you're in a work setting and you hear something, you are like, oh, I should connect them with that person.

I think the Mancunian spirit is all about working together and it probably stems back to he worker bee and like everyone kind of likes rustling in and, and doing things together. But that for me is what it is. It's collaboration. It's teamwork, it's looking out for one another, even if you're strangers.

And that kind of creates, a really friendly and warm and welcoming Mancunian energy.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I love that. And I've experienced some of that for myself as a very new Mancunian. I've only been here a year, but absolutely people are extremely supportive and always ready to partner up which is so lovely.

Can you share a Mancunian who inspires you and why? And you can choose one who's living or dead.

Lauren Rosegreen: Oh gosh, I've got so many. I would say someone that's inspiring me is Lee Chambers. So he is alive. And he is from Bolton originally, proper Bolton lad. And I connected with him on LinkedIn just because he was in similar spheres to me. And honestly, his posts were so engaging, so interesting. He does a lot of work around diversity and inclusion. He's got his own business and he does a lot of work around going into workplaces and supporting with diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and he's just super engaging with everything he does. So I just reached out to him and I was like, just to let you know, I really enjoy your content, which I think everybody should do.

By the way, if you ever enjoy something that someone's putting out into the world, whether it's podcasts, blogs even someone's Instagram, just message them. Because it just really makes the day. And anyway, we decided to go for a coffee and we went for a coffee. He just inspired me so much and since then we've met loads of times.

We've been to similar award ceremonies. We keep seeing each other in spheres. But what I love about him is he's doing so much work for women's rights and women's advocacy but from a male perspective. And so he talks about like menopause in the workplace and I just think it's really, really important for men to engage on these issues as well.

And he is just such a big advocate for it. Also, he's neurodivergent and he talks a lot about that, which for me personally and having people in my family with Asperger's, it's been really inspiring to see somebody a hundred percent own who he is, but also to just be really succeeding and to show that you don't have to fit into a certain stereotype to be successful.

And I've actually used him kind of as an example for people in my family who may be struggling. So yeah, for me he's super inspirational, absolutely loved bits and I'm excited to see what comes next for him. 

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you for sharing that and he does sound wonderful. And maybe another one mental note, to feature here.

What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

Lauren Rosegreen: I think for me it is - I think everybody gets kind of self-confidence issues. And you know, there's, I definitely get it a lot. Being mixed race and being young and female, I'm usually in a lot of spaces where I'm the only person that looks like me.

And so the imposter syndrome always creeps in. And I think. The most important life lesson for me is that that's always going to happen. So that's the first thing for me, is that recognising it. But then how I deal with it has been the lesson that I've learned is that I know that to just sit in my feelings and feel like it, and then after the situation has passed, reflect back so that that won't happen again in that particular situation.

And how can I implement things so that I don't feel that way and I don't feel you know, unconfident or uncomfortable? Because, you know, we are all doing our best. It doesn't, everybody's comparing themselves to each other. And if you're ever in a room or a space and you're suddenly like, why am I here?

Lauren Rosegreen: Like, I'm not good enough to be here nine times out of 10. At least a couple of other people in that room think that. So I'd say that's my biggest life lesson is that that's always going to happen personally for me. It's always going to happen. But actually, how do I try and reduce the amount of times that it happens and just own the fact.

It's okay to be a bit different and you are doing a great job, even if you don't think so. You are doing a great job.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think so, and I think everybody brings such unique perspectives, right? And that comes from who you are, what your values are, what your perspective is, what effort you're willing to put in, what are your passions.

So really great. Thanks, for sharing that. And I think many people would relate to that because you know regardless of gender, we all suffer sometimes from this. Not quite sure if you belong.

Lauren Rosegreen: Yeah, exactly.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What if you could have one superpower, what would it be?

Lauren Rosegreen: Ooh, that is such a good question.

I've thought this so many times. If you'd have asked me a few years ago, I would've said to be able to fly because I love traveling. Actually no, I'm going to stick with that. Yeah, I'd love to be able to fly or to kind of transport through time. No, that's what I'm going to go for. I'd love to be able to like, transport through time. A bit Dr. Whoey.

I'd like to be able to go and see things when they were happening. So throughout history but also I'm not too bothered about the future. I quite like, just like living in the moment, but the past, I think it's just so interesting, like imagine being able to be there when they built like the pyramids or to just be able to see things with your own eyes.

And I'd love to be able to experience things like you know, my grandma always talks about when she went to Australia and had this incredible experience and I'd love to be able to like transport and like, even if it was just like a fly on the wall and no one could see her, just to be able to see her younger, like living her best life. I just think that would be absolutely incredible. So you can really picture for yourself, like see for yourself like what it is that they're talking about. And yeah, I think that would be my superpower. I'd love it.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's a great one. I really like that. Is there a funny story you'd like to share with listeners?

Lauren Rosegreen: Oh gosh, I have so many funny stories. I'm so tragic.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It did need to be Manchester based or within your work.

Lauren Rosegreen: What's a funny story? So, okay, I have one. It's a bit embarrassing, but I'll tell it anyway. So I used to commute to Liverpool every day and get the train. And it would be a Trans Pennine Express, like the quick train.

Lauren Rosegreen: And every day leaving Liverpool, I'd sprint to the train station to try and get on the slightly earlier train so I wouldn't be like jam-packed in completely. And try and make the gym class in Manchester. So one day sprinting is really hard. It's like, summer, middle of the summer, it's really hot.

And then I'm running on the platform to try and get on. But you know when you keep getting to every door and it's like super full. Anyway, I managed to jump on the train. I'm like, everyone's looking at me a bit funny, but you know, maybe it's just cause I'm really sweaty. I know I'm just there.

The ticket person comes down. And she just shouts literally to me. She was like, you are the girl that was running down the platform. And I was like. And she was like, your skirts tucked into your underwear. And I was like, honestly in a floor-length skirt. So like it was bad and I was like, how do they not feel? And then everyone about me was like, yeah. I did see, I did see so, and then like untucking my skirt from my underwear. I'm like, why have these snakes not told me? Why not? Like, excuse me, why did she have to announce it to the whole carriage?

She could've just been quietly telling me. Yeah, so then I had to enjoy like 50 minutes on this train knowing that everybody has seen my knickers was so embarrassing. Couldn't wait to, and yeah, I just went home, had a nice warm, like, had a nice cold shower and was just like, yeah. So that's my funny story.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Ouch. Thanks for sharing that. It's up to you Lauren. You want me to keep that? You want me to leave it out? It's up to you.

Lauren Rosegreen: You can keep it. It's just a bit of me. That's the thing as well with me, I'm like that, you just got to own every part of you.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It happens, right? It always happens.

Lauren Rosegreen: It happens. And I think it's all about like normalising just being a normal human. Like no one's perfect and sometimes you listen to podcasts and I listen to people who are like thriving in their business and in their world. I'm just like, please tell me that you have a skirt tucked into your knickers’ train story please. Because nobody's perfect. So I'm definitely keen to share it because I think loads of people will relate. Everyone has a story like that.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think for me it's the coffee and a white shirt. Every time I have a white shirt, I've stopped wearing white because I never dropped stuff on me. But if I have a white shirt, I don't know why somebody will knock into me, something will happen and coffee will drop on a white shirt.

So, and it's happened once before I went into a television interview. So I literally borrow my boss's jacket and you know, cover up because obviously, you don't want to be sitting there with a big brown stain on you. Totally understand.

Lauren Rosegreen: It really happens to us all. It happens to us all, and we just need to laugh.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's a quirk of life, isn't it? And life's just telling you, don't take yourself too seriously.

Lauren Rosegreen: Exactly.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Exactly. So thanks so much, Lauren. That's all I have time for today. It was really nice to talk to you and learn so much about all the good stuff you're doing.

Lauren Rosegreen: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was a lovely chat even for a Sunday morning. It was lovely.

Outro

I really enjoyed learning about sporting the homeless today. Dear listener, thank you so much for listening to the sixth episode of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, Season Four. I hope this episode and the podcast itself encourages you to follow your passions inspired by the amazing Mancunian guests who feature here.

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.

Next week on Tuesday, 3 January 2023, the Meet the Mancunian podcast talks to Ben Andrews about diversity and inclusion.

Please do leave a review or a voice message on my website, www.meetthemancunian.co.uk. It takes only a few minutes. Thank you so much.

Wish you and your loved ones a very happy new year and here's to new beginnings.