Building Community Change in Manchester (Part 2)
Manchester Correspondent Diana interviewed Mary and Melissa, Agents who founded MASK and Inner Canvas respectively. Their projects have been funded by The Agency Manchester (Contact), who supported them to deliver a pilot of their projects in Moston and Harpurhey.
MASK promotes upcycling in a responsible and environmentally friendly way through in-person and online sessions. Mary felt young people aged 15-19 lacked opportunities to learn skills in personalising clothes for themselves, which could give them a second life, save costs and minimise waste.
Melissa’s Inner Canvas brings young girls together in a mental health space that engages them creatively, so they have a structure to meet likeminded people and form lasting connections. Participants could feel at ease in a space where they could reflect and find confidence engaging with others. Listen to the podcast below:
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Max
The Agency of Change is a charity for 15 to 25 year olds that champions creativity as a catalyst for leadership and opportunity. The young people involved are Agents, project creators, who want to make a positive difference in their communities. Across the UK. We have groups in London, Southampton, Bolton, Belfast, Chester, and today Manchester. Four Agents were interviewed by Manchester correspondent Diana, whose role is to really show the difference Agents are making with their projects. We're hearing from Mary, creator of MASK, a transformative, creative, impactful online space to motivate and upcycling and shopping in a responsible, humane and also environmentally friendly manner.
Mary
It’s MASK. It stands for minimal action stylish contribution.Diana
Thank you. Why does this project matter to you or to the community?
Mary
It matters to me because I feel like there's not enough projects out there or any extracurriculars for people the age from 15 to 19, especially girls and guys out there, to upcycle clothes, to personalize clothes to you, to make them feel and look like you. Because I think first impressions matter and the way that you carry yourself is really important, but you're not really able to do that if you don't know how to do a back stitch. You don't know how to do a simple stitch, basic stitches. You don't know how to use fabric glue. You don't know that you can actually use fabric glue to glue on patches that you can buy from Amazon. There's just a ton of ways that you can upcycle clothes from the charity shop. So it's not even.
It's good quality and it's cheap, and you're giving clothes second life, so you're reducing your carbon waste and mitigating, obviously, a lot of the effects. So you're just doing a lot of positive and a lot of good in a fun way that really boosts your drip. There's not enough of that for me and young people around here, and I feel like a lot of young people in the community, such as myself, could really benefit from that.Diana
What were your initial insecurities when starting your project, and how did you overcome them?Mary
I didn't know a lot of people that had these skills of how to use. It's a dyeing skill, how to embroider, how to mend clothes, how to dye clothes. You gotta have enough drive to learn on the Internet because there's so many information out there. It's overloading, it's suffocating. So you need to. I wanted to use community people to help me learn these skills and teach people the same skills so that you can make your clothes feel and look like exactly how you want them to. The challenge was finding local people who had the skill and who were willing to be recorded and demonstrate that skill to me and hold an event with me. But I was able to do that by working with fellow people that my producers were able to source that we just found through social media.
That's how were able to overcome it and just create a network and a great working environment with them.Diana
What was the most memorable or unexpected moment of The Agency?Mary
I think the most memorable, meeting so many wonderful people and gaining so many wonderful skills. That's the most memorable part of it. I've met so many people and I've gotten to know so many different things and it's been wonderful making new friends because it's life changing really and it's a great opportunity. You meet wonderful people who are like minded and are able to push you further and just truly shapeshift you in the best way. They just transform you to be the best version of yourself. So it's meeting people who truly respect you and you respect in a way that's so admirable and amazing. The most unexpected I think is building as much confidence as I do and I have.
I think you build a lot of self trust within yourself and you're able to truly be who you are when you have an environment that challenges you, which is what Agency does.Diana
When you got announced as one of the projects out of 20 people, what ran for your head at that moment?Mary
I wasn't too sure. I was just like, how come there were so many, many great ideas? I didn't take it seriously because this is my second year. The first year I was taking things too seriously. This year I just wanted to have fun and you know, socialize. But I think I realized how much of a, how much your mindset matters when it comes to thinking through your project and actually acting in a way that you love. Because this is only going to be a short time, but it's going to matter. It's going to be very rewarding and have fun with it. Make sure it's something that you would do, that you would love and it would have impact if you think it through. If you can overlap fun and responsibility, fun of, you know, reusing materials so then you're helping the environment.
It's just, it's just finding a blend and that middle ground is where your project blossoms and blooms. So I think when I found out that it actually, that strategic way of thinking actually got me funding, I was like, maybe I need to have this attitude with a lot of other things and not just Agency.Max
And now we are capping it all off with Melissa, creator of Inner Canvas, a mental health space for girls to use creativity to inspire. Inspire discussion.Melissa
Inner Canvas is the name that I picked for my project because the inner stands for what's in your mind and the mental well being, whereas the canvas stands for the creativity bit of my project.Diana
What does this project matter to you or the community?Melissa
Inner Canvas matters to me because I've seen how rare it is for Girls to have a space where they can just be themselves without pressure and judgment or like having to explain who they are. And a lot of the time, we're expected to be strong, confident, or fit into certain expectations. But we don't always get the chance to slow down, express how we actually feel and be seen. So that's why I wanted to make Inner Canvas. And this project creates that space through creativity where girls can connect, reflect, and build confidence in a way that I want it to feel natural and safe for the girls that will be attending my session.Diana
For the community.Melissa
It brings people together, encourages positive friendships, and supports well being in a way that's engaging, relatable, and not fast. Because when there's things like this around in the community, when your mom's like telling you, oh, I've seen this, you should go, it feels more fast, not natural. Like, I want something where people. People want to be there. So that's why I made my project. And it's about giving girls a space where they want to be there, which is why this project matters to me.Diana
What were your initial insecurities when starting your project, and how did you overcome them?Melissa
When I started this project, when I started with The Agency, I didn't really like talking in front of people. You know, when.Diana
What it was like showing our compass.Melissa
Yeah, when were showing. I really didn't like that. Like, to the point when we're being interviewed, my friends. When my friends will talk, I just agree. So I was thinking that this would be a struggle for me, talking in front of people and talking in front of others. But then I started speaking, and one of my biggest insecurities was just speaking in front of people, because I'm not naturally someone who feels confident leading a group or being the centre for attention. So the idea of facilitating sessions and guiding discussions felt intimidating to me. I also worried about whether people would take the project serious or actually engage or even bother coming to my session. Back to the point when I was doing Agency, I hardly ever spoke about it to my friends.
But then I started to overcome this by focusing on the purpose of the project rather than my fear of speaking in front of people. So whenever I was here, I would just tell myself I could do it and that I don't mind talking in front of all these people and that everyone else has to do it. It's not just me. So then that's why I realized it wasn't just about being perfect, but about creating a space that felt safe and real for others. That's why preparing in advance, planning my sessions and reminding myself why I started this project helped build my confidence. And I've also accepted that it's okay to be a bit nervous person, that being genuine is more important than being perfect.
And when I was near the end of that whole session, the first part of Inner Canvas, on Panel Day, I literally had to be there by myself, and I did all the talking and presenting in front of people. The judges I didn't even know, and I managed to do it because I ended up getting funded anyway. So that's why I started my project and that's how I overcame my insecurities.Diana
Yeah, I think that Panel Day, you being able to do it, was the thing that I admire the most. I understand how, like, because I'm a person that doesn't really like speaking in public, so, like, I understand what it actually took for you to actually go in there and do it by itself, and I feel like that's really admirable.Max
I'm Max Wiseman and this has been The Agency of Change Manchester. Thank you so much to the agents and Diana for chatting with them. Young people, they have the power to build fair, connected and imaginative communities if you let them.
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