‘150 years of the Together Trust’ exhibition: the story of a charity and its people

In my old school, I used to be treated differently because they didn’t know what autism was.  Here at Inscape, I have learnt all about my autism and now I am not afraid to admit it – at the end of the day I can still do what you can do – but probably better.

We are delighted to welcome the public to Manchester Central Library to learn about our pioneering heritage. Our charity has a rich legacy of supporting children, adults, carers and families in the North West and the work of our co-founders continue to inspire our modern-day values. This is a fantastic opportunity to inform people about our extensive archive and heritage thanks to granting funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.  We are also grateful to the Central Library for hosting us and the people we support who have donated their artwork and shared their stories for the exhibition.    Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in 2020/21 meant we had to adjust some of our original 150th-anniversary plans, however, we went on to create new resources many of which can now be found online.  One example is an interactive timeline which charts our progress since 1870.  We are immensely grateful for the Heritage Fund’s flexibility and support throughout this challenging period.

The Together Trust has a really interesting ‘back story’ from its humble, city-centre beginnings in Victorian England through to what the charity is today - a large, multi-service regional organisation empowering and helping thousands of people a year.  Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are proud to support the charity to share its fascinating heritage with a diverse audience through this exhibition.