Mend + Tend
Inspiration | Wellbeing | Work designed for real life.
Event on 14th March | 10-1pm | Manchester Museum
Lets mend what is broken, tend to what works and design work for real life -together.
Health, education and community teams share one big problem,
“We’re expected to do meaningful, high-quality work at a pace that never lets us breathe, think, or do it properly“
Mend + Tend helps leaders and teams step out of constant urgency and leave with practical ways to design secure, sustainable ways of working that actually fit real life and real people.
Mend + Tend is a response to repeated requests from leaders and teams for a collective pause to replenish, reflect and redesign. The event is at the iconic Manchester Museum Top Floor Hub, a dynamic, community-centred space for action, learning and dreaming.
Inspiring Speakers.
Hear real stories, fresh perspectives and practical insights about healthy work that values wellbeing alongside impact.
With a Speakers Lounge and Live Podcast Panel we’ll explore what do to when pressure is rising but capacity isn’t and how work looks and feels when its redesigned around people.
Powerful Networking.
Connect and rethink work-world design with other brilliant people.
Make meaningful connections and deepen your network with a Map of Brilliant Things, and build collective momentum towards healthier work cultures.
35 contributors are confirmed. 57 people joined the waitlist in the first 2 weeks and tickets have now been released.
Nurturing Practices.
Try creative, reflective activities that help you tend to your wellbeing.
Work across health, education and community sectors is under increasing strain. Leaders are holding compassion responsibility and pressure, all at the same time. Nurturing wellbeing is vital.
Craft change through upcycling, learn about designing work using reiki principles or use creativity to explore actionable ideas for healthy work lives.
Who is Tend + Tend for?
Mend + Tend is for leaders, managers and teams in health, education and community settings who care deeply about people and impact, but are feeling the strain of constant urgency, rising pressure and ways of working that no longer fit real life.
Shaped by years of working alongside organisations facing burnout, change and complexity, Mend + Tend brings together people who are ready to pause, learn from others, and begin redesigning so it can be secure, sustainable and genuinely supportive.
- Leaders and teams experiencing high pressure and urgency.
- People who know the problem isn’t them and want to create change.
- People ready to reduce pressure and create sustainable ways of working.
Speakers and Podcast Panel
We have curated a range of outstanding speakers, who will share 10min talks on the topic of Transformation and a brilliant podcast panel,who will discuss practical ways to make change happen.
| Razia Shaikh-Patel, Women Empowerment Through Art Uplifting Manchesters Women: Transforming Struggles Into Strengths |
| Anna Taylor, InSitu Your Place to Contribute: From Chronic Health to Positive Leadership |
| Kerry Tottingham, Faye Bertram and Tess Basson, A Brilliant Thing CIC Healing-Centred Work World: Urgency to sustainability |
| Susie Cuthill, Future of Greater Manchester and Well [enough] Core Values to Fulfilment: Living a Life that feels well |
| Harvey Kennedy-Pitt, Get Unstukk From the margins to the table: Resisting power and reclaiming place in health equity movements |
| Laura Potts, Your Endo Events Turning self advocacy into impact |
| Beth Creedon The hidden system that decides our life and how to lead it consciously. |
What’s On?
Explore the Campaign Zone to discover the campaigns behind change across health, education and community sectors.
Step into ‘The Brilliant Box’ in our Toolkit Zone to explore practical tools and resources for transformation from a range of social enterprises.
Support yourself and others with nourishing wellbeing activities in the Wellbeing Zone.
Be inspired to ‘Design your Own’ change in the Transformation Zone with talks on turning pain into power and reframing challenges into solutions.
Mend + Tend drives forward Manchester Museum’s mission to build a more sustainable world and involves 25 brilliant contributors from across purpose-led sectors.
What you can expect!
A warm welcome, inspiration, space to nurture your ideas, wellbeing and purpose.
Mend + Tend is shaped though Healing-Centred Design® an approach that goes beyond trauma-informed practice to actively design work that is safe, supportive and sustainable by default, not just responsive when things break.
There are limited places (to keep it spacious and relational) to join us in redesigning how work works. We wont be asking individuals to cope better inside unhealthy systems, instead expect depth without heaviness, reflection without fluff, and ideas and support you can actually use.
Mend + Tend 2026 Zones
Mend + Tend introduces the Healing-Centred Work World, a place where work is designed for real life.
What is ‘Healing-Centred’?
Trauma-informed practice is now widely adopted across health, education and community sectors to create safe services and projects. Healing-centred work builds on this foundation by nurturing team wellbeing, organisational capacity and sector sustainability.
A Healing-Centred Work World:
- Accepts that people’s lives show up at work
- Designs flexibility into systems and working practices
- Aligns culture, operations and strategy with sustainability
Feedback from last years event!
