History

In 1984 a group of volunteers recognised the lack of support for the city’s
increasing number of rough sleepers and Lifeshare began. In the following
decades, Lifeshare initiatives would become fundamental to the efforts in
tackling homelessness in Manchester whilst remaining committed to its original
mission to help those most in need of help.

Today we achieve this in a number of ways: through our Crisis service
which supports young people with complex issues to build stable lifestyles and
through our original breakfast project, which offers food, warmth and advice at
the weekend and expands over the festive period to open all day. Through our
programmes we run initiatives to develop individual talents and have recently
been involved with the International Arts and Homelessness Summit & Festival.

We are Manchester’s oldest charity dedicated to providing essential services to
people experiencing homelessness and poverty. The charity has pioneered the
development of new initiatives such as rent deposit schemes, sexual health and
drug awareness that are now widely spread. Our institutional status in
Manchester has been gained not just through the longstanding and valued
services we have offered but also by our instrumental role in the establishment
of a number of vital organisations in the sector such as the Booth Centre and the
Big Issue Up North.