My name is Anthony, I’m 40 years old and have been working in the community for just short of 20 years. For the first 14 I worked in the Youth Service and Connexions, what used to be known as the Careers Service.

I was made redundant in 2011 and, to cut a long story short, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, although it didn’t feel like that at the time!

It doesn’t matter how big or hard you are, if you care about the work you do and it is taken away from you, you wobble.

It would have been relatively easy to pick up another local authority job and, with a wife, two children and a mortgage, it would have been the safer bet.

But I knew in my heart of hearts that I could never go back. I had felt stifled for years and it had made me ill.

Instead I decided to follow my dreams.

My mother – Jaqueline – just happened to be going through a similar struggle of redundancy which was a blessing in disguise as we were able to support each other.

I have a huge respect for my mother’s professionalism and devotion to building community spirit. She’s an inspiration to me and the many others she’s supported over the years.

Our relationship is a mixture of loving solidarity tempered with brutal honest communication. It’s not an easy relationship but it’s real in every sense of the word.

Our willingness to continue to do what we loved as well as my mother’s matriarchal desire to support her eldest son with his dream gave us a fighting chance.

We picked up a bit of work, although not enough to pay my wages. But with some financial reshuffling and my modest redundancy payout, we saw it through.

Since late 2011 it’s been a hairy ride: just enough money to keep me afloat, some great projects delivered and some ‘difficult’ ones that made us take a serious look about what we set out to achieve.

Having facilitated hundreds of community projects over the years we’ve found an approach that works and is sorely needed. We use reminiscence as a mindfulness tool to improve emotional and psychological wellbeing as well as building community spirit.

Community wellbeing and togetherness seem to be in short supply in today’s world where apathy, confusion and mistrust create misery and division. For many young people this is the norm but the older generation remember how it used to be.

Despite the poverty and war that many older people experienced, they rememberer a time when people stuck together, when it was natural to leave your door open. This ‘memory’ is the foundation to our work and no amount of clinical intervention can bring it back.

Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with people and communities based upon adherence to a conjured-up definition of normality we seek to unlock creativity, share life stories and celebrate life.

We aim to develop trusting relationships within groups with the understanding that they have all the answers to their individual and collective wellbeing. In professional parlance this is called ‘Asset Based Community Development’ or ABCD.

And my work is as easy as ABCD when I am truly authentic, meaning that I don’t try and pretend to be any other than myself, ‘to thine own self be true…’

I know this sounds very cryptic, but I know from personal experience it’s extremely difficult to truly be yourself when you’re getting paid to tow the company line. There’s a parapet: don’t get shot!

I consider myself to be the luckiest man alive. It’s a privilege to do what I do, to hear the stories of old, to see people come alive in groups where previously there was great tension and anxiety.

I can now say that all those years of professional crisis – where I questioned myself and the organisations in which I worked – were all worth it. I backed myself to the hilt and it paid off!

Anthony Bradley is part of the Local Reference Group for the Fourteen programme in Harpurhey and Moston. His reminiscence company is called Everyday People.

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“Hello. My name’s Joan Tipping and I’m chair of the North Manchester Health Forum. Thank you all for coming.”

I don’t know much about Joan’s work. I thought coming to today’s Community Conference on Dementia would be a good way of finding out.

Before everyone had found their way to this community room in Manchester Communication Academy I sat down with a coffee and biscuit and introduced myself to one of the delegates.

“I’m writing about Joan because she’s a member of a local group working with Forever Manchester,” I had said to dementia specialist, Alpa Riga. It turns out that Alpa used to work with Joan in the local health trust.

“She’s now moved into the voluntary sector,” Alpa explained, “and she manages the Wellbeing Centre in Harpurhey. The centre is really influential and Joan is always up for piloting fresh ideas.”

“She’s quite a remarkable force then?”

“She is, yes, absolutely. She’s always taking on innovative new work and she’s currently looking at what the community needs in terms of dementia support.”

Joan is now telling her audience of health professionals, community representatives and carers how the Wellbeing Centre is trying to make their area more dementia-friendly. “And then, hopefully, that will spread out to other communities too,” she says.

“The reason we’re having this conference is to respond to people’s needs in a community way.”

How refreshing: listen to local people, hear what they need and tailor local services to meet those needs. Even better, support the community in finding their own, long-term solutions. It seems Joan has cottoned onto this approach long ago.

“In 1999, we set up the guided walks because people wanted a safe way of taking exercise. Those walks still happen every Tuesday afternoon. Next we set up Heart Beat, for those who had suffered a heart attack and had nowhere locally to exercise. That’s still going strong every Monday.”

Now Joan has her sights on supporting dementia sufferers and their carers.

She next introduces Dr Ruth Thompson, a Manchester GP and commissioner of mental health services, who gives us an overview on dementia. “1 in 3 of the over-65s will have dementia,” she says, “and 1 in 3 of us will be involved with caring with someone living with dementia.”

Which all sounds fairly depressing. “But it’s an exciting time for dementia research,” Ruth continues. “The government is committed to finding a cure by 2025 and has invested £250 million into research.”

Ruth sets an upbeat tone and tells us that Manchester has some money for innovative ways of supporting dementia sufferers. This has got to be good news for people like Joan who can put it to good use.

As Ruth rushes off, back to do her clinic, Anthony Bradley from Everyday People takes the floor. Like Joan, Anthony sits on the Local Reference Group, advising Forever Manchester how to allocate the Fourteen funding.

Joan has invited him to talk about the reminiscence work he does with older people.

“We go into sheltered schemes, residential homes and community groups where we try to facilitate stronger relationships,” he explains. “Those relationships are the key to tackling social isolation which is the cause of much ill health.”

Anthony explains that music is a powerful tool in his work. “Yesterday we played songs from the musicals, from Evita, and a few of the ladies started crying.

“At the end of the session they thanked me because the music had evoked certain emotions which they felt safe to express in that environment.”

It’s all fascinating stuff and, as I pack up my things at the mid-morning break, I make a note to chat to Joan in the coming weeks about her dementia work in this community.