The first workshop (Workshop 1) focussed on exploring and sharing practices of building solidarity with, within and between local diverse racialised, gendered and classed communities with the academic community. It also aimed to help us extend our long-standing research collaborations across various disciplines (such as Health and Green Research) within the university, including from within the Manchester Institute of Education (e.g., Power, Inequalities, Activism), SEED and Faculty of Humanities and beyond (e.g. medicine) at the University of Manchester. We also built our advisory group for a larger project from this meeting.