On Thursday 5 November, our Artistic Director Parvez Qadir was named winner of the Individual Making a Difference Award at the This Is Manchester Awards 2026, held at Emirates Old Trafford and hosted by TV personality, Amy Powell.
This award recognises an individual delivering clear and measurable positive impact on people and communities across Greater Manchester.
Parvez founded Breaking Barriers in Rochdale in 2019 with a clear purpose to create high-quality, socially impactful work with communities that the arts sector has historically underserved, and to build genuine pathways for young people into the creative industries.
As a British South Asian creative from a working-class background, he had experienced first-hand the barriers that prevent people from underrepresented communities from accessing and progressing in the arts. Breaking Barriers was founded as a direct response to that.
Six years on, under Parvez’s leadership, we have delivered over 80 projects, reached nearly 30,000 young people through our Theatre in Education programmes, engaged over 200 artists and built audiences of over 100,000 through live events and 655,000 digitally.
Two programmes were central to Parvez’s nomination.
Crossing the Line is our Theatre in Education programme addressing child criminal exploitation (CCE) and county lines. Since 2019 it has reached over 22,500 young people across 200+ schools in Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and Derbyshire, commissioned by Greater Manchester Police, the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, Salford City Council, East Lancashire Police and the National County Lines Coordination Centre. A single session produces a 60% increase in awareness of grooming and its signs and a 33% increase in understanding of peer pressure.
Blind Side, another one of our Theatre in Education programmes on violence against women and girls (VWAG), has reached over 6,800 students across 60+ schools, recording a 38% increase in understanding of VAWG after a single performance.
This recognition comes just weeks after Breaking Barriers won the Spark the Change Award at the National Arts and Cultural Education Awards 2026 for Crossing the Line, making this an extraordinary period of national recognition for our team and our work.
We are a Rochdale organisation, but we are proud to deliver impact not only in our home town, but across Greater Manchester and nationally.
