Carrie’s Story

Why Voice is Important

One of the 3 strategic goals of Better Connect is to Inspire Change. This involves promoting social inclusion as an essential part of creating vibrant, productive and prosperous communities.  

We aim to inspire change in 3 ways: 

  • Sharing participants stories – Through our projects, our partners have supported thousands of participants. We know that behind these big numbers, each person has their own individual story of how they have been supported to transform their lives. We are delighted that some of these people have chosen to share their stories with us. And now, we get to share those stories with you.  
  • Thinkpieces and blogs – Our staff and partners have a huge amount of knowledge on lots of issues regarding inclusion, diversity, wellbeing and employment. Some of this comes from their work and education and much of it comes from lived experience. We create and share blogs and thinkpieces written by our staff and partners to raise awareness and contribute positively to the conversation about these key issues.  
  • Representation – We are honoured to represent social inclusion issues and the voluntary and community sector in multiagency groups and policy formation. We do this by listening to our partners and participants and using our platforms to amplify their voices and perspectives. We connect policy makers with people on the ground to ensure that policies and funding have the greatest positive impact in communities.  

Carrie’s Story

Action Towards Inclusion



 Carrie is a recent participant on Action Towards Inclusion – a dynamic programme across York, North Yorkshire and the East Riding supporting people into work, training and volunteering. Carrie faced a number of challenges but has made fantastic progress through taking part in the programme. Action Towards Inclusion is funded by the European Social

New Staff at Better Connect

Blog Careers news item



Did you know when you hit 17 zoom boxes on zoom the image quality drops? Well, we found that out over the past few weeks as our lovely staff team has recently grown! It has been such an exciting time for new staff members to join us at Better Connect! We are very excited to

Introducing Better Connect

Blog news item



  This is our first video for our new channel  – Better Connect. It features our Chief Officer  – Sam Alexander – and gives a brief welcome and  outlines some of the exciting changes Transcript of video: Introducing Better Connect   Hi, I’m Sam Alexander and as the CEO of Better Connect, it’s my great pleasure to tell

Kickstart Introduction

Kickstart



This short introduction video features Hannah talking about the Better Connect Kickstart project

Katie and Lynda Kickstart

Kickstart



“I love every second of being in this job and I tell people every single day.” This short video features Katie – a new Kickstart staff member working for Pioneer Projects in North Yorkshire.

Working Hands Helping Communities

ESF Community Grants



This video features the work of Claro Enterprise in Starbeck who have been working with partners Veterans’ Woodcraft to deliver basic skills courses funded by the ESF Community Grants Fund. ESF Community Grants are part of the European Social Fund (ESF) programme and the aim of the fund is to help unemployed people progress towards

Making Moves, The Opportunity Centre, Scarborough

Action Towards Inclusion



Making Moves features the work of Jeni Golder and the Opportunity Centre in Scarborough. Action Towards Inclusion participants have been benefiting from yoga outside – helping build confidence.

Carla’s Story

ESF Community Grants



ESF Community Grants are part of the European Social Fund (ESF) programme and the aim of the fund is to help unemployed people progress towards employment through access to learning and training opportunities. The programme is managed across the York and North Yorkshire by Better Connect.   Selby District AVS is a delivery organisation based

Young Carers Day – Tuesday the 16th March 2021

Blog Carers Plus



Each year Carers Trust organises Young Carers Awareness Day. The purpose of the day is to raise public awareness of the challenges faced by young people because of their caring role, and to campaign for greater support for young carers and their needs.   There are a number of our delivery partners who support young

Hello, and happy LGBT+ History Month!

Blog LGBT+



I’ve got the honour of sharing a bit of modern queer history and also talking a little about where we’ve got to today. There is a long and important history of the struggles the queer community have faced and fought over decades past. In New York, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, which was one

International Day of Persons with Disability – 3rd December 2020

Blog Disability Purple Patch



Thursday 3 December is the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD). Introduced in 1992, the IDPD aims to promote the rights and well-being of disabled people across society. This year’s theme is ‘Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World’. We hope you’re able to take part. We want

Wellbeing at Work – Joe’s Story

Blog Mental Health Wellbeing Resources



We’ve been focusing on mental health and wellbeing this week after celebrating World Mental Health Day last weekend. Joe works for us as ATI Programmes Co-ordinator and had some thoughts about the importance of appropriate policies at work and the impact on staff wellbeing. “Working at Better Connect, it feels like our wellbeing is genuinely