Stigma and Culture Change

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.  

Stigma and Culture Change

Thriving at Work Uncategorized



We are really happy to post the slides from the most recent Thriving at Work webinar on dealing with stigma and culture change. Follow the link below to download.    

Stephen and Mick

Action Towards Inclusion news item



  It was great to catch up with Stephen and Mick recently.  Mick has been taking part in Action Towards Inclusion with support from Stephen  – his York Learning keyworker. They’ve been on quite a learning journey, having to deal with the challenges and changes due to COVID and other hurdles along the way. For

Local Linking Events

Action Towards Inclusion news item Thriving at Work



We are really pleased to announce a new round of Local Linking events across York, North Yorkshire and the East Riding as part of Action Towards Inclusion and Thriving at Work. These events are a great networking opportunity – allowing keyworkers, intervention partners, participants and others to get together and share expertise and experiences. For

Celebrating Kickstart

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  We have been absolutely amazed to see how the Kickstart Programme has developed over the past year and feel very proud of what we have achieved as a collective through this programme. We launched Kickstart back in January with the goal to create a partnership of values-based organisations that are committed to creating meaningful

Celebrating Community Grants

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  Did you know Community Grants has been managed by Better Connect in North Yorkshire since 2008?!   We are now on ‘CG5’ which started in 2019 and will be finishing in 2022.  Throughout this time, we have supported many organisations across the local area to secure funding for projects to help improve people’s lives,

Celebrating Action Towards Inclusion

Action Towards Inclusion Uncategorized



  Better Connect and our ATI partners were delighted earlier this year to learn that we were successful in a second programme extension, taking our final end date to June 2023. Since we began delivering ATI a lifetime ago in early 2017, our partnership has achieved phenomenal results for individuals, moving people with many significant

Celebrating Thriving at Work

news item Thriving at Work Uncategorized



  The dream………to create inclusive, accessible and healthy workplaces that increase productivity and create and environment where all employees can thrive. Thriving at Work supports individuals, and organisations to improve their workplace practices, learn how to better support colleagues that may be struggling and provide 121 holistic provision where employees who are neurodiverse, have a

Our Visit to Monday Makers at Rural Arts funded by ESF Community Grants

ESF Community Grants news item



“From the beginning of the course to the end we’ve seen some really lovely changes…” On a cold December day, Simon and Hannah visited Thirsk to meet with a fantastic organisation doing fantastic things!! Rural Arts is a charity that delivers inspiring and inclusive creative opportunities that enrich lives and connect communities. They lead a

Supporting Employees Mental Health

news item Thriving at Work



A big thanks to Nick at York Mind for their recent webinar focusing on supporting people with their mental health.  If you would like to see the slides from the session they can be downloaded by following the link below. We are planning new sessions as part of Thriving at Work in the New Year

Understanding Sensory Overload

news item Thriving at Work



  A big thanks to Autism Plus for their recent webinar focusing on sensory overload.  If you would like to see the slides from the session they can be downloaded by following the link below. We are planning new sessions as part of Thriving at Work in the New Year so please check out the

If You Love What You Do…

Kickstart news item



  “If you Love What You Do You’ll Never Work a Day In Your Life…”   It was great to meet up with James who works as a Kickstart staff member for Sporting Force in Newton Aycliffe.   His life plans had to change due to redundancy and he has made an excellent fresh start with

Winter Wellbeing

news item Thriving at Work



  A big thanks to Nicola Gibbons from York Mind for sharing some valuable tips for winter wellbeing.  If you would like to attend one of our next webinars then please visit our booking page.  These sessions are free and funded as part of our Thriving at Work project. You can also download the resources