ESF Community Grants – The End of an Era

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.  

ESF Community Grants – The End of an Era

Blog ESF Community Grants Internal news item



    For the longest of time (2008 to be precise!) Better Connect have managed ESF Community Grants across North Yorkshire. Community Grants enabled partners to access up to £20,000 grants to deliver a wide range of different provision to unemployed or economically inactive individuals with the aim to move them closer to the labour

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“The essence of working at Better Connect is that we really do enjoy working with each other!”

Action Towards Inclusion Blog Careers ESF Community Grants Internal Meet the Team news item



  Today we get to meet Alex and Julie and hear about their experience of working at Better Connect and why they enjoy what they do! We loved talking to these two as its clear that we are not only passionate about what we do at Better Connect but we have fun doing it! For

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Celebrating Community Grants

ESF Community Grants news item Uncategorized



  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,

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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

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New Community Grants Projects

Blog ESF Community Grants news item



  We have been managing ESF Community Grants, alongside Humber Learning Consortium, since 2008! It is our longest running programme at Better Connect and has funded projects for hundreds of different organisations across the years. With the funding for Community Grants drawing to a close next year, we would like to take some time to

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Inclusive and Active Citizens

ESF Community Grants



  Our latest video case study features Jake and the LGBT+ Forum in York.  They have recently been an ESF Community Grants delivery partner – offering confidence building courses sand support in CV writing and interview techniques to unemployed people in North Yorkshire. Jake describes the overall work of the forum as “…wanting to help

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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

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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

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