Partnerships in Action – Rural Arts & Thrive Outside

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.  

Partnerships in Action – Rural Arts & Thrive Outside

Blog Impact Mental Health news item Rise2Thrive



  In September, our team spent an inspiring morning capturing some of the support taking place on the Rise2Thrive [R2T] programme with two of our delivery partners, Thirsk based charity Rural Arts, and York based Thrive Outside – a nature-based CIC combining their love of green spaces with outdoor crafts. Part of an ongoing collaboration

‘’Multiply is maths, but in a real way” – Shopping on a Budget With Coterminous CIC

Blog Impact Mental Health multiply news item



  A couple of weeks ago Christine and Laura visited York Travellers Trust, to sit in on the penultimate session of Coterminous’s ‘Shopping on a Budget’ course. Part of the support on offer through the Multiply programme, Coterminous’s CJ Allison and Harrie Smith (of Transcending Fusion), have been hosting a series of budgeting sessions at the

Upcycling, Furniture Restoration & Community Engagement – Meet Futureworks

Blog Impact Mental Health multiply news item Rise2Thrive



Our Impact team recently spent the day in Scarborough visiting Futureworks, before heading down to Mindful Photography UK’s exhibition at The Street.  Having worked with us over many years and multiple programmes, it’s clear the positive impact that Futureworks have on the Scarborough community, and it’s a pleasure to have the team as part of

Reflections & New Connections – Orb’s Ways to Wellbeing Group

Blog Impact Mental Health news item Rise2Thrive Wellbeing Resources



  A couple of weeks ago, our impact team had the opportunity to sit in on a session with Orb Community Arts (one of our brilliant R2T and Multiply partners) and to speak with some of their service users about a course they’d taken part in with the arts-based charity. Meeting Gemma and Barbara amidst

Celebrating Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

Blog Careers Internal LGBT+ Meet the Team Mental Health news item



  In celebration of Pride month, today we’re hearing from our lovely Programme Manager, Joe, about his recent appointment as a board member at York LGBT Forum – and his experience attending York Pride as a volunteer with this fantastic charity!  York Pride 2024  I recently joined the board of York LGBT Forum, a wonderful

Luke’s Story on RISE

Blog Impact Mental Health news item RISE Rise2Thrive



        As part of our RISE celebration series and as we conclude the programme, today the focus is on Luke’s journey with RISE partner Foundation UK, and dedicated Selby & Harrogate based Keyworker, Joanna (Jo). Based across the North of England, Foundation UK have been working with care leavers, domestic abuse victims,

Launching SHINE ☀️

Blog Impact Mental Health news item SHINE Thriving at Work



  After the launch of Rise2Thrive last week, we’re doubly excited to share with you that we’ve been successful in securing another new partnership programme, SHINE (Supporting Health Interventions, Neurodiversity, and Employment), which will operate across East Riding! SHINE is funded via the Government’s UKSPF fund and distributed through The East Riding of Yorkshire’s Council.

Up For RISE – Celebrating Up For Yorkshire & their RISE Participants!

Blog Impact Mental Health news item RISE



  Over the past few weeks, our Impact Team have been especially busy visiting our partners and listening to participant stories across our projects! This week we’re celebrating Selby’s Up For Yorkshire, having recently visited and facilitated a discussion with a few of their RISE participants. Spearheaded by a team of vibrant staff passionate about

Celebrating Go4it & The Impact of RISE

Blog Mental Health news item RISE



  At Better Connect, we want to celebrate our partners and the fantastic work they do across our programmes! Last week we had the pleasure of visiting the team at Go4It and spent the day with them learning more about their team, their stories and what they do. Scarborough based, Go4it are passionate about people

Apertures, City Maps & Budgeting- Up for Yorkshire on Jon’s Multiply Journey

Blog Mental Health multiply news item RISE



  Up for Yorkshire are one of our fantastic partners on the Multiply programme, and have been running a range of sessions across year 2 of provision to inspire numbers confidence and encourage participants to utilise their maths skills on the daily. From bushcraft to budgeting, to cooking, sewing, and photography geared sessions, the team are

Report Launch! A Qualitative Evaluation of Better Connect’s Thriving at Work: Workplace Support

Blog Disability Mental Health news item Research & Reports Thriving at Work



  Last week, we launched our in-house Thriving at Work report, and as part of the round-up, today we’re excited to launch our evaluative report on the 121 Workplace Support strand of the programme – read it here. Led by Dr Jane Suter, Dr Annie Irvine, and former TAW Programme Manager, Emma Lyons, this report

The Impact of Thriving at Work – Connecting The Dots Between Diversity and Inclusion

Blog Disability Mental Health news item Research & Reports Thriving at Work



  In June 2023, we said goodbye to our Thriving at Work (TAW) programme, a partnership programme which spanned more than two years and supported over eight hundred individuals in their journeys towards workplace wellbeing. Our partnership vision centred on creating more robust policies and practices surrounding diversity and inclusion, offered via a series of