Launches, Awards & Life Changing Transformation: Celebrating a Year in Programmes

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.  

Launches, Awards & Life Changing Transformation: Celebrating a Year in Programmes

Blog Impact multiply news item Rise2Thrive SHINE



  It’s been a busy year for programmes at Better Connect.   Last March, we kicked off the last year of Multiply delivery (year 3 of 3) with a bang, commissioning two cases studies with Inspired Youth, and in May, excitedly welcomed Rise2Thrive and SHINE to our programme offer. Over the past 12 months, we’ve

Numeracy, Sustainability & Screen Printing – Orb’s Final Session on Multiply

Blog Impact multiply news item



    At the end of this month, we’ll sadly be saying goodbye to Multiply, a 3-year Government funded programme which has enabled thousands of adults across the country to improve their numeracy skills. Across the York & North Yorkshire region, our Multiply partnership has supported hundreds of individuals to find their numeracy feet and

Skills Innovation Fund – Expression of Interest

Blog multiply news item



  Last week Mayor David Skaith launched the Skills Innovation Fund to support skills development in the York and North Yorkshire region over a timeframe of two years, from April 2025 to March 2027.   We believe that this fund could be a good fit for a future programme enabling us to offer ‘hidden curriculum’

Life in Colour – Impact Event

Blog Impact multiply news item Rise2Thrive SHINE



  On Friday 31st January, we held an event at Cedar Court Hotel in Harrogate to celebrate the impact of our programmes and partnerships across Yorkshire. This was our largest event ever with 150 people booked on, our partners, participants, friends and key people from across Yorkshire. The theme of the event was ‘Life in

‘’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

Meet Our Programme Finance and Data Manager – Jacky

Blog Careers Internal Meet the Team multiply news item



  As part of our ‘Meet The Team’ series, over the next few weeks we’ll be focusing on our Finance Department. We’ll celebrate their roles, responsibilities, and relationships with numbers – from crunching the all important data, to processing claims and financial forecasting (we couldn’t resist the Multiply twist!) Today, we’re hearing from our Programme

Meet Our Finance Director – Julie B

Blog Careers Internal Meet the Team multiply news item



    As part of our ‘Meet The Team’ series, over the next few weeks we’ll be focusing on our Finance Department. We’ll celebrate their roles, responsibilities, and relationships with numbers – from crunching the all important data, to processing claims and financial forecasting (we couldn’t resist the Multiply twist!) Today, we’re hearing from our

The Quality Professionals Awards 2024 – We Won!

Blog Careers Impact Internal Meet the Team multiply news item



    The Quality Professionals Awards, in its first year, gathered 200 people from across further education and employability to honour the contribution of quality and compliance professionals. 11 winners awards were presented across 9 categories and two overall outstanding winners were selected from all the finalists. 53 finalists represented organisations across the UK including

The Omari Family Story

Blog Impact multiply news item



  Last month, our Impact Team had the pleasure of creating a film with Inspired Youth, featuring the inspirational Omari family and their keyworkers Yesmien and Amanda from Craven College.  Through the Multiply programme, Keyworkers Yesmien and Amanda met the Omari Family, Ahmad and Mozghan and their 11 children, who fled Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021

Multiply – Kian’s Story

Blog Impact multiply news item



  The Impact Team have been busy at Better Connect recently, collecting stories across our programmes and hearing about how the support is truly changing peoples lives. This month, we had the pleasure of meeting Kian who had received support from CJ. CJ works for York Based CIC Coterminous and is a keyworker on the

Community Fridges, Flexible Starts & Numeracy Support- How Blue Dolphin are Supporting Their Team Through Multiply

Blog Employer Engagement multiply news item Thriving at Work



  As part of the Multiply scheme, our Multiply partners are keen to engage with a range of businesses, big and small, to recalibrate how employers are thinking about recruitment, upskilling, and workplace support through a numerical lens. In line with this employee/employer focus, one of our partners, Autism Plus, have been dropping into workplaces