The IEP Welcomes a New Fellow

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.  

The IEP Welcomes a New Fellow

Blog Impact Internal Meet the Team news item Research & Reports



We’re delighted to share that our CEO, Natasha Babar-Evans, has recently been awarded Fellowship of The Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP).   An international membership body for employability professionals, the IEP is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to raising standards and championing excellence across the employability sector. The Fellowship programme celebrates individuals who have made a

Read Full Post

Origins, Impact & Legacies: Evaluating Our Rise2Thrive Programme

Blog Impact news item Research & Reports Rise2Thrive Rise2Thrive & Trailblazer



  At the end of March, the first year of Rise2Thrive officially came to a close. But now, a couple of months into the programme’s second year of funding, we’re still reflecting on the initial learnings and legacy of that seminal first year. With the release of our two latest Rise2Thrive evaluation reports, today we’re

Read Full Post

A Final Look- Celebrating The Impact of RISE

Blog Impact news item Research & Reports RISE Rise2Thrive



  At the end of April, delivery officially finished for our yearlong RISE programme, a programme headed by a partnership of 21 community-based organisations across York and North Yorkshire, and led by Better Connect. Lately, we’ve spoken a lot about qualitative impact- of the lives the programme has supported and, in some cases, transformed. We’ve

Read Full Post

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

Read Full Post

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

Read Full Post