Origins, Impact & Legacies: Evaluating Our Rise2Thrive Programme

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.  

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

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

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

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

Rise2Thrive – Meet St Giles

Blog Impact news item Rise2Thrive



  We’ve recently launched a new programme for the people of York and North Yorkshire – have you heard? Following the success of our RISE programme, Rise2Thrive (R2T) is the new iteration, with new partners and a mission to support individuals at all stages of their employment journey.  30 partners strong, we’ve collaborated with many of our

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

Mindful Photography UK – New Rise2Thrive Partner

Blog news item Rise2Thrive



  We’ve recently launched a new programme for the people of York and North Yorkshire – have you heard? Following the success of our RISE programme, Rise2Thrive (R2T) is the new iteration, with new partners and a mission to support individuals at all stages of their employment journey to boot. 33 partners strong, we’ve collaborated

Harrogate Skills For Living – Meet one of our R2T Partners!

Blog Disability Impact news item Rise2Thrive Thriving at Work



  We’ve recently launched a new programme for the people of York and North Yorkshire – have you heard? Following the success of our RISE programme, Rise2Thrive (R2T) is the new iteration, with new partners and a mission to support individuals at all stages of their employment journey to boot. 33 partners strong, we’ve collaborated

Meet Our RT2 Partners – Training For Employment

Blog Impact news item Rise2Thrive



  We’ve recently launched a new programme for the people of York and North Yorkshire – have you heard? Following the success of our RISE programme, Rise2Thrive (R2T) is the new iteration, with new partners and a mission to support individuals at all stages of their employment journey to boot. 33 partners strong, we’ve collaborated

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

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,