News
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.
International Women’s Day – The Cheetah Story
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Mental Health
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Wednesday the 8th March is International Women’s Day! This year we will be sharing some stories from our staff team and across our projects of inspirational women. Today, we hear from Hannah who has shared an extract from a book that inspires her daily. American author Glennon Doyle has written many books about her
Multiply – Hannah explains how she uses numeracy skills every day!
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At school.. I hated maths. My brain didn’t understand numbers, algebra, fractions, percentages and because of that I would act out and end up not listening in class! (I know, naughty Hannah!) I scraped a C at GCSE with the support of a maths tutor and many arguments with my parents and felt extremely
Our Finance Director Julie shares her top tips on Personal Budgeting!
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As part of Multiply, our team will be sharing some top tips around finance, household bills, budgeting and numeracy.. first up is Julie our Finance Director! Budgets are not just for business! When I talk to business owners one thing we cover is breakeven points. This is the amount of money they absolutely have to
ATI Participant Stories – Meet Ian
Action Towards Inclusion
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Laura works as the Participant Experience Coordinator on our Action Towards Inclusion Programme. She often reads and hears stories from the participants who access the support and has decided to share some of those in a blog series called ‘ATI Participant Stories’. Today she shares Ian’s story.. Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of
Better Connect visit Co-Lab to talk about Thriving at Work
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Thriving at Work
Today we had the amazing opportunity to speak at Harrogate’s shared work space Co-Lab. Based in Harrogates Convention Centre, Co-Lab is dedicated to helping businesses grow and create more high-value jobs in the Harrogate district. It is delivered by Harrogate Borough Council, and supported by Leeds City Region and York & North Yorkshire LEPS.
Launching our new Multiply Programme
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Multiply is the government’s new £560 million programme to help transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of adults across the UK and will be delivered through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The funding is distributed across local councils and then allocated to providers to deliver various different activities to support individuals with their
The Art of Honest Conversations with Pro-Development
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We were lucky enough to experience a day of training around ‘Honest Conversations’ from the amazing Joanne from Pro-Development Ltd an organisation dedicated to bringing out the best in you, your staff and your business. The day started with pastries, coffee and tables full of goodies such as sweets, highlighters and workbooks with inspiring quotes,
ESF Community Grants – The End of an Era
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ESF Community Grants
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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
Meet Max May – Our Newest Board Member!
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Careers
Meet the Team
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We are so pleased to announce that we have a new Board Member.. meet Max May! A bit about Max.. Max is a North Yorkshire born and bred creative industries and VCSE sector leader with expertise in strategy, organisational development, business planning, innovation, fundraising and partnership development. He’s passionate about access, equity and inclusion,
Action Towards Inclusion – Project Evaluation Opportunity
Action Towards Inclusion
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Better Connect are tendering for a final project evaluation for our Action Towards Inclusion (ATI) programme. ATI is part of Building Better Opportunities, a national programme funded by the European Social Fund and the National Lottery Community Fund. What is the ATI Programme? ATI is a £13million programme taking place across York, North Yorkshire
Goodbye and Thanks to Leon and Liz!
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Today we say goodbye to two of our longest serving board members Leon Fijalkowski and Liz Burdett. Thank you for all the support you have given us over the many years, we are incredibly grateful to you for your guidance and expertise and you will be missed by the whole team! Thank you for
York and North Yorkshire Multiply – Partnership Bid Opportunity
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We are in the process of creating a partnership bid for Multiply funding in York and North Yorkshire. We believe that projects have a greater impact and greater reach when delivered by strong partnerships. There are a lot of opportunities within Multiply that we may be able to contribute to as a partnership. There