Community Anchor Support

Partnership

Better Connect & Community First Yorkshire

Participants

Closed for participants

Location

North Yorkshire

Audience

A select group of community anchors and hubs across the region

Deadline

March 2025

What is the Community Anchor Programme?

Community Anchors are small, hyper-local organisations across North Yorkshire, deeply embedded in local communities. They offer support, a host of activities and information, and play a crucial role in connecting the dots between organisations, people, services, and the needs of the community.

Funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through North Yorkshire Council Localities Team (formally Stronger Communities), Better Connect and Community First Yorkshire have joined forces to deliver a capacity-building training programme tailored to the Anchor’s needs.

How does it work?

The programme is designed to support and develop these 7 organisational characteristics;

 

  • Being crucial to the place and community where based
  • Being a voice for local people
  • Being independent and community led
  • Being collaborative, open and encouraging of other contributions
  • Being proactive with a can-do mindset
  • Being financially resilient
  • Existing provision on offer 

 

Our training is tailored to the needs of these organisations and the communities they serve – building capacity and resources to be shared with other organisations in the community.

 

Better Connect support

Marketing and communications, policy and process, and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) are just a few of the strands of support Better Connect are offering across the programme with a view of improving outreach, internal systems and inclusivity.

 

Help from Community First Yorkshire

All aspects of governance, funding and volunteering are just a few of the strands of support we are offering across the programme, with a view to building strong foundations and a platform for growth.

 

 

News and Updates

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

Meet our new Board Member – Chris Hailey-Norris!

Blog Impact Meet the Team news item

  We are very excited to announce that we have a new Board Member, Chris Hailey-Norris. Chris has worked with Better Connect as a partner for over 15 years, delivering fantastic support to the community of Selby and beyond through programmes such as Action Towards Inclusion, Community Grants and most recently, Rise and Rise2Thrive. Chris

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

Supporting Anchor Organisations to show their Impact

Blog Community Anchor Support Impact news item

  Sherburn and Villages Community Trust connects people, community spaces, and services across Sherburn in Elmet and surrounding villages to make an inclusive and vibrant place to live. They are the community anchor organisation in Sherburn in Elmet. Community Anchors are small, hyper-local organisations across North Yorkshire, deeply embedded in local communities. They offer support,

‘’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

Meeting Leyburn Community Arts

Blog Community Anchor Support Impact news item

  Leyburn is known for its picturesque market town charm, stunning countryside views, and its location as the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It is also the home to a fabulous organisation ‘Leyburn Community Arts & Community Centre’ who we had the pleasure of visiting last week and meeting with two of their

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

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

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

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

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.

Launching Rise2Thrive

Blog Impact news item RISE Rise2Thrive Thriving at Work

  We are excited to share with you that we have been successful at securing a new partnership programme across York and North Yorkshire, Rise2Thrive! Rise2Thrive is funded through the governments UKSPF fund, and distributed across North Yorkshire Council and City of York Council. What is Rise2Thrive? Building off the success from our previous programmes,

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

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