We have expertise in community-based research, impact assessing services, co-production with service users, developing evidence-based practice and evaluating projects.

NBCT Conference 2023 – Tackling Racial Health Inequalities in Northamptonshire

The NBCT Conference was an opportunity to bring senior and middle managers from across the NHS together, local authorities and the VCSE with Black community voluntary and community leaders to create the space for people to learn and share more about the challenges and opportunities to work together. Our focus included:

• Co-production for the development of new ideas, services.

• Co-delivery and delivery of services by the Black VCSE organisations.

• Supporting long-term strategy and ways of working in the NHS and other partners to
improve outcomes for people through local engagement.

• The role of Community champions for health and well-being which NBCT has
developed.

Links to reports:

NBCT Conference Report December 2023

NBCT Conference Presentation December 2023

Ageing Well Programme – Supporting Asian Older People in Northamptonshire 2022 – 2024

The Ageing Well team for Asian communities, offered by Support Northamptonshire‘s Community Champions team supports South Asian Older people (above the age of 65) to access health and social care and provides support with wellbeing, connecting people to services and reducing social isolation.

We support different people with different levels of need:

  • People who need to access health services or have recently been hospitalised
  • People in care homes and nursing homes
  • People with multiple health needs
  • People with disabilities
  • Socially isolated people
  • Families of vulnerable people looking for support
  • People who have English as a second language or cannot speak English

We want to make sure we provide the best support for people using services and their families.

Links to reports:

Active Communities Programme 

Supporting Young People in Wellingborough 2021 – 2023

Background:

As Covid Restrictions ease, and young people face new barriers to engagement, including social isolation, we wanted to provide a platform for young people to discuss and action the things that are most important to them. Support Northamptonshire worked alongside Made With Many to develop a Youth Forum, with a specific focus and subgroups supporting young people aged 14-18 from Black and Asian backgrounds; and those from the Hemmingwell and Queensway estates of the town.

The aims of the forum were to reach 25-30 young people:

  • To enable young people to develop and take ownership of the Youth Forum, by designing the branding and actions of the group.
  • To give opportunities for young people to be consulted on issues that affect them within their communities, giving a ‘voice’ to young people in Wellingborough.
  • To offer opportunities for skills development by allowing young people to decide on key social action and creative skills programmes for other young people in Wellingborough.
  • To build confidence, give the young people a chance to express themselves and promote youth social action through creative means.

To achieve this we ran fortnightly Youth Forum sessions, including creative activities, skills development sessions and further planning sessions for social action within the community.

Alongside this work we developed a Steering Group of partners involved with young people in Wellingborough to support shared learning about what we all do and provide feedback/ advice on the project and how it could explore bringing out the ‘voice’ of young people.

Links to reports:

Supporting Young People in Wellingborough (SYPW) Project – End of Grant Report December 2023

Supporting Young People in Wellingborough (SYPW) Project – End of Grant Report December 2023 APPENDICES

APPENDIX 3.1 Greetings From… Evaluation

Wellingborough Youth Forum Evaluation Video

Community Champions Programme October 2021 to April 2022 – Supporting People in Black communities to: ‘Live Safe, Live Healthy and Live Happy during Covid19′

Support Northamptonshire commenced the first Community Champions programme funded by MHCLG between April 2021 and September 2021. The 2nd Community Champions programme was funded through COMF funding between October 2021 and April 2022.
This report brings together the evaluation and findings from both the programmes with the aim of:
• Reporting on the outcomes of the Community Champions Programme
• Highlighting the specific impact of Covid and health inequalities faced by Black communities in Northamptonshire
• Looking at the evidence to see ‘what works’ and how we can redress health and
other inequalities experienced by Black communities in Northamptonshire.
There is a large body of evidence gathered in this report at an unprecedented time of Covid. We believe that there has not previously been such extensive and comprehensive gathering of evidential information regarding engagement with black communities, health inequalities faced by black communities and their experiences of accessing health and other services.
This work should be of real value as it offers an insight into how to reach black communities, help redress health and other inequalities and how services can be provided for black communities.
We also believe that the ICS Transformation plans and the focus on health inequalities by the public sector can be informed by this work

Links to Reports:

Executive Summary – July 2022

COMF Community Champions Final Evaluation Report Oct 2021-April 2022 Final

COMF Community Champions Final Evaluation Appendices 1-7 Final

April 2022 COMF Community Champions Conversations Analysis Appendix 8 Final

Between 2013-2015 we commissioned community-based research for priority wards in Wellingborough.

Links to reports:

Hemmingwell 2013
Queensway 2014
Croyland 2014
Compliation 3 Wards 2014

In 2016 we completed a 3 year Impact Report of our Multiagency Service using our collaborative IT platform, ‘Supporting You’

Link to report

Supporting Wellingborough – CLES Independent Evaluation Report 2016

CLES Executive Summary 2016

National Mind profiled the work of Support Northamptonshire

Link to report

Developing Local Communities 2015 – Partnership Programme

Developing Local Communities 2014

People with disabilities speak out about Covid

People with underlying health issues and disabilities in North Northamptonshire are growing increasingly worried about the lifting of Covid restrictions – this is the outcome from the county’s first ever ‘Forum for disabled people’. More than 50 adults came along to the online event on Thursday 15th July – hosted by Teamwork Trust as part of a wider project to deliver Covid-19 advice and vaccination information to those most at risk from the pandemic. The forum was attended by a mix of service providers, council officers and people with disabilities who raised concerns about how life without restrictions will make them unsafe. They also said that that those with underlying health issues are still the most vulnerable in society and that their views are not being respected.

Victoria Bell, Head of Development at Teamwork Trust said: “We heard moving stories from people who are understandably anxious and do not feel like they are being listened to. The aim is that the forum will take on board their issues and lobby key decision makers to make changes. We will effectively become their voice.

“This first ever forum was all part of the bigger ‘Community Champions’ project to support local communities most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are already planning a mix of regular face-to-face and online meetings so that we can hear from and help others.”

The Covid Community Champions Programme is being managed by Support Northamptonshire and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and North Northamptonshire Council. Teamwork Trust is now recruiting a team of Community Champions, who are people with lived experience, to help lead the project and run future events. Lorraine Campbell is an existing Community Champion. She said: “It was great to see so many faces at the event who share the same concerns, and I want to make sure we all get our voices heard so that we as a group of people do not the most ignored in this pandemic.”

For more information on becoming a Community Champion contact Teamwork Trust on 07377803710 or email communitychampions@teamworktrust.co.uk.

The Support Northamptonshire Customer Forum engaged with us to develop a locality multiagency service.