2025 here we come, and a look back over 2024!
Ruth Kettle, CEO of Inspire North, takes the opportunity in this New Year blog, to reflect on 2024 and to think of what 2025 will bring to Inspire North. As ever we have excelled and have much to be proud of some of which is captured within this blog.
A new year can bring with it a sense of hope, optimism, and excitement and despite the many challenges we faced in 2024 I remain excited about the year ahead.
We will move into the second year of our 5-year strategy and the first big milestone on 31st March 25 will be completing the amalgamation, whereby Community Links, Foundation and Inspire North will all become one CBS, with Bridging the Gap remaining as a subsidiary.
In May we have our whole organisation employee conference to look forward to, our first one for a couple of years and we are developing exciting plans.
We know it will be another challenging year as adequate funding for Health, Housing and Social Care is yet to be attained but we will continue to look for opportunities to grow, for new partnerships and new ways of working to ensure we are fit for the future, no matter what awaits.
I wanted to reflect on the achievements of 2024 before we go head long into the new year, there is a lot to celebrate, and I thank you all for your continued hard work and dedication. Apologies if something you were involved in didn’t make the cut. It was hard to cut it down to just one or 2 things a month! In fact, in January there were 4 things too good to miss!
January
We were pleased as punch to complete Armley Lodge, a development of three self-contained flats for Foundation’s Our Way Leeds as move-on accommodation for young people who are, or who are at risk of becoming, homeless. This was our first ever development with a grant form Homes England and it is furbished to a high standard.
We were so lucky that The Yorkshire North and East Methodist District and Carecent are took part in the annual Sleep Out for Homelessness Event to raise money for Carecent and Inspire North! and raise awareness about homelessness and the lives it affects.
We were delighted to have won the bid to continue delivering our current Durham Domestic Abuse (DAN) Service, and to have successfully bid to continue delivering our work with those who cause harm through our +Choices Domestic Abuse Service in North Yorkshire.
Young Dementia Leeds
appeared on BBC Look North as we are undertaking a research project with Leeds Beckett University to understand what services are available and what needs to be improved for those caring for individuals with young onset dementia.
February
REST Stop Service turned ONE and celebrated its first birthday in style!
The Accommodation Gateway Team applied for the Leeds Community Foundation ‘Stay Well This Winter Grant’ and successfully secured a £2,580 to purchase over 100 items from air fryers to heated blankets so clients can cook hot meals and stay warm this winter.
Bradford Dementia Hub Launch Event! The Hub had been supporting its clients for a while but showed us what they do at an event at Odsal Stadium.
March
Calderdale Dementia Hub turned Two!
April
Foundation Richmond had been working with Richmond School and Sixth Form College for a few months with the school supporting the team through various activities and we were so pleased to see the team appear in the school’s newsletter.
After the success of Men’s Talk Digital in February – a showcase of the films created in 2023, Men’s Talk now have a new and updated webpage. All the latest updates and news can be found here, including details of new performance projects.
Our new Inclusive Business and Growth Strategy 2024-2029 was launched.
May
Our dementia hubs took part in #DementiaActionWeek with lots of fun activities. We are so proud of the teams and their dedication and commitment to helping raise awareness of dementia.
We launched our New Complaints Satisfaction Form to gather feedback on how effectively we handle and resolve complaints. By analysing this feedback, we will enhance our complaint resolution process and improve our service quality.
June
RISE Key Worker Jo Donnelly has been featured in an article about her fantastic work with a client who signed up for the RISE programme. With Jo’s guidance and support, he has flourished, moved into education, and is looking towards a bright future.
The UEFA Euro 2024 saw the re-launch of our #NoExcuseForAbuse campaign. As we saw from the 2022 World Cup, cases of domestic abuse increase during football tournaments, especially when England is playing. We shared information, raised awareness, and offered support lines around domestic abuse.
We achieved an ‘Exceeding’ standard on our submission to the DSP Toolkit, an online selfassessment tool that allows organisations to measure their performance against the National Data Guardian’s 10 data security standards. This is the 4th year running that we have achieved the standard.
July
We launched our Insight 2 Housing Newsletter aimed at all services that deliver housing and support summarising work and updating everyone about our responsibilities as a Registered Social Landlord, and the legislation that underpins it. We also created a new Insight2Housing intranet page for all things housingrelated.
August
We continued to show our support and allyship in standing against the Far Right and their acts of domestic terrorism, islamophobia, and racism. We ensured there was flexibility in how staff worked to maintain personal safety. Each service developed a ‘Statement of Behaviour Towards Staff’ that includes addressing racism from clients.
It was a special year for Foundation, celebrating 40 amazing years of support to our clients establishing itself as a charity on 4th September 1984. This is a huge achievement and testament to all the hard work of those who have been involved along our journey.
September
We were successful in achieving the renewal of our Investing in Volunteers award.
Sharon and Vicki from YDL decided to take the plunge by doing a skydive to raise money for St. Gemma’s Hospice and our own Young Dementia Leeds.
October
On 1 October Community Links, Foundation and Inspire North all became Community Benefit Societies.
There was some exciting news for one of our dedicated employees at Harrogate Young People’s Pathway recently. Jayne Millar had her hard work recognised by winning Leaving Care’s Care Leaver Champion Award!
November
Whilst we knew we had maintained our 2* Best Companies Status in October we were thrilled to find out we had climbed the tables in all areas of being a best company to work for, moving from 85th to 67th nationally, 32nd to 27th regionally and 13th to 12th in the charity sector, compared to last year’s results.
December
We were thrilled to announce that Inspire North ranked number 10 in the 2024/25 Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers List (IT50), acknowledging organisations which are most consistent throughout the whole of their organisation and encompass all types of diversity.
New Branding approved by Board. You will have to wait until 1 April for the big reveal.