Help build a connected local support ecosystem.
Start with the barriers people face when looking for help. Work with community organisations to strengthen local relationships, supported referrals and access to services.
What would “no wrong door” look like locally?
Connect existing services
Explore where referral routes break down and which relationships, access arrangements or shared resources could help.
Support participation
Help a group of organisations join the Network, maintain useful service information and develop agreed ways of working.
Learn with local context
Use Network Intelligence alongside other evidence and community experience. Make participation, definitions and limitations explicit.
Fund the capability as well as the activity.
Build the local connections
A connected network needs time, relationships and clear responsibilities. We can explore onboarding, warm referral arrangements, resource sharing and ways for people to discover local services through Help Is Near.
The starting point is the community and the services already working there. Digital access should complement trusted local routes, with attention to language, accessibility, transport and people who cannot use online services.
Agree what progress would mean
Define the participating cohort, shared priorities and feasible measures. Agree how information will be used and protected, and review the experience of organisations and the people they support.
The CIC builds the network, relationships and community ecosystem. CrisisConnect Ltd builds and operates the supporting technology.
Evidence to inform decisions, with limits in view.
Appropriately anonymised and aggregated activity from participating organisations can support shared learning. This includes anonymised referral outcomes: how many people were helped, partly helped or not helped, and why. Relevant Help Is Near search activity may add context, where available and appropriate.
Searches are not people or confirmed need. Zero-result searches are prompts to investigate, not proof of missing provision. The Network does not represent every person or service in an area.
Explore measures, coverage and safeguards →Connected support is one part of a wider response.
The Living Costs in Context reports inform our focus on accessible services, warm referrals and local relationships. They also emphasise income, housing and the wider systems that shape hardship. The Network can support coordination; it does not solve poverty or replace frontline services.
Read our sourced evidence note →Help shape a more connected support network.
Tell us about your community, your organisation or the barriers you want to address.