Help people reach beyond your own service
When someone needs more than your organisation can provide, a connected network can help you support their next step. Build local relationships, make warm referrals and share resources.
Sometimes the answer is sitting in another organisation
Your team cannot provide everything your community needs. It shouldn't have to.
Someone needs something you don't provide
Identify an appropriate service, agree the next step with the person and make a warm referral through agreed arrangements. Share only the information needed for safe contact and support.
You have something another organisation needs
Members using warehouseConnect can make stock available across the Network. Every member organisation can search that shared stock and request what it needs as part of Network membership.
Shared priorities. Greater opportunity.
Connect around shared priorities and explore collaborative funding where several organisations are tackling the same need.
The same problem keeps getting in the way
Bring it to the Network. Common needs can inform future support, collaborative projects and the technology developed around member organisations.
A family needs a cot.
The worker supporting them doesn't need to ring around every organisation they know. They can search resources available across the Network, find a cot another member has listed and request it as part of Network membership.
Need → search → request → support.
That is the kind of practical collaboration the Network exists to make easier.
Look across stock and resources that other Network members have made available.
See that another organisation has the cot the family needs.
Ask for it directly through the network — without ringing around.
Help with the next step, not just another number.
Support the next step
Signposting gives someone information about another service. A warm referral helps make the connection: the referring organisation agrees the next step with the person and passes the necessary information so the receiving service can contact them.
The aim is to reduce the burden of navigating services and repeatedly explaining what has happened.
Care at the handover
Check that the service is appropriate, explain what will be shared and with whom, and agree a safe way to make contact. Share only what is necessary through agreed referral arrangements, with consent where appropriate and a suitable lawful basis.
Each organisation remains responsible for its safeguarding and information-sharing duties. Each referral is tracked from sent, to accepted, to contact made and closed with an outcome, and referrals that stall are flagged. The organisation that helped records what happened, and you confirm whether the person got the help they needed. Make the next step clear and follow the agreed process if a service cannot help.
What if another member needs the equipment you already have?
Alongside its main digital inclusion work and local drop-ins, LetsTechTogether tracks donated technology that is ready to go back into the community. Once stock is marked as available to the Network, every member can see it, search it and request it as part of Network membership.
Find support. Connect services. Learn from activity.
Connect
Organisations collaborate, refer people to appropriate services and share resources. Explore the Network →
Reach
Help Is Near helps people find appropriate local support. Find support with Help Is Near →
Understand
Network Intelligence helps the Network, councils and funders understand activity, demand signals, provision and potential gaps. Explore Network Intelligence →
Make local support easier to find.
Help people find a starting point
People need a way to find support as well as organisations that can provide it. Help Is Near helps people explore appropriate local services, whether they are looking for themselves or helping someone else.
Help Is Near is a CrisisConnect Network CIC service, powered by CrisisConnect. The CIC operates the service; CrisisConnect Ltd builds and operates the technology behind it.
Find local support →A public route into community support
Use Help Is Near to find service information, then check availability, eligibility and access arrangements with the provider. A listing does not guarantee that a service can meet every request.
For organisations, it adds a public route to support alongside the relationships, referrals and resource sharing within the Network.
About Help Is Near →Practical tools, supported by Network relationships.
CrisisConnect Ltd builds and operates the CrisisConnect technology. Members use networkConnect to share resources, request stock and make direct referrals. CrisisConnect Network CIC helps organisations participate, collaborate and shape what comes next.
Bring your organisation into the network
Tell us what you do, who you support and where working with other organisations could make a difference.