News
Our Founder, Sirinda Bhandal, talks about our journey into social prescribing Simply Connect is born from a Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) – Voluntary Action Sheffield. In 2008 we spotted an opportunity to support the voluntary and community sector through the effective use of digital. Many organisations were struggling to provide monitoring and impact reporting…
Today the NHS published its Long Term Plan which focusses on giving everyone the best start in life; helping people live well with long term conditions, such as cancer and dementia; and helping people age well. The Plan covers a number of areas including; how the NHS will support people to take more control…
With 2019 just around the corner, we’re looking back at our highlights from 2018. Launching Simply Connect 2018, was an exciting year for us! VC Connect became Simply Connect Solutions, ten years after Sirinda set up our original software business. Whilst the sector and our services have evolved and changed over the years, our…
We’re delighted to see the launch of our newest social prescribing project, Connect Well West Kent – a Department of Health funded service. This new service will be delivered by our existing partners, Involve Kent, and will see a team of social prescribers based in 5 GPs surgeries across West Kent to support people…
We’re excited to be sponsoring NAVCA’s forthcoming 2018 conference – Forging Community. The event brings two days of debate, learning and collaboration, all about community, and how people and communities are re-shaping our society. Technology is bringing a world of possibilities, allowing us to do more, know more and reach further and wider than ever…
Connect Well Croydon is our latest social prescribing project to launch, using a volunteer-supported model to refer people to community-based services. We’ve been working with Karen Chillman, Head of Volunteering at Volunteer Centre Croydon, to set up the Connect Well Croydon social prescribing service to support local people access community-based services, and help address some of…
Did you know our social prescribing platform has been supporting self-referrals since 2017? Residents in Essex have been using our ‘Connect Well’ digital platform to access local support services to help improve their health and wellbeing. By accessing the application on their smart-phone or tablet, people can quickly make a self-referral directly into quality assured…
Case Study Mike Plows, Chief Executive – Bath & North East Somerset Community Volunteering Previously, we were using Do-it to host our volunteering opportunities for the area. Unfortunately we had numerous problems with it, and as a Volunteer Centre, it allowed us minimum flexibility. During the initial year of Do-it going live we had to increase our…
Karen Chillman, Head of Volunteering at Volunteer Centre Croydon, explains why she worked with us to set up a community-asset based social prescribing project. “Connect Well Croydon has been born from a local need. Our Volunteer Centre is based within the Centrale Shopping Centre, and we had a large number of people coming in who…
The Digital Fund is a new £15 million Big Lottery funding programme to support charities and community organisations to use digital tools and approaches to support people and communities to thrive. There are two strands of funding available, depending upon the size and age of your organisations, with more rounds coming in 2019. This could…