New contracts for Your Voice Counts

New contracts and successful grant funding bids mean growth and expansion for Your Voice Counts

Blog by David Woolley, Your Voice Counts Chief Executive

We believe advocacy should be accessible to everyone who needs it so I’m delighted that we’ve secured a new advocacy contract in South Tyneside which, alongside existing support from the local authority and NHS Integrated Care Board, gives us a much more comprehensive offer in the borough. We will now be able to grow our general advocacy service in the area, meaning that more people will be able to benefit from our support - even if they aren't eligible for statutory advocacy. As a result of this growth, I'm also pleased that we are now in a position to recruit additional staff to work in our advocacy service - visit www.yvc.org.uk/jobs for details of our current vacancies.

In addition to growing our advocacy offer, we’ve also successfully bid for funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to deliver two exciting new projects across Gateshead and South Tyneside. Each of these developments strengthens our ability to support people who might otherwise struggle to have their voices heard, and we're looking forward to mobilising these projects and seeing their impact over the coming months and years.

We are proud of the work we've done with partners in South Tyneside to build a comprehensive offer of support across the borough. We have ambitions to have the same presence across Gateshead and we're working with partners and funders to explore what this might look like in future. An early example of this work is our new initiative in Chopwell, funded by Gateshead Council and the Community Foundation North East's VCSE Support Fund.

As ever, I want to thank our dedicated team, our partners and the people who use our services for helping us to grow in the right way, keeping community, collaboration and compassion at the heart of all we do.

Spotlight on our projects

Gateshead VCSE Support Fund – reaching people in Outer West Gateshead

We know that not everyone in Gateshead has equal access to the support they need. Fewer than 5% of the people supported by our Gateshead Communities service for people with a learning disability currently live in the Outer West of the borough—a gap we are determined to close.

Thanks to Gateshead Council and the Community Foundation North East's VCSE Support Fund, we will soon be launching a new weekly drop-in session in Chopwell. These sessions will offer peer-led community engagement, consultation and one-to-one support, providing accessible information and practical advice to people with learning disabilities in the area. Building on the success of our central Gateshead drop-in, this project is all about bringing support closer to home to reduce barriers and enable more people to get the support they need.

Our Help, Our Way – A National Lottery funded 3-year project

This new project will work with learning disability communities in both Gateshead and South Tyneside to support people to develop their self-care skills, independence and social connections. Designed in partnership with people with lived experience, Our Help, Our Way will offer a programme of co-designed workshops, covering topics such as money management, health and wellbeing and speaking up.

The project will also expand our existing drop-in sessions and work closely with local services to ensure more people can access the help they need, while also creating opportunities for peer support networks to grow and develop sustainable connections within our communities.

Self Advocacy Hub with Sense Ability Matters

We’re excited to be building on our successful Community Voice partnership with Sense Ability Matters, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. Our original Community Voice project empowered people with lived experience to create their own solutions to the issues they faced. This new phase will go even further—establishing a Self Advocacy Hub where people can build skills and confidence to challenge local services, demand reasonable adjustments and push for greater inclusion.