Brand New Service launched for Ripon Residents

Local charity, Harrogate & Ripon Centres for Voluntary Service, have this week launched a brand new directory for people who live in the Harrogate District.

The online Where to Turn directory is free to use and contains information about over 600 charities and community activities around the local area. The directory is available on HARCVS’s website at www.harcvs.org.uk and is easy to search by location, type of service and opening times.

Local charity, Harrogate & Ripon Centres for Voluntary Service, have this week launched a brand new directory for people who live in the Harrogate District.

The online Where to Turn directory is free to use and contains information about over 600 charities and community activities including a wide variety of services and activities in Ripon and the surrounding villages. The directory is available on HARCVS’ website at www.harcvs.org.uk/wheretoturn and is easy to search by location, type of service and opening times.

Where to Turn contains a wealth of information about everything from health charities such as Asthma UK or Arthritis Care through to social activities such as book clubs and art classes.

Karen Weaver, Chief Executive of HARCVS, explains ‘this has been a big project for us and the culmination of a year’s work and so we’re absolutely thrilled to start off 2017 by launching our new Where to Turn directory to the public.

The directory is a fantastic resource for the Harrogate community. Our aim is to make it easier for local people to find out about different charitable services. Whether you need transport or advice on coping with chronic fatigue the directory can point you in the right direction. As well as information about charitable services Where to Turn also contains listings for different clubs and interest groups so is the perfect starting point if you’re new to the area and looking to meet new people.

We have been keen to revamp our directory for several years and so we’re really grateful to our funders who have supported us throughout this project.’

The new Where to Turn directory project was sponsored by the Harrogate District Public Services Leadership Board and jointly funded by the Harrogate Borough Council, the NHS and the Police & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire.

The directory is an important part of a new way of delivering health and social care locally that is more joined up and about improving people’s health and wellbeing across the District. As Cath Doman, Programme Director for Harrogate’s ‘What Matters to Us’ new care model programme, explains: ‘One of the ways to improve health is to make it easier for people in the Harrogate area to access up to date information about the huge range of support and advice the voluntary sector provides. We’re really pleased that we can now see the results of all this hard work available for local people.’

In addition to Where to Turn HARCVS have also launched a new Volunteering Directory containing over 400 local opportunities to get involved in the community. Search for volunteering online at www.harcvs.org.uk/volunteer