Mission
Rainbow Services works for change to alleviate the effects of disadvantage, deprivation and social exclusion through imaginative projects that support, enable and develop people and organisations, and which stimulate beneficial change in the Harlow community and beyond. Established in Harlow in 1999, we achieve this aim with the following delivery:
- Rainbow Services provides infrastructure support to local voluntary and community groups, holding regular meetings and publishing a weekly e-bulletin sharing information on subjects relevant to the sector.
- Rainbow Services provides direct services to the local community via our Community Builder project, which is currently supporting local older residents as well as working with diverse communities through the Harlow Together forum. This includes a Tech Library to reduce digital exclusion and the recent Harlow Community Hub response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Our Business Engagement project is working to facilitate a more structured approach to Corporate Social Responsibility and to create a better pipeline for business involvement and volunteering opportunities with the wider Voluntary Sector and local community.
- The Recycling Workshop project works with the National Probation Service to provide a wood-workshop space and community links to offenders who have received a Community Service Order through the courts in an environment that is, whilst punitive, also rehabilitative and constructive.
- Our Youth Workshop supports young people who are at risk of crime, gangs, drugs, exclusion from school and anti-social behaviour to gain 2 Gateway qualifications in Health and Safety and Carpentry Hand Tools in our recycling workshop whilst mentoring them to make positive choices, build positive networks and self-image, and be signposted onto sustainable activities in the community.
- Rainbow Services encourages the development of community responses to local challenges and co-ordinates workshops, training, and pilot projects which build community skills and resilience, including Making Every Contact Count, Mental Health Awareness, Falls Prevention, My Weight Matters weigh-in sessions, and we are registered as an Online Centre, enabling supported access to the Learn My Way digital skills courses.
Statement of Values
Rainbow Services aims to alleviate poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion by providing quality services. Where appropriate we will undertake research to identify unmet need within our community and wherever possible we will encourage community development through the provision of accessible and affordable services.
Harlow is a diverse and complex town with diverse and complex communities, and here at Rainbow Services we continue to put emphasis on our mission to ‘work for change’. In order to do this, we aim to find better ways of working together, sharing resources, and fostering communication between communities, statutory services, and the sector to enhance the lives of people living and working in Harlow. Your thoughts and ideas on how to do this are welcomed – do get in touch.
– CEO Rainbow Services
