Working with our partners

We are proud to support local not for profit, charitable or community organisations by providing them with core funding year on year via the Partnership Funding Scheme. Last year we signed agreements with 9 organisations and committed to providing annual funding until the next election (2027).  We received a number of applications this year that are currently under consideration.

The details about the funding organisations and their activities can be found below.

Ripon Community Link

Who they are

Ripon Community Link supports over 60 individuals with mild and moderate learning disabilities, some of whom also have physical disability. Services operate from Ripon Walled Garden, across the Charity they offer diverse, innovative opportunities to provide a wide range of support and learning to an otherwise marginalised population.

Upcoming events

• Saturday 5th October – Apple Day – come and press your own apples and enjoy garden games, live music, a petting farm, balloon modelling, cake stalls, hot and cold snacks and beverages, face painting and so much more. A great day for all the family. Donations at the gate on entry.
• 18th – 31st October – Pumpkin Patch. This Ripon Community Link is excited to be putting on a Pumpkin Patch and pumpkin carving at the wonderful site in the Orchard. They will have their Woodland trail set up and open to visitors. Entry to Ripon Walled Garden is free.
• 23rd November – Ripon Community Link start their Christmas campaign. Their café and Shop will be open 7 days per week and they will be selling the premium cut Christmas Trees and wreaths, which are made by their skilled and creative staff on site. Join them for a festive trip out with the family.

Volunteering 

Ripon Community Link is actively looking for garden volunteers who can either choose to work with their Members in a team, with the staff along with other gardeners, or may even prefer to work independently, just need to tell them your preference.

Harrogate & District Community Action

Who they are

HADCA supports people and communities to lead fulfilling, active lives by providing charities and volunteers with access to relevant information, networks and services. HADCA facilitates the Connecting Ripon Network aiming to bring people together from diverse groups to share challenges and growing opportunities to work together. The Connecting Ripon Network has grown to 140 individuals, representing 74 different organisations.

What’s on

Connecting Ripon members are working with HADCA’s ‘Power of 10’ Awards and Rewards Volunteering Scheme and partners to develop meaningful, safe and inclusive opportunities for young people and to inspire them to be active members of the Ripon community, to form a lifetime habit, creating a sustainable pipeline of volunteers for the city. In February, HADCA held a ‘Young People’s Volunteering Fair’ at Ripon library bringing together young people with 11 organisations offering flexible and interesting opportunities for them.  A second Volunteering Fair is taking place this Autumn at Ripon Grammar School.

Volunteering 

They advertise volunteering roles for organisations across Ripon via their online directory.  If you need more volunteers, please feel free to add volunteering roles to HADCA’s directory.  If you are thinking about volunteering, you can search for roles that suit your interests and availability on their website.

Ripon Poetry Festival

Who they are

Ripon Poetry Festival is an annual event which celebrates poetry reading and writing and encourages all ages to enjoy poetry together. The festival programme includes a competition, book launches, workshops and readings for all ages.

Upcoming events

The 2024 poetry writing competition took place earlier in the year and the best poems will be published in the festival anthology.

The festival takes place from Thursday 19th September – Sunday 22nd September with events at Ripon Arts Hub, Ripon Library and Ripon Leper Chapel.

Volunteering 

Volunteers to help to organise the festival are always welcomed.

Volunteers to help host the festival events are also welcome. Please get in touch with Ripon Poetry Festival.

Ripon City Festival Trust 

Who they are

Ripon Theatre Festival is the primary activity of The Ripon City Festival Trust. They work collaboratively with their partners to bring colour and culture to all the communities of the city, contributing to Ripon’s development as a vibrant place to live, work and visit.

What’s on

This year’s Ripon Theatre Festival took place over six days and nights from 2 – 7 July. More than 2,500 people were involved as audiences, participants, volunteers or performers, with total attendances exceeding 5,000. From digital theatre viewed through a VR headset to open-air family theatre in multiple locations, more than 100 events including drama, puppetry, circus, comedy and poetry were staged in varied and unique venues. The majority of events were free and the city streets and open spaces came alive with a variety of characters and acts, with community performers taking part alongside professional performers from across the UK. The festival also delivered a number of hands-on activities with community groups in the run-up to the festival and took theatre and music directly into care homes.

Next year’s Festival will take place from Tuesday 1 – Sunday 6 July. This will be their fourth festival and they will stage drama, street entertainment, open-air theatre, dance, puppetry and storytelling in both indoor and outdoor venues across the city. The professional theatre companies and artists will be invited to visit Ripon, as well as providing opportunities for local people to take part as performers, participants and volunteers.

Volunteering 

They need plenty of volunteers to help run the events during the festival week. People to help steward events and to look after the audience and performers are needed. The organisation also welcome volunteers who can help in the run-up to the festival as part of the publicity team. Please contact Ripon City Festival Trust for further information.

Ripon in Bloom

Who they are

Ripon in Bloom is aiming to improve and encourage the improvement of the floral appearance of the City.

What’s on 

Their main project for this year is the re-modelling of Bedern Bank.

Volunteering 

Ripon in Bloom needs more volunteers. These can be people interested in the work that the organisation does around the City with planting or people that would be interested in the administration of the group, i.e. people with social media skills or secretarial skills.

Ripon YMCA

Who they are

Ripon YMCA is a youth organisation that has existed on Water Skellgate since 1914. They provide supported housing for young people between the ages of 16 and 35 and also offer a range of youth work opportunities and activities for young people predominantly between 11 and 16 years old but also up to 25.

What’s on 

Ripon YMCA is running a range of activities on a regular basis for young people. These include sessions in the library, but also the spa park area. From the funding that Rippon City Council provide, the organisation runs regular youth work partnership meetings, a youth volunteering network and various other training opportunities for those who work with young people in Ripon. They also run a team talk session six times a year that allows young people to have their say and helps theem feed that into the youth work partnership, but also Ripon City Council.

In April 2025 Ripon YMCA will be running Sleep Easy event. If you wish to sleep out to raise awareness of youth homelessness and raise money for your local YMCA please get in touch.

Volunteering 

They are always looking for suitable volunteers to engage in the projects. Ripon YMCA is looking for people who are willing to engage with its service users and work to identify how they can contribute to the work needed. For more information visit organisation’s website.

Ripon Together

Who they are

Ripon Together was set up to make Ripon an even better place to live work and invest in. It does this by bringing bodies and individuals together across the community to create a bigger impact than could be achieved by those bodies acting individually.

What’s on 

Each year Ripon Together delivers:

• a Summer Funfest – a week of free activities for children
• a Green Fair to bring environmental groups and businesses together with the public to encourage greater work on the environment in the city,
• the Ripon Walk to School scheme,
• a St Wilfrid’s Stars reception to acknowledge those who do so much on a voluntary basis for the city, and encourage greater volunteering.

In addition, there are one-off projects, such as the production of a Historical Map for Ripon, produced in conjunction with the Historic Towns Trust, which will be launched in Autumn 2024.

Volunteering 

Ripon Together are always very keen to welcome more volunteers. They are only funded for some of the external spending on the events they run, yet both those and their wider activities rely on significant voluntary help. A good way to keep in touch is to join Ripon Together for free at their website. 

Ripon Library Action Group – Ripon Library Volunteers

Who they are

Ripon Library Action Group (RLAG) is a small charity, which was established in 2016 to ensure that Ripon Library was able to continue operating as a library and local community hub for the Ripon community. The volunteers assist NY Library staff in the running and organisation of the library for the benefit of the community.

What’s on 

• RLAG have initiated the Winter Warmer Talks , a series which has been enjoyed by a wide group of people with talks on History, interesting people and places and Yorkshire places and customs.
• They also hope to start a silver Screen programme of cinema for older readers with a children’s screen of popular films where pop corn and drink will be available, coffee and biscuits for the adult screenings .
• The organisation has organised a creative craft season  during January for those who wish to experience art with others and may be on their own  or need encouragement  to engage with others in the winter months. This is a weekly session for a month led by an art tutor who specialises in well being and the therapeutic effects of art.
• Summer Reading challenge is an annual event for children aged 4-11 at primary school with competitons and event sto keep them engaged over the summer holidays in reading. 361 children joined up in 2024!
• RLAG take part in the sights and sounds of Ripon event annually and hope to be able to attend the Green Fair in future years.
• The organisation host literary and poetry events at the library in association with Ripon an Thirsk Book shops where people are able to  meet and listen to national authors and poets.

Volunteering 

Their aim is to recruit and develop volunteers for Ripon Library with volunteers also contributing to the management of the library through the Trustee board of up to 10 RLAG members. There are a variety of types of voluntary work available and there should be something to suit all interests, aptitudes and experience. The main role is general library assistant but some of the roles would involve assisting members of the public with IT issues about mobile phone and laptop use in specific appointments, others may wish to help with children’s activities ,displays or the regular events organised at the library.

Friends of Hell Wath

Who they are

FOHW aims to help North Yorkshire Council look after Hell Wath, a green space on the south side of Ripon comprising football pitches, recreational meadows and a Local Nature Reserve. They do this by working with NYC and other partnership organisations such as Ripon City Council to undertake work and activities on site. These activities include litter picking, bat & butterfly monitoring, plant & fungi surveys, scrub clearance, grass cutting, footpath maintenance and hedge planting. The organisation also organises events such as Bioblitzes and Forest School activities during the summer.

What’s on 

FOHW is an active charity and many events take place during the year.
For example:

• This year they undertook a Bioblitz on 15th June which identified over 170 species of flora & fauna. A Forest Schools family fun day took place on 31st August and over 60 children enjoyed outdoor activities such as river dipping, toasting marshmallows over a campfire, singing, drumming and stick whittling.
• With help from the Skell Valley Project, NYC and Open Country some footpaths have been improved and volunteers have worked to clear various areas of scrub and Himalayan Balsam and have cut areas of grassland meadows
• FOHW have been accepted as a project site by Plantlife UK and are working with them to develop plans and actions needed to improve the grassland areas of Hell Wath, especially those in the Local Nature Reserve.
• A Tree Survey was undertaken on 12th February, funded by a Ripon City Council grant and volunteers have completed numerous bat, butterfly, plant & fungi surveys throughout the year. 
• They have also been developing some interpretation panels and signage with the Skell Valley Project which will inform visitors about the Local Nature Reserve and special features of Hell Wath.

Volunteering 

Volunteers are needed to help with administrative work, social media activities and for carrying out surveys and work on site. They would love to hear from anyone interested in helping them look after Hell Wath in any way.

Volunteers do not have to be members, but the organisation encourages support for the charity by becoming a member at an annual fee of £5, monies which are used to fund things such as tawny owl boxes. 

*Information and photos courtesy of organisations