About us

Originally formed back in 1994 as The Junction, Harrogate Skills 4 Living became established as a charity in 2010 with the ‘day-skills’ centre-hub on North Park road in central Harrogate. During the past decade, our needs-led approach has resulted in lots of diversification and we’re proud to offer a wide range of care and support services for people with learning difficulties and autism in the locality.

From housing to employment and health to skills development we have a broad range of programmes available: we’ve even recently started two exciting new social enterprises – the Harrogate Chocolate Factory and the Harrogate Chocolate Factory Café both run with and by our trainees.

We’re not content to stop there though as we believe that there are still many other types of care and support services that are needed. That’s why in 2022 we’re starting our ENGAGE22 project which aims to find out what’s working well and what’s not working so well in our local community of people with learning difficulties and autism (including families and carers). This will be your chance to have a say about the future of social care and support services here in Harrogate - please watch out for further information coming soon about how you can get involved.

HS4L has a learning culture where everyone is encouraged to be the best that they can. We are also values based and our 5 'C' values are:

A graphic showing our core values of care, communication, courage, competence, and commitment

We recruit staff and volunteers whose behaviours demonstrate their core belief in these values and put our service users, their families and carers at the centre of everything we do.

Our trustees

Mike has spent the last 20+ years in the construction sector for various service streams working his way up to Board level. His key strengths include strategy, business development, management, leadership and finance and is currently working for 3 organisations at a consultancy and Board level and has recently become the Chair of the Trustees in 2022. Mike enjoys the gym and anything to do with the outdoors.

Barbara is a parent of three adult children, two with learning disabilities and autism. Having recently graduated from the Open University with a Master of Arts in Education (Applied Linguistics); Barbara’s studies focussed on communication with people with non-verbal or non-speaking autism and/or learning disabilities and those with ‘behaviours that challenge’. Prior to being a parent-carer, Barbara held a management role at the London headquarters of a telecommunications company; presently she works in the community and voluntary sector helping people with mental health needs and/or other barriers move towards training and employment.

Jenny specialises in internal and corporate communications, with over 20 years’ experience across numerous industries including financial services, legal, insurance, manufacturing and healthcare. She is currently Head of Internal Communications at Barchester Healthcare, a leading care home company in the UK.

Jodie Williams is an Equality, Inclusion, and Diversity professional who has worked across various sectors with the aim of making businesses and services more accessible and inclusive. Jodie has created and executed diversity and inclusion programmes and strategies. She is the first Head of Diversity and Inclusion in the automotive retail sector in the country. Throughout her career, Jodie has managed charity TV campaigns, led sustainability initiatives, developed programmes for women in STEM, and directed talent schemes to bring more diversity to various sectors. Passionate about race equality, Jodie created an online exhibition in 2020 on White Privilege, which evolved into a book.

Angela is a practising solicitor with experience of working with charities in a professional capacity and with not for profit companies as a non-executive board member. Angela's strengths are advising on legal matters, compliance and risk analysis. Angela sat on the Risk and Audit Committee for a local housing provider for many years and brings that experience to the organisation. Angela enjoys spending time outdoors with her family and dogs as well as playing cricket for her local team.