About us

Welcome to Harrogate Skills 4 Living

Originally founded in 1994 as The Junction, Harrogate Skills for Living became a registered charity in 2010, establishing its day centre on North Park Road in the heart of Harrogate. Since then, we have grown and evolved to meet the changing needs of our community. Today, we are proud to provide a wide range of personalised care and support services for people with learning disabilities and autism, helping individuals develop skills, build confidence, and live more independent, fulfilling lives.

 


From housing to employment and health to life skills development we have a broad range of programmes available: we even have a range of social enterprises – including the Harrogate Chocolate Factory and the Harrogate Chocolate Factory Café.

 


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

Barbara is a parent of three adult children, two with learning disabilities and autism. Barbara has 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.
Lee Ford is an entrepreneur and founder of agency4D, a creative agency. Lee also operates a real estate investment company focused on transforming underused and dilapidated buildings into long-term residential and commercial assets. Lee joined the Board of Trustees at Skills for Living following personal experiences close to home, including the loss of a child with Down syndrome and seeing close friends navigate the challenges of autism within their families. His focus is on helping build a financially sustainable, visible and future-ready charity that can create lasting impact.
Catherine is an Organisational Sustainability and Change Resilience Specialist. Her OSCR Practice supports leaders and their organisations to build sustainable infrastructures and embed resilient change capabilities into operational functioning. Plus, how to utilise factors of success to enhance effectiveness to create sustainable performance.
Stephanie is a qualified lawyer and former primary school teacher with 20 years' experience in international law firms. Now working in the NGO sector, she leads a team managing legal projects across the UK and EU for a nature restoration charity.
Carl started life as an Instrument/toolmaker Maker (Aerospace). Then continued to University studying Manufacturing and an MBA. He was also the Operations manager at Pace and worked as a Project Manager Contractor before moving to Bulgaria and starting new projects.
Trevor retired after a long career in public service, mainly housing related. A past chair of Young Persons’ Housing Charity he is currently involved with Groundwork Leeds and is a volunteer with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Trevor was the Chair of Trustees for Harrogate Skills for Living Centre between 2018 and 2022 and brings his experience of governance, performance management, service improvement and organisational change to the HS4L Trustees board.
Interested in becoming a trustee? Contact skills@hs4lc.org.uk