Alphabetical list of RAN Member Organisations
Link to our Members who have achieved the RAN Quality Standard
Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (Acre) champions equality, community cohesion and empowerment. Our mission is to ‘promote equality and community cohesion in Reading’.
Acre was launched on 10 October 2012, bringing together the expertise of Reading Council for Racial Equality and Sakoma (Togetherness) BME Forum. We host a Community Wellbeing Hub - a safe space to meet, talk and receive information, advice, guidance and signposting/referrals to appropriate support services. We support marginalised communities, families and individuals in need. We create opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds to meet and learn about each other’s communities. We facilitate public sector consultation of communities and individuals.
Age UK Berkshire provides both free and chargeable services for older people in Berkshire.
Our free Information and advice is offered on a wide variety of topics of interest or concern to people in later life, family, friends or carers. They also offer free befriending and other loneliness-combating activities. Age UK Berkshire covers the whole of Berkshire county.
Age UK Reading provides vital information, advice and other services to support thousands of older people of all ages and backgrounds, including those from disadvantaged or marginalised groups, such as those living in deprived areas, or black and minority ethnic older people.
Age UK Reading services cover the whole area of Reading.
Berkshire Women's Aid (BWA) serves the communities in Reading, Bracknell, Wokingham and West Berkshire providing domestic abuse accommodation and outreach community services to provide safety and a space to rebuild a future free from abuse.
We also offer individual and group programmes, with specialist programmes for children and young people and women with complex needs.
We run a 24/7 helpline providing support and information about our services and signposting to other support for anyone affected by domestic abuse
Citizens Advice Reading provide comprehensive generalist advice to help people with a wide range of problems including benefits, employment, debt and money, consumer, immigration and asylum, relationships and family, energy and utilities, housing, discrimination, law and rights, health and community care and education.
Their services are free, independent, confidential and impartial.
CommuniCare offer non judgemental, free information and advice on a wide range of topics including housing and benefits. They try to think of the "whole person" rather than just the "problem considered" and take a holistic view of the person and their issues to come up with a complete support package.
Dingley’s Promise delivers life changing support to children in the early years with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families. We provide specialist learning through play at our centres, support for families through our outreach service, and training and advice to mainstream settings.
Our three Dingley’s Promise centres are located in Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire.
Graft Thames Valley provides support, information and advice for people experiencing barriers to gaining meaningful employment. With both group sessions and one-to-one support, Graft offers a tailored plan of action to make each individual more employable.
The Graft service is open to anyone who is struggling to get into work, but is particularly suitable for those with mental health conditions of any kind, and those living with ASD or Aspergers.
Launchpad provide three key services, which help to prevent homelessness and support people individually: a Drop-In Information and Advice service to anyone in Reading who needs housing or homelessness-related advice; clean, safe housing combined with individual, targeted support to get people back on track; and support for single parents, families, couples and individuals to stay in their own homes by helping them with landlord related issues.
The Mustard Tree identifies and addresses unmet needs in our communities, developing projects that reduce health and social inequalities, increase community engagement, and give a voice to the unheard. It operates the following projects:
- Starting Point - Providing mentoring and creating opportunities for young people aged 11-25 who face disadvantage. Supporting young people to engage and thrive within education, employment and training.
- Rahab - Identifying, supporting and empowering anyone affected by sexual exploitation. It runs a night outreach for sex workers in the Oxford Road/Western Elms area and provides further daytime support.
- Engage - Reducing isolation and loneliness by developing positive relationships and networks in our community. This includes providing regular wellbeing support from a befriender.
No5 Young People provides free, longer-term, confidential mental health support, counselling and outreach for young people aged 11-25 who live, work, or study across the RG postcode area.
Counselling is delivered in Central Reading, six local schools, online and over the phone. Preventative outreach and additional support is delivered in schools, across the community and online, and is co-produced by counsellors and young people.
PACT (Parents and Children Together) aims to support hundreds of troubled families every year through inspirational and award-winning community services across London and the Thames Valley. Community projects include Bounce Back 4 Kids, for young victims of domestic abuse and their families, and Alana House, an innovative women’s community project supporting vulnerable women with multiple and complex needs.
PACT also provides ‘Outstanding’ (Ofsted 2017) adoption services and specialist therapeutic support services.
Parenting Special Children provides specialist support to Berkshire families who have children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. They do this through a helpline, specialist courses and workshops including sleep, trauma and attachment and Autism and ADHD, training for professionals, children and young people's groups, support groups and family events.
Reading Mencap provides information, advice and citizen advocacy to support children and adults with learning disabilities and their families to help them overcome barriers, and lead a full and active life. Their outreach, case-working service of 5 Family Advisers, provides support with a wide variety of issues, including social care, charging for care, health, housing, benefits, preparing for adulthood, debt, hate crime, diagnosis and legal matters, and any issues which act as a barrier to good health and wellbeing.
Reading Refugee Support Group are committed to reducing poverty, suffering and the social isolation of people who have reached our country having already faced unimaginable persecution and hardship.
RRSG run both drop-in advice sessions and client appointments. They also run English language classes and a children’s homework club, and they participate in and contribute to various cultural events throughout the year.
The Reading University Students’ Union (RUSU) Advice Service offers free, confidential, independent and non-judgmental advice, with the aim of equipping students with the relevant information and support to empower them to make informed decisions. They are able to support any person who is enrolled onto a course at the University of Reading, including Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught, Postgraduate Research, home and international students.
They advise on a range of issues relating to students, including advice with academic issues; issues in private rented accommodation, university and private halls; student funding; welfare benefits; debt. They are also able to signpost students to other relevant services within the University.
Reading Voluntary Action promotes strength within Reading’s voluntary and community sector by providing information, access to resources, volunteer recruitment and training to people who work in or with charities, community groups and voluntary organisations. They support voluntary sector representation on cross-sector partnership initiatives in Reading.
RVA's Social Prescribing service links people aged 16 and over to the activities and support offered by Reading’s voluntary and community groups, empowering people to improve their health and wellbeing. Their Social Prescribing Link Workers help people to identify what matters to them, and how to connect with the community activities that might make a difference. RVA’s Social Prescribing team, in partnership with Age UK Berkshire, works with Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across Reading, taking referrals from GPs, and health and social care practitioners.
Reading Welfare Rights has been delivering a high quality specialist information and advice service in Reading since 1988 in the areas of Welfare Benefits & Housing.
Their service is free, confidential, independent and impartial.
YMCA in Reading's aim is to empower young people and build stronger communities. Our primary service is to provide quality supported accommodation to 40 of Reading’s most vulnerable 16-25 year olds who would otherwise be homeless. We also offer alternative learning in our Workshop to young people who have difficulties in a traditional classroom environment. We run the Parkside Pre-School and Parkside Café, providing vital resources for the local community, and in addition, we run the YMCA Reading Sports Centre and the Padworth Activity Centre. Both are used by a variety of sport and social groups for a wide range of activities.