BAK UP CIC: Building hope, opportunity and resilience across Northamptonshire

Community organisation BAK UP CIC is strengthening its work across Northamptonshire through a growing combination of youth provision, support for older residents and an innovative eVoucher approach designed to help households facing financial hardship while supporting local businesses.

Founded in 2020, BAK UP CIC is a community organisation working to reduce inequalities, tackle poverty and social isolation, and help individuals and families move from crisis towards greater independence and resilience.

In Finedon, this mission can increasingly be seen through two important place-based initiatives: Uplift Hours, supporting children and young people, and Finedon Hope, Stability & Resilient Futures (FHSRF), which is creating opportunities for older residents to remain connected, informed, active and heard.

Alongside these programmes, BAK UP CIC has developed its eVoucher system, an innovative approach with the potential to improve how crisis support and resilience building reaches households across Northamptonshire, including people who may face barriers accessing culturally appropriate local food.

Giving Young People Somewhere to Belong

Thanks to the government (DCMS) and National Lottery Fund, the Uplift Hours project has become an important part of BAK UP CIC's work with young people in Finedon.

Designed for young people aged 10–18, with provision extending up to 25 for young people with SEND where appropriate, the programme provides a safe and welcoming environment where young people can meet, participate in positive activities, build friendships, develop confidence, connect with an appropriate adult, and learn valuable skills for life including employability skills

Activities have included basketball, table tennis, boxing, games, music CV writing and other recreational and physical activities.

However, Uplift Hours is about much more than keeping young people occupied.

It is about creating a place where young people feel that they belong and where trusted adults can listen to them, encourage them and help them develop their confidence, aspirations and wellbeing.

For families, accessible local youth provision can also provide reassurance that young people have somewhere positive to go outside school hours.

BAK UP CIC believes investment in young people should be viewed as preventative investment in the future of the community.

By creating opportunities for participation, physical activity, friendships, leadership and positive relationships, communities can help reduce isolation and provide young people with stronger foundations as they move towards adulthood.

Finedon Hope, Stability & Resilient Futures

At the other end of the age spectrum, BAK UP CIC is working with partners to develop Finedon Hope, Stability & Resilient Futures (FHSRF), with a particular focus on residents aged 65 and over.

The three-year initiative is based on a simple principle: older people should not have to navigate the challenges of later life alone.

FHSRF is bringing organisations, community groups, public services, businesses and residents together around a place-based approach in which support comes closer to the community.

Through regular activities at Finedon Community Centre, the programme is creating opportunities for social connection alongside practical information and support.

Planned themes include cost-of-living advice, benefits and income maximisation, digital inclusion, housing information, food and cooking, health and wellbeing, community participation, creativity and opportunities for residents to have a stronger voice in decisions affecting their lives.

This is particularly important in communities where transport, digital exclusion, loneliness and difficulties navigating services can prevent people from getting help early.

Rather than waiting until someone reaches crisis point, FHSRF aims to create stronger local connections so that residents know where to turn and organisations can work together more effectively.

The ambition is for Finedon to demonstrate what can be achieved when services are designed around a community rather than expecting communities to navigate a complicated system on their own.

Connecting Generations and Strengthening Finedon

Although Uplift Hours and FHSRF focus on different age groups, they share the same philosophy.

Both recognise that strong communities are created through relationships, participation, prevention and local ownership.

BAK UP CIC sees considerable potential for intergenerational activities in Finedon, creating opportunities for older and younger residents to learn from one another, share experiences and develop a stronger sense of community belonging.

This place-based approach could also provide useful learning about how community organisations, councils, health services, businesses and residents can work together in rural and smaller communities across Northamptonshire.

A New Approach to Crisis Support: the BAK UP eVoucher

Beyond Finedon, BAK UP CIC has also developed an eVoucher system with the potential to transform how people experiencing financial hardship access essential support across Northamptonshire.

Food insecurity is not simply about whether food is available. Choice, dignity, accessibility, culture, health needs and geography also matter.

Culturally appropriate food support can sometimes be difficult to access for people living in rural communities or households without reliable transport. There can also be limitations around culturally appropriate food and the ability of families to choose items that meet their individual needs.

The BAK UP eVoucher approach is designed to help address these challenges.

Rather than limiting support to a single location, eligible households could receive vouchers that can be used through participating local shops, including smaller independent shops and culturally appropriate food businesses.

This provides greater dignity and choice for families while allowing money invested in crisis support to circulate within the local economy.

It also creates an opportunity to bring smaller businesses into Northamptonshire's response to hardship rather than relying solely on larger retailers.

The eVoucher system also connects crisis assistance with financial resilience, including budgeting support, debt and money guidance, income maximisation, referrals and practical tools that help households become more financially secure.

The principle is straightforward: emergency assistance may solve today's immediate problem, but wherever possible it should also become a doorway to preventing tomorrow's crisis.

From Crisis Intervention to Resilient Communities

This philosophy increasingly defines BAK UP CIC's approach across Northamptonshire.

Whether working with a young person in Finedon, an older resident experiencing loneliness, or a family struggling to afford essential food, the organisation believes support should not end with the immediate presenting problem.

BAK UP CIC wants to help communities move from crisis to stability, from stability to resilience, and from resilience to opportunity and that requires collaboration.

No single voluntary organisation, council department, NHS service or business can address poverty, isolation, health inequalities and financial insecurity alone.

BAK UP CIC is therefore seeking to build stronger partnerships with local authorities, health and care organisations, town and parish councils, schools, community organisations, businesses, funders and, most importantly, residents themselves.

Prince Caesar, CEO of BAK UP CIC, said:

“Our work in Finedon is showing us what becomes possible when we stop looking at people's challenges separately and start looking at the whole community.

“Uplift Hours is giving our young people somewhere safe to belong, participate and develop. FHSRF is creating opportunities for older residents to connect, access support and have a stronger voice. Our eVoucher work takes the same principle across Northamptonshire by combining immediate crisis support with dignity, choice and longer-term financial resilience.

“Our ambition is not simply to provide more services. It is to connect the services, organisations, businesses and people that already make our communities strong, identify the gaps, and work collectively to fill them.

“We want to demonstrate that community-led prevention works. If we invest early in young people, support older people to remain connected and independent, and help families build resilience before problems escalate, the benefits are felt not only by individuals but across the whole health, care and public-service system.”

An invitation to Northamptonshire

BAK UP CIC believes the next stage of this work must be built through partnership.

The organisation is inviting businesses, funders, public-sector organisations, community groups and residents to become part of the journey. Whether through funding, volunteering, referrals, providing expertise, participating in FHSRF, supporting Uplift Hours or exploring participation in the eVoucher initiative.

The story emerging from Finedon is ultimately about more than individual projects.

It is about what can happen when a community's young people, older residents, families, businesses, voluntary organisations and public services are brought together around a shared ambition.