Our Community
What we do here
This is the heart of our work. Everything we do is built from the same principle: show up where people already are, stay, and build the connections that make support easier to find.
Our five areas of work
These are the areas NCSUN works across. Some are delivered through community projects. Some through partnerships. Some through consulting. All five run together.
Community Support
Direct support to people navigating services, systems, and everyday life. Alongside members in their own space, on their own terms. No referral required.
Learning and development
Training, mentoring, and progression routes. Community members can grow into roles that contribute, guide, and lead as NCSUN develops. Our long-term model is paid lived experience work, built as the organisation grows
Ethical technology
Technology built with communities, not at them. Our long-term vision sits here: tools that turn community insight into intelligence services and funders can act on, built ethically and transparently alongside the people they serve.
Ethical finance
Fair pay for lived experience work. Transparent income. Community contributors paid properly for the insight that makes everything else possible.
Legal integrity
Legal and data governance built from lived experience of systems, not theory. Pro bono partnership with LawWorks. Formal safeguarding and data protection frameworks.
Community Projects
Easton Community Cupboard
Open since May 2024. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At 10 Heron Way, Easton. No criteria. No referral. Anyone takes what they need. Anyone leaves what they have.
As of 31 March 2026: 1,444 visits and 1,186 donations.
Alongside
Alongside is NCSUN’s community support programme. It sits with community members in their own space, at their pace, on their terms. No referral forms. No assessments. No time-limited slots. Alongside is how we hold space for the work that traditional services cannot reach.
Gatherings and Briefs
Gatherings are free, community-facing events held monthly in Norwich. Anyone welcome. Come as you are, stay as long as you like. Briefs are invitation-only professional forums for sector leads, councillors, MPs, and decision makers. Both run monthly through 2026. From January 2027 the rhythm moves to quarterly, and we launch the first of our quarterly Tables.
CHIC. A long-term vision.
CHIC is our long-term vision for a physical community hub in Norwich. A space that brings NCSUN’s work together in one place: somewhere to meet, to work, to Gather, to host Briefs, and to hold community resources under one roof. It sits beyond Stage 2 of our plans but the shape of it is real. If you want to follow the vision as it develops, there is a community petition you can sign.
