The Interlink Foundation

The Interlink Foundation is an umbrella membership organisation for the UK’s Orthodox Jewish (Charedi) charitable sector, supporting over 200 member organisations in the United Kingdom and advocating on behalf of the 75,000 strong UK Charedi community.
Interlink’s mission is to strengthen the Orthodox Jewish community's social infrastructure, improve access to services, and achieve better outcomes for people in need of support. Interlink provides consultancy and training to the Orthodox Jewish voluntary sector and serves as a liaison between the community and public sector bodies.
==Founding Mission and Demographics==
The Interlink Foundation was founded in 1990 to help Orthodox Jewish voluntary organisations improve their capacity and impact. Interlink became a democratic membership organisation in 2000, and its function expanded to include community advocacy, partnership brokerage, and representation.
The majority of Interlink’s member organisations are part of or serve the Charedi (strictly Orthodox Jewish) community in the United Kingdom, which numbers around 75,000 people and is the fastest-growing segment of British Jewry. Charedi communities are concentrated in London, Essex, Manchester, and Gateshead and are characterised by a high level of Orthodoxy in religious practice and cultural distinctiveness. 
Interlink has over 200 member organisations, including the Beis Brucha Mother and Baby Home in Stamford Hill, the Jewish Community Council of Gateshead, Noa Girls in Barnet, Bayis Sheli, Sunbeams and Hatzola Ambulance Service and JuMP (Jewish Maternity Programme).
==Functions==
Interlink serves as an umbrella organisation for the UK’s Orthodox Jewish voluntary (non-profit) sector. The organisation’s primary operations include offering member organisations consultancy and training services. These include helping charities grow their activities, offering premises and facilities, building consortium funding opportunities, and supporting Jewish schools, amongst other matters.
The organisation also represents the Orthodox Jewish voluntary sector to the public sector at local and national levels and promotes the shared voice and interests of local communities. It is closely linked with both established and grassroots Orthodox Jewish organisations, helping to build and maintain vital community services and forging strong relationships to expand its reach further. 
The Interlink Foundation also works in partnership at the neighbourhood level across communities to improve conditions in the neighbourhood.
==Services==
Interlink provides a wide range of services to its member organisations. Members have access to Interlink's Charity Services team and other professionals for guidance on charity registration, financial management, grant applications, and governance. Interlink also offers regular training sessions for Orthodox Jewish voluntary organisations, which are usually free and cover important themes like safeguarding and compliance. Interlink also sends members monthly mailings (by mail or email), including funding information and other relevant charity news and e-bulletins with more urgent information.
Interlink also serves public sector partners and other external bodies that wish to have a better understanding of the Orthodox Jewish community by offering cultural training and organising community visits (walkabouts).
==Activities==
The Interlink Foundation’s focus areas include:
===Advocacy:===
Interlink presents a united voice for member organisations, speaking out for the needs of the Orthodox Jewish community to policy and decision makers. Interlink often seeks out and works alongside other civil society and faith organisations that share its concerns. Notable issues on which Interlink has advocated include abolition of the 2-child cap, improving housing and planning conditions, promoting religious freedom in education, challenging media bias towards Charedim and highlighting inequalities.
===Public Sector Partnership:===
Interlink runs strategic partnership groups where public sector representatives and community organisations come together to share information, identify emerging needs and explore solutions. It currently arranges groups in the London boroughs of Hackney, Haringey and Barnet covering Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Early Years and Maternity Services. Interlink works with public sector and community organisations on a wide range of public interest matters, ranging from public health to housing and planning.
Interlink has participated in Pilot projects which have brought together community partners and public sector commissioners to address health inequalities. Such as encouraging uptake of developmental reviews as part of The Healthy Child Programme and a Strategic Safeguarding Pilot Project.
===Planning for community needs:===
Interlink also develops new projects and community infrastructure to meet the Charedi community’s developing needs. Most prominently, Interlink was influential in establishing and hosting Chinuch UK, the national network of Charedi schools that is now an independent charity. More recently, it has established the Pinter Trust, a national voice for the Charedi community.
===Research and Data:===
Interlink collates community data and collaborates with other research bodies to support research about the UK’s Orthodox Jewish community. They aim to understand the community’s size and needs and inform service planning.
===Covid-19 response===
Interlink played a key role during COVID, supporting the partnership between North London’s Orthodox Jewish community and the public sector.
They raised charitable funds for COVID relief, including food aid, supporting vulnerable groups and healthcare, and distributed the funds among their member organisations to carry out essential work. They also worked on public health messaging about COVID and vaccinations, supporting successful and celebrated volunteer-run vaccine drives by Hatzola.
==Awards and Recognition==
* In 2020, Hackney Council won the Public Service Communications gold award for Diversity and Inclusion, recognising their work in raising awareness of the pandemic among the Orthodox Jewish community. The award also recognised the council's work with the Interlink Foundation in responding to the pandemic.
* In 2018, Interlink’s Chief Executive Chaya Spitz was awarded an OBE for Interlink’s services to the community and Jewish people across the UK.
* In 2015, Interlink was selected by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations as one of 30 national Big Assist Beacons, providing leadership and best practice for the charity infrastructure sector.
* In 2013, Interlink was the first UK charity to be awarded Level 3 PQASSO Quality Mark by Charities Evaluation Services (CES)
* In 2008, Interlink was awarded the London Compact Award for innovative partnership working,which they received in conjunction with the Adult Services department of Hackney Council at a City Hall ceremony.
==References==
==External links==
* Official Website
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* THE INTERLINK FOUNDATION
Category:Organizations established in 1990
Category:Organisations based in London
Category:Non-profit organisations based in London
Category:Charities based in London