HEY Smile Foundation

Who we are

Where Local ChangeGets Real

We don’t sit on the sidelines; we work alongside the people making change happen. Through hands-on community development, we support local organisations to grow from the ground up, strengthening their foundations, responding to real community needs, and building for the long term. We unlock funding that fuels progress, connecting groups to the right opportunities and helping turn ideas into sustainable action.

We invest in people as much as projects, supporting leadership at every level so individuals and organisations can lead with confidence, clarity, and purpose. We champion local voices through advocacy, ensuring they’re heard where decisions are made, while creating events that spark ideas, build relationships, and open doors. Through meaningful corporate partnerships, we connect businesses with communities in ways that go far beyond traditional giving, unlocking skills, resources, and long-term commitment to create lasting impact across Hull and East Yorkshire

Our culture and values

At HEY Smile Foundation, we believe strong communities are built when people, organisations and ideas are connected, supported and given the opportunity to thrive.

We are a values-led organisation working across Hull, East Yorkshire and the Humber, supporting the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector while building partnerships across the public, private and charitable sectors.

Our values shape how we work, how we make decisions and what we expect from each other.

Impact-driven
We want our work to make a genuine difference. We focus on outcomes, not simply activity, and continually ask whether what we are doing is creating meaningful benefit for communities, organisations and our region.

Collaborative
We believe we achieve more by working together. We build relationships, share knowledge, connect people and organisations and look for opportunities to collaborate rather than duplicate.

Generous
We are generous with our time, knowledge, networks and support. We want to help others succeed and believe that strengthening other organisations ultimately strengthens our communities and our region.

Integrity
We do what we say we will do. We value honesty, transparency, good governance and accountability, and we expect people to speak up, challenge constructively and make decisions in the best interests of the communities and organisations we serve.

Alongside these values, there are some important principles that underpin the way we work.

People and communities come first. We listen, involve people and focus on what will make a meaningful difference.

We are ambitious for our region. We are prepared to challenge existing approaches, test new ideas and create opportunities where we believe things can be better.

Relationships matter. Much of Smile's impact comes from the trust we build with communities, partners, funders, businesses and the organisations we support.

Everyone has something to contribute. We value different experiences, perspectives and backgrounds and want colleagues to feel confident bringing forward ideas, asking questions and challenging established thinking.

Smile is a busy and evolving organisation, so our working culture is collaborative, practical and adaptable. We expect people to take ownership of their work, communicate openly and be comfortable making decisions and solving problems.

We give colleagues responsibility and encourage initiative rather than creating unnecessary layers of process. With that freedom comes accountability. We expect high standards, good judgement and a willingness to ask for support or challenge something when it does not feel right.

Our work regularly involves balancing immediate community needs with longer-term strategic priorities. Colleagues therefore need to be comfortable working across teams, developing relationships and adapting as opportunities and challenges emerge.

We also recognise that ambitious organisations need healthy and sustainable working practices. We want people to work hard and care about what they do, but we also value wellbeing, mutual support and creating an environment where people can perform at their best over the long term.

Most importantly, we want Smile to be somewhere people enjoy working — an organisation where talented people can do meaningful work, contribute ideas, develop professionally and see the difference their work makes across our region.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

At HEY Smile Foundation, we are committed to creating a workplace where people are treated fairly, with dignity and respect, and where discrimination has no place.

We want our workforce to reflect the communities and organisations we work alongside, and we recognise that people bring different experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and circumstances to work. We see that diversity as a strength.

Our approach is built around fairness, transparency and consistent treatment. We aim to make decisions about recruitment, development, progression, pay, performance and workplace opportunities based on skills, experience, contribution and the requirements of the role.

We do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation on the basis of any protected characteristic, or any other personal characteristic or circumstance that has no bearing on someone's ability to do their job.

In practice, this means we:

• Use fair and transparent recruitment and selection processes.

• Make reasonable adjustments wherever needed to support candidates and employees.

• Encourage flexible and inclusive working practices where these can be balanced with the needs of the organisation and the role.

• Expect managers to apply policies consistently and make decisions that can be clearly explained and evidenced.

• Encourage colleagues to raise concerns and challenge behaviour that does not reflect our values.

• Take allegations of discrimination, harassment or unfair treatment seriously and address them appropriately.

• Consider equality, inclusion and accessibility when developing policies, services and organisational decisions.

• Continue to learn and improve rather than assuming that having a policy alone creates an inclusive workplace.

We also recognise that fairness does not always mean treating everyone in exactly the same way. People may need different support, adjustments or opportunities to ensure they can participate and contribute fully.

Everyone at Smile has a responsibility for creating an inclusive culture. We expect our leaders to model this through their decisions and behaviour, and we expect colleagues to treat one another with respect, openness and professionalism.

Our aim is simple: people should be able to join Smile, develop within Smile and contribute to Smile based on who they are, what they can bring and the difference they can make — without facing unfair barriers or discrimination.