Better Connections
Connect people to the services, support, and communities they need — wherever they are and whatever they are facing.
Finding help should not be hard work. But for too many people — especially those facing complex, overlapping challenges — navigating the landscape of services and support is bewildering, exhausting, and often unsuccessful. Information is fragmented across dozens of websites and directories. Services are hard to find, harder to access, and often unknown to the practitioners who could refer people to them. The people who need the most support are frequently the least able to navigate the systems designed to provide it.
Mortar builds the tools that make it easier for people and practitioners to find the right connections — to services, to communities, and to each other.
The Challenge
The service landscape in any given place is enormously complex. There are statutory services, voluntary sector organisations, community groups, digital resources, and informal support networks — and the picture changes constantly as services open, close, move, and evolve. No single organisation has a complete view of what is available, and no single directory can stay sufficiently up to date.
At the same time, the needs that bring people to services are rarely simple. Someone facing housing insecurity may also be dealing with mental health challenges, employment difficulties, and family stress. Connecting that person to the right combination of support requires not just information about individual services, but intelligence about pathways, eligibility, and what works for whom.
How We Help
We design and build the intelligent connection infrastructure that helps people and practitioners navigate complex service landscapes with confidence.
- Service directories: We build and manage intelligent service directories that bring together comprehensive, accurate information about the full landscape of local provision — and keep it up to date.
- Smart signposting: We apply intelligence to service navigation — helping practitioners and people find the most relevant options based on need, location, eligibility, and what has worked for similar people in similar situations.
- Referral pathways: We design and build digital referral tools that make it easy for practitioners to connect people to the right services — with warm handoffs, feedback loops, and outcome tracking built in.
- Community mapping: We map the full asset base of a place — services, spaces, groups, and informal networks — creating a shared picture of community provision that organisations can use to design better interventions.
- Digital inclusion: We design connection tools that work for everyone — including people with lower digital confidence, limited English, physical or cognitive impairments, or unreliable access to technology.
Key Outcomes
- Access: Make it easier for people to find and access the services and support they need — reducing the friction and frustration that causes people to disengage before they get help.
- Equity: Ensure that the people who face the greatest barriers to access get the most support in navigating to it — addressing the inequalities built into current service navigation.
- Coordination: Enable practitioners and services to work together more effectively — reducing duplication, closing gaps, and ensuring people don't fall between systems.
- Intelligence: Build a continuously improving picture of need, provision, and outcomes across a place — informing service planning, commissioning, and investment.
Who This Is For
Better connections is relevant for any organisation that helps people navigate services — from local authorities and NHS trusts to housing providers, voluntary sector organisations, and community anchor institutions. Our work in this area spans community navigation, digital inclusion, social prescribing, and integrated health and care.
Get in Touch
If your organisation wants to make it easier for the people you serve to find the connections they need, we would love to hear from you. Get in touch to discuss how we can help.