The Community Initiatives Fund is designed to help parish & town councils, community groups, clubs, societies and voluntary organisations improve their local community.
The £300,000 fund is for grants of up to £10,000 towards capital or revenue projects that benefit the wider community.
This fund excludes projects that deliver their work outside the administrative area of Essex County Council (Thurrock and Southend). The Community Initiatives Fund is administered by the EALC on behalf of Essex County Council.
Projects should have community backing and demonstrate a real community need. For instance, they could be to:
Create, buy or develop new community assets. Examples include community centres, shops, wildlife/ nature reserves or disability facilities.
Enhance existing community assets such as sports venues and clubs, youth clubs, scout groups, playgrounds, village hall improvements, local transport facilities or improved communication services.
Enhance or develop initiatives that strengthen the local community, such as cultural initiatives, gardening, clubs, age & wellbeing services, advice/ support services, parental & educational activities, environmental improvements, music and literature events or heritage projects.
When talking about the Community Initiative Fund, Chairman of the EALC Executive Committee, Cllr Peter Davey said:
“The Essex Association of Local Councils is proud to have been asked to administer the grant scheme on behalf of Essex County Council. The Community Initiatives Fund provides vital funding for deserving organisations and their community projects, well-being initiatives and other important improvement schemes. The EALC has well-established links to many Essex organisations and is ideally positioned to triage applications, address the financial standing of applicants, create and administer the CIF funding panel and ensure funds are released in a timely manner to successful applicants. As Chairman of the CIF funding panel, I am honoured to be part of this important initiative.”
Meanwhile, Cllr Louise McKinlay, Deputy Leader of Essex County Council and cabinet member for Equality, Partnerships and Performance said:
“Essex County Council is pleased to support the Essex Community Initiatives Fund, as it aligns with our levelling-up priorities and plans… local groups and voluntary organisations are well placed to understand the needs and opportunities of their areas. So I would urge people to come forward to apply for funding for projects to boost and support their local community.”
How to apply?
Please read through the guidance notes carefully for the scheme’s eligibility and criteria details.
Email a completed application form to funding@ealc.gov.uk by Friday 19th August.
The panel will then review and decide upon your project based on the information given in your application form (in October).
You will then be informed whether your application for funding has been successful or not. Not all applications are successful as the scheme is often heavily oversubscribed and sometimes, you may be given less funding than you applied for, or directed to alternative funding sources.
If you have any questions regarding this fund or would like to be added to the distribution list, then please contact our funding team on 01371 879722 or email them at funding@ealc.gov.uk. If you would like to find out further details from Essex County Council, please click here .
The Essex Association wish to formally thank Essex County Council for the support provided to the EALC, Parish & Town Councils, villages and communities across Essex.
This is a Fixed Term Position to start 25 th July 2022 for 6-9 months (maternity cover) We are looking to recruit a Social Prescribing Link Worker to join our friendly, dynamic and progressive primary care network in South Uttlesford.
About South Uttlesford PCN
South Uttlesford PCN comprises 5 General Practices working in conjunction with local health and
social care organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population.
South Uttlesford is a lovely place to live and work with good working relationships forged between
practices over many years. There is a real sense of enthusiasm to improve health and social care
locally.
The Role
Social prescribing empowers people to take control of their health and wellbeing through referral to
non-medical ‘link workers’ who give time, focus on ‘what matters to me’ and take a holistic
approach, connecting people to community groups and statutory services for practical and
emotional support.
Link workers support existing groups to be accessible and sustainable and help people to start new
community groups, working collaboratively with all local partners.
Social prescribing can help to strengthen community resilience and personal resilience, and reduces
health inequalities by addressing the wider determinants of health, such as debt, poor housing and
physical inactivity, by increasing people’s active involvement with their local communities. It
particularly works for people with long-term conditions (including support for mental health), for
people who are lonely or isolated, or have complex social needs which affect their wellbeing.
The Job Description and Person Specification provide outlines of the responsibilities and
requirements for this role.
What we offer
NHS Pension (employer is Uttlesford Health – GP provider company for Uttlesford)
Generous annual leave
Flexible working
Excellent transport links
Supportive working environment in General Practice
How to Apply
To apply, please complete your application and CV either through NHS Jobs or by directly sending
your CV and covering letter to susan.wray1@nhs.net.
If this role appeals and you have the qualities we are looking for, we look forward to hearing from
you. If you would like an informal discussion regarding this role, please contact Sue Wray, Uttlesford
Health (susan.wray1@nhs.net).
The Essex Coronavirus Action Support Facebook Community was set up during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a collaboration between Essex County Council (ECC) and the Essex Public Health Team as well as local Facebook admins. It focuses on three objectives: preventing the spread of infection, informing Essex residents of guidance and assisting residents who may be vulnerable.
The National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) funded PHIRST South Bank Centre co-produced an evaluation of the project with local stakeholders. The evaluation sought to understand the following questions:
How effective is a digital community development approach during a pandemic?
Was the ECAS digital community development approach successful in achieving improved health literacy, protective health actions and community connectedness and mutual aid?
Was the ECAS digital community development approach successful in achieving whole system change for the public health function?
What factors were important in contributing to the outcomes?
This event will be an opportunity to talk to those involved in setting up this initiative, hear the findings of the evaluation, discuss what lessons can be learnt and how these can be used to plan future work with digital communities in Essex.
If you wish to bid for local authority contracts, you can expect tenders to include questions about social value: how the way you deliver the contract impacts or benefits local jobs, businesses, communities and the environment.
Essex County Council’s second, social value festival is a free, 4-day learning event for any organisation that wants to learn about social value, bid for ECC contracts or benefit from the social value offers that suppliers make to our local communities.
Join us this summer, book your place here. All the sessions will run online, free of charge.
This year’s event is packed full of practical advice on how to approach social value and climate matters and will provide many examples that you can adopt or use to inspire your own ideas. It is suitable for organisations of any size and type and you will have the opportunity to speak to our experts about social value and climate.
Schools, colleges, universities, SMEs and charities too can find out what ECC’s suppliers are committing and how to access their offers such as careers advice, business advice and staff volunteering time.
Healthwatch Essex was created as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, and the Government’s aim of ‘putting patients and the public first’ through strengthening their collective voice. A national network of local Healthwatch organisations, and a national umbrella organisation, Healthwatch England were created. The purpose is to be ‘an independent voice for the people of Essex, helping to shape and improve local health and social care services’. Our success depends on building constructive partnerships with the NHS, local councils, and voluntary and community organisations.
The staff team and our network of volunteers and Ambassadors undertake work that includes engaging the public in innovative and effective ways. We produce films, podcasts and engagement projects as well as carrying out high-quality social research and sharing our reports. We provide a telephone- and web-based Information Service to help the public access and understand the NHS and social care services. We anticipate that our work will continue to grow and diversify following the pandemic, as the needs of the people of Essex change and commissioners seek our knowledge and expertise to provide the best most widely accessible care and support.
Trustee opportunity – Healthwatch Essex is governed by a Board of Trustees with a diverse range of skills and experience. We would like to add an additional Trustee with finance and accounting qualifications and experience to the Board. If you have these skills, can offer clear oversight and direction as a Board member and are interested in the work of Healthwatch Essex we would like to hear from you.
Peaceful Place is an award-winning charity seeking an Operation Manger to join our team of forward-thinking creative people.
You will have experience of multi activity coordination in any field with an aptitude for creating warm friendly and supportive environments.
You will have the ability to engage partner services in arts, culture and sport and have a flexible and team empowering approach in coordinating a variety of activities. You will have demonstrable experience of professionally liaising with health and social care professionals. You will have full ownership of developing this role, working closely with the CEO and will enjoy and maintain our culture of fun in a stimulating and rewarding environment.
Place of work: Peaceful Place, 261 Timberlog Lane, Basildon, SS14 1PA
Hours of work: Flexible (core hours 10:30-3:30)
Working days: Monday to Friday – 5 days per week.
Salary: Negotiable £30,00 – £32,000
Reporting to: CEO
Holidays: 28 days pro rata – Please note we are open bank holidays.
Application Process:
Please forward a current CV with a statement, no more than 2 A4 pages, outlining your skills and aptitude to make this role a success. Please ensure you provide evidence in your statement of direct practice in relation to the job description attached.
We welcome applications from any field demonstrating transferable skills.
Peaceful Place is an award-winning charity with great ambitions to maintain and grow it’s innovative, creative and empowering service. To support us on this journey we are seeking a professional, friendly, flexible, person who enjoys empowering team colleagues and adaptable to the daily changes that makes this role an exciting opportunity for a person with ambition. You will have full ownership of the volunteer project. You will develop the role and ensure the service has sufficient volunteers to support the Charities aims and objectives.
You will have further responsibility for the recruitment and support of very dedicated and hardworking volunteers in our successful charity Shop based in Southend.
We are seeking a person with knowledge and experience of good practice on volunteer coordination. You may not have direct experience of volunteer management but have transferable skills required to develop the project and make it a success.
We have an ambition to seek a relevant Quality Mark in volunteer Management and you will play a leading role in achieving this.
In return you will receive excellent support from a friendly professional team and enjoy our culture of fun in a stimulating and rewarding environment.
Place of work: Peaceful Place, 261 Timberlog Lane, Basildon, SS14 1PA
Hours of work: Flexible
Working days: Monday to Friday incl.
Salary: Negotiable £26,000 to £28,000
Reporting to: CEO
Holidays: 28 days pro rata
Application Process:
Please send a current CV with covering letter, no more than 2 A4 pages, outlining evidence of experience, skills and abilities relating to Job Description attached.
This is an exciting new role to develop the work of ECVYS and to work closely with the Essex Violence and Vulnerability Unit (VVU) for the shared purpose to further develop & amplify the voice, presence and joint working of the voluntary youth sector in Essex, Southend & Thurrock.
We are looking for a dynamic and creative networker with an organised and analytical mind-set who has experience of the voluntary sector in Essex and grant management, and who would like to be a part of this exciting new role with ECVYS.
The contract is initially for 3yrs and will be home based but with travel across Essex, Southend & Thurrock.
Please find the full j.d and application details below or email rachel@ecvys.org.uk if you have any questions. Thank you for your interest in this position.
Making a positive difference to communities, people & the environment
Grants for Good is our first fund that invites local charities, voluntary groups or social enterprises that have an average annual income of less than £50,000 to apply to us for funding.
What is the Grants for Good Fund?
Every three months, we’ll share £10,000 between 5 shortlisted projects that have a positive impact on communities, people or the environment.
Since 2011, the Matthew Good Foundation has empowered employees of the John Good Group to support many good causes in the UK and around the world by nominating good causes for funding. However, in 2021, our tenth year, we wanted to extend our impact and allow small charities, community projects and social entrepreneurs to come straight to us.
To stay true to our ethos of donating funds to causes close to the hearts of our members, every three months, five shortlisted projects will be voted for by John Good Group employees. These five charities will all receive a share of £10,000 – the more votes a cause receives, the bigger the donation. Following the vote, the project that receives the most votes will receive a grant of £3,500, second place £2,500, third place £2,000 and fourth and fifth place will both receive £1,000.
Charities and projects are welcome to apply all year round, and your application will be considered in the next funding round. Funding will be awarded every three months, in April, July, October and January, with an application deadline of the 15th of the month before. Eg. for the April round, applications will close on the 15th March, for the October round, applications will close on 15th September.
Who can apply?
Your application must be on behalf of a local community group, charity, voluntary group or social enterprise that has a positive impact on communities, people or the environment and has an average income of less than £50,000 in the last 12 months.
We want to make it easy for very small charities or new community interest companies to apply, so organisations/groups do not need to be a registered charity, however, you will need to have a bank account in your organisation’s/project’s name such as a community bank account. We are not able to provide funding to personal bank accounts.
How to apply
We don’t want small charities to be intimidated by lengthy forms to complete – so we’ve kept the online application form straightforward. We’ll need your contact details, a brief outline of the organisation’s work, and how you’ll use the funds. We’ll also need a reference from someone not involved in the project, but with enough knowledge of what you do to support your application.
999 BSL is the name of the UK’s first ever Emergency Video Relay Service in British Sign Language (BSL). The service is available to download as a smartphone app (iOS and Android) and access as a web-based platform. It launched on 17 June 2022.
In a statement on 27 January 2022, Ofcom set out a requirement for communications providers across the UK to make an emergency BSL service available from 17 June 2022.
Ofcom approved Sign Language Interactions (SLI) as the sole provider of the service, which enables deaf BSL users in the UK to make calls to emergency authorities such as the police, ambulance, fire and coastguard services via BSL video relay interpreters.
SLI is working closely with BT, who is the wholesale supplier of the service to the telecoms industry. We are also committed to working closely with communication providers. We take care to ensure that the service is compliant with Ofcom’s General Conditions and provide them with resources to help promote the service within their networks.
We communicate regularly with the deaf British Sign Language community and continue to provide regular updates on the service through our own communication channels and those of other stakeholders we work with, including third sector organisations.
3-hour Trauma Awareness workshops providing an opportunity for those who work or support people who may have experienced trauma.
This session helps to develop an understanding of the impact of trauma and adverse childhood experiences using neuroscience research that will enable the attendee to take a trauma-informed approach at work and in their personal life, whilst also exploring the effects of vicarious trauma on themselves and others and how we can all improve wellbeing.
Ideal for those who work in helping professions: health care, education, emergency services, social work, youth offending services, foster carers.
This workshop can be delivered online or in person.