Essex VCSE Alliance Supporting Your Essex Community
We’re pleased to share that the Essex VCSE Alliance is now proudly supporting Your Essex Community.
The voluntary and community sector (VCS) plays a vital role in creating strong, resilient communities across Essex. From supporting residents to tackling local challenges and driving change, charities, community groups and social enterprises make a real difference every day.
To continue having that impact, organisations need the right support — and that’s where Your Essex Community comes in.
What is Your Essex Community?
Your Essex Community offers free support to all voluntary and community sector organisations in Essex. Its aim is to help the sector thrive by creating a more connected and collaborative environment.
It works with organisations to:
Minimise duplication
Maximise available resources
Make the best use of skills and community assets
Design and deliver solutions together
By strengthening connections and encouraging collaboration, it helps ensure the sector can continue meeting the needs of local communities.
Our Role
As the Essex VCSE Alliance, we’re proud to support this work — championing the sector’s voice, promoting partnership working, and helping organisations stay connected to wider opportunities and conversations.
Together, we’re building a stronger, more joined-up VCSE sector across Essex.
If you’re a charity, community group or social enterprise in Essex, we encourage you to find out more about the support available through Your Essex Community.
Find out more at www.youressexcommunity.org/welcome-your-essex-community
Essex Alliance is sharing the following programme on behalf of Headway Essex.
Headway Essex are about to run the next session of their ‘Brain Injury and Me’ programme in Colchester this March, and also deliver sessions throughout the year in other parts of Essex.
The programme has been designed to provide focused support to help get life back on track following a brain injury. It’s open to anyone at any stage after their injury — whether that’s weeks, months, or even many years later
These groups are run according to demand and take place on one day a week over 8 – 10 consecutive weeks. The course covers areas such as:
Effects of brain injury
Anatomy, physiology of the brain and managing fatigue
Identifying and managing attention deficit
Causes of memory failure and coping strategies that help
Emotions and behaviour
Occupation/work – getting back to work/volunteering or training after injury
When someone has an acquired brain injury, it affects not only them but also their family and friends. It can change everyday life and relationships in many ways.
A brain injury often happens suddenly and without warning. There’s no guidebook to show you what to do next. It can be hard to know where to find help, what support is available, or what to expect from health and financial services.
At the same time, it can bring a wide range of emotions for everyone involved.
These supportive learning sessions have been created to help adults adjusting to life after a brain injury, and the impact is truly heart-warming.
“I found the course absolutely amazing and wonderfully helpful in restoring my self-confidence. It also helped in allowing me to function in group work. It restored my sense of identity and accepting my new self. It helped me ‘fight through the fog.“
The weekly sessions are informal, but structured with planned topics, using presentations, discussions and handouts given at the end of each session. One of the most valued parts of the programme is the peer support — the friendships formed and the opportunity to share experiences with others who truly understand.
Brain Injury and Me runs over eight weekly sessions* between Friday 6th March, and Friday 1st May 2025 from 10am-1pm
*Please note there will be no session on Friday 3rd April due to it being the Easter Bank Holiday weekend
If you or someone you know could benefit, we’d love to welcome you.
Please reach out to us at 01206 845945 or email abisupport@headwayessex.org.uk.
Mind in Havering, Barking and Dagenham are pleased to announce Essex Summer Fest!
Taking place at Harrow Lodge Park, Hornchurch, on Saturday 11th July, the Essex Summer Fest promises live music, a bar, fun fair, silent disco and more!
For more information, go to www.essexsummerfest.com
BelievePerform is pleased to be working with Active Essex Foundation to deliver a bespoke version of their Thrive programme, designed specifically for VCSE sector organisations working with young people and grounded in the core principles of common low-level psychological therapy approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and positive psychology/mindset.
This programme is not intended to train attendees as therapists, rather it provides evidence-based tools and techniques derived from these common psychological therapy approaches that can be used to support young people aged 11 to 25 in building emotional resilience and practical skills to help them thrive.
Participants will receive some pre-reading/video that they will be expected to engage with ahead of the session, as well as content to access six short explainer videos, six practical tools, and six supporting infographics to reinforce and extend their learning after attending this workshop. Through this workshop, attendees will develop a foundational understanding of CBT and positive psychology theory and its practical applications.
They will learn how to apply some basic CBT-informed interventions in their work with young people to positively influence mental health and wellbeing. Participants will also gain deeper insight into common mental health challenges and the role they play in providing safe, informed support. Attendees will be supported to understand the importance of boundaries and in identifying appropriate referral pathways when further support is needed.
It will be expected that all attendees attend the full day to complete the training and to receive a certificate.
Children’s Mental Health Week (9–15 Feb) focuses on helping children feel safe, connected and supported — building a strong sense of belonging in schools, families and communities 💙
If you or someone you support is looking for local help across Essex, visit 👉 www.essexmap.co.uk
Essex Map is a free directory of services, groups and support for children, young people and families.
And if you run a service that supports wellbeing, make sure you’re listed so families can find you when they need it most.
Official, free resources are also available for schools, families and workplaces to help create nurturing environments.
This World Cancer Day, we recognise the impact that cancer has on individuals, families, and communities — not just medically, but emotionally, socially and practically.
Support comes in many forms: from specialist services and peer groups, to local organisations offering guidance, wellbeing activities and community connection.
It’s a free, searchable directory of local support services across Essex — including cancer support groups, counselling services, wellbeing activities and more — designed to make it easier for people to find the right support at the right time.
🗺️ For residents:
Whether you’re living with cancer, supporting someone who is, or looking for local wellbeing resources, visit www.essexmap.co.ukto explore support near you.
🏢 For organisations:
If your cancer support service or community group isn’t on the Essex Map yet, please consider adding your listing — it’s free and helps people connect with the support they need. Email: communications@essexalliance.org.uk
Support starts with information, connection and community — and no one should have to find their way alone.
LGBTQ+ History Month (February) is a time to recognise the contributions, resilience and lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people — past and present — and to reflect on how connection and visibility continue to matter.
Across Essex, there are many organisations, support groups and community spaces doing vital work to support LGBTQ+ people and allies. The Essex Map (www.essexmap.co.uk) brings these services together in one easy-to-use, searchable place.
🗺️ For individuals: The Essex Map helps people find local support, social groups and community services — whether they’re looking for connection, advice, or somewhere safe to belong.
🏢 For organisations: If you run or support an LGBTQ+ group, service or inclusive organisation, listing on the Essex Map is free and helps ensure your work is visible and accessible to those who need it.
This LGBTQ+ History Month, let’s continue to build stronger, more connected communities — and make sure no one in Essex feels they have to search alone.
Where Communities Are Built Lessons from the work of community engagement across Essex
My work in community engagement began with a simple realisation: many of the challenges
facing our communities are not caused by a lack of services, but by a lack of connection. I have
seen this repeatedly in schools, care homes and local neighbourhoods across Essex, and it
has shaped everything I have done since.
When I founded Get Started Art, it was to give people a way to express what they were
struggling to say. Children dealing with anxiety, adults experiencing isolation and older
residents losing confidence all responded to the same thing: being invited to participate rather
than be observed. Whether it was a child finding their voice through a paintbrush or a senior
rediscovering their spark, the principle remained the same. Engagement works when it is
human, consistent and rooted in place.
Alongside this creative work, my work through Freemasonry has provided the infrastructure to
listen and act at scale. Freemasonry offers one of the most established civic networks in the
country, local people meeting regularly and committed to service over generations, with
volunteering based on time, presence and personal responsibility rather than money alone.
Working with lodges and volunteers, I have been able to connect charities, councils, schools
and health partners in ways that reduce duplication and increase trust.
The results are visible in initiatives supporting children’s mental health, dementia awareness,
isolation and loneliness, community volunteering, and practical support for families in need,
all shaped by genuine local insight rather than top-down design. In every case, the focus has
been on early intervention, sustained presence and consistency rather than short-term activity.
In many cases, the most valuable contribution has not been funding, but time, consistency and
the willingness to show up.
One of the most striking lessons from this work is how much engagement helps those who give
as well as those who receive. I have watched volunteers regain purpose, confidence and
wellbeing simply by being part of something that mattered. This has reinforced my belief that
community engagement is not charity alone; it is prevention, resilience and leadership
combined.
What this work has shown me is that effective community engagement depends on presence.
Turning up. Listening. Staying. Change happens because people step forward in their own
communities, and leaders simply create the space, structure and support for that to happen.
My role has been to help join the dots and ensure good ideas become lasting action.
Community engagement is often spoken about as a policy aim. In reality, it is a shared
responsibility. When done properly, it improves wellbeing, strengthens trust and leaves
communities better equipped for the future.
Everything I have learned points to the same conclusion: strong communities are built when
people are invited to take part, and when leaders choose to lead from the front, not by control,
but by example, every day, in every community they serve.
About the Author:
David Barton BCAa FRSA is a civic leader and charity founder based in Essex. He founded Get
Started Art, an award-winning initiative that has delivered more than 1.5 million creative
wellbeing resources to schools, hospitals and care settings in the UK and internationally. He
currently serves as Provincial Community Engagement Lead for Essex Freemasons, where he
builds partnerships between charities, councils, health services and volunteers to deliver
practical, community-led support. His work focuses on the belief that presence, trust and
human connection are the foundations of lasting social change.
