This summer Essex County Council, Active Essex and Thurrock Council are working with a wide range of locally trusted organisations to deliver our biggest ever holiday activity programme to date, across Essex and Thurrock. The programme is Essex ActivAte.
They are working with over 85 partners to provide over 200clubs and 130 outreach sessions, providing over 200,000 FREE places over 5 weeks of the summer holiday.
All core Essex ActivAte clubs provide:
Free places for low income families who are eligible for benefits based free school meals
At least 4 hours of provision each session
Fun physical activity that meets the CMO recommended amount
A range of enrichment activity which might include arts and crafts, games, drama, music, cooking, informal education and in some places they will also host pet parties, pony rides and will have special guests from princesses and super hero’s!
A nutritious meal that will be hot where possible
Nutritional education
Support for the whole family
All clubs will be inclusive and have inclusion and mental wellbeing ambassadors and Active Essex are providing a range of training and support to ensure that all staff and volunteers are fully equipped with the knowledge and understanding to delivering a fun, supportive and safe experience for young people this summer.
They are also working with specialist partners in order to provide 29 Essex ActivAte SEND clubs and 18 Essex ActivAte mental wellbeing hubs across the county.
Parents and carers can book places at the summer sessions using the following link; Essex ActivAte Summer 2021
MoreLife is a leading and award-winning provider of healthy lifestyle and wellbeing services, including weight management, smoking cessation, physical activity and health improvement. We have 20 years’ experience of helping thousands of people improve their lifestyles – and gain more from life – and of working with local authorities, the NHS and businesses to create programmes that engage local communities and workforces.
We work by using the evidence and by working closely with communities and key groups to understand what works best for individuals and areas and create tailored programmes. We are a subsidiary of Leeds Beckett University, which means we have ready access to a huge range of expertise in research and consumer insight.
As you may know, Essex County Council is tendering for an Integrated Community Wellbeing Service, and we will be putting in a bid. MoreLife currently delivers some weight management services in Essex, which has given us some insight into the possibilities to deliver greater health and wellbeing for all of Essex’s people.
We believe that MoreLife’s track record and expertise places us in a strong position to deliver Essex’s vision – and we realise the crucial role that partners will play in making that vision a reality. Our approach to partnership includes understanding both the full range of contributions that our partners can make and also what our partners would like from us to help them flourish, whether that is support on evaluation, data management or utilising our research, digital, clinical and communications expertise.
We welcome conversations with any organisation of any size that can contribute to Essex’s health and wellbeing, including from the public, private, voluntary, community and faith sectors, and who might be interested in working with MoreLife.
St Clare Hospice is gaining knowledge about your understanding of their services and what a hospice is.
They’d like to hear your lived experiences of hospice and end of life care. Whether you’ve accessed a hospice, or decided not to, our Information and Guidance team would like to hear about your experiences.
You can find all the ways to contact our Information and Guidance team here.
Alternatively, you can contribute to polls on our Instagram and Facebook stories, or our Twitter account. Click here to head to our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to find the polls!
Essex County Council will hold a Social Value Festival from Monday 19 to Thursday 22 July 2021. The Festival is aimed at existing and potential vendors to ECC of any size and type, ranging from small to medium enterprises to large organisations as well as social and community enterprises across the wide range of sectors in which we work. All of the sessions are online and are free of charge. Our goal is to communicate the festival to a broad range of audiences.
We would appreciate to have your support in communicating the Social Value Festival in your network of Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises organisations. Claire Dove CBE, UK Government’s Crown Representative for Voluntary, Communities and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) will lead a session dedicated to VCSEs. Could we have a quick chat about the Festival? I would love to hear more about your work with communities and the opportunities to collaborate communicating the Social Value Festival.
The Festival will be led by Councillor Whitbread, Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Corporate Affairs who will launch the Social Value Catalogue, our new repository of advice, tools and examples and the programme features keynotes from leading experts in the field. These include Professor Chris White, the author of the Social Value Act (2012), Director of the Industrial Policy and Insight Centre at the Manufacturing Technology Centre and a visiting Professor of Industrial Strategy at Loughborough University. Arnab Dutt OBE, Head of Social Value Policy at FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) and member of UK Government SME Panel, will lead a session dedicated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Please find attached the full event agenda and press release. We have images and other materials available as well.
The programme runs from Monday 19 July to Thursday 22 July as follows:
Business in the Community’s (BITC) What If Your Job Was Good For You? report identifies actions employers can take to transform wellbeing at work. The report sets out how business leaders can create an environment in which employees feel supported to do their best work. It also outlines how to achieve good jobs for all, that drive sustainable positive mental health outcomes.
A program to help leaders harness the power of their community to turn impactful ideas into action.
Training & Coaching
Learn how to organize and strengthen your community through custom training, one-on-one coaching and meaningful partnerships.
Access to New Products
Get early access to new products aimed at helping you manage and activate your community.
Funding
Facebook will work with GlobalGiving to offer you up to $50k USD to help fund your community’s initiatives, with a subset of communities eligible to receive part of $1 million USD in additional funding.
A webinar on the challenges of working in the voluntary sector. Appreciation and understanding of the role of the sector, caring for yourselves and each other.
Wednesday 7th July @ 4pm (via Teams)
Dr Leon Fletcher-Tomenius and Magnus Irvine of Here For You service will facilitate a reflective practice session for managers during a 50 mins to an hour online reflective space.
This will be a space for managers to talk about their recent experience of working through the pandemic and how this has impacted on them with a particular focus on the challenges of the changing environment, understanding of the role of the sector and being reactive not proactive.
Your chance to share your experiences of Mid Essex Mental Health Services and ask any questions you may have – join us on Thursday 15 July from 1:30pm to 3:00pm. Email epunft.pet@nhs.net to attend.
There’s one fundamental thing that almost every social housing organisation in the UK is getting wrong with their social media.
In this free webinar you’ll learn what that is, how to get it right, and you will change how you think about your organisation’s communications.
Ever wondered why your housing association’s social media doesn’t get much engagement?
Think there’s too much negativity on your Facebook page?
Want to know how you can support and lead your comms team to turn your social media in a thriving community of positivity?
You’re not alone.
Learn what you need to do to turn your organisation’s social media around: from ghost towns and slanging matches, into thriving communities.
Join one of the UK’s leading social media experts, Hel Reynolds, for a thought-provoking talk that will show you what you can do to make your social media an asset to your organisation, and the people you serve.
Enter your email address below to get the video sent straight to your inbox (check your spam folder if you don’t see it!).
The Essex Climate Action Commission is launching its report at this online event to mark the end of its first year advising Essex on how best to reach net zero.
Since it was established and met for the first time in May 2020, the Commission has been discussing what action it recommends the county of Essex should take in order to tackle climate change. This event will launch the report which will reveal the Commission’s key recommendations on a number of key themes:
Transport
The Built Environment
Energy and Waste
Land Use and Green Infrastructure
Community Engagement
We all have a role to play in taking action on climate change – join us at this event to hear the Essex Climate Action Commission’s views on how working together now, we can secure a brighter, greener future for the people of Essex.
Why attend?
Delegates will learn how best the Essex Climate Action Commission recommends Essex transforms itself into a net zero county as quickly as possible. Innovative ways in which we can take action now to minimise the impact of climate change will be revealed.
Extensive research on what Essex residents think, will also be revealed during the event.
Delegates will also have the option to network with over 30 Commissioners as well as fellow delegates both before and after the main event.
Who should attend?
This event will be of interest to:
Residents
Students
Young people
Educationalestablishments
Community groups, charities and voluntary groups
Anchor institutions
Local and national government
Other climate commissions
Essex businesses
Businesses looking to invest in Essex
Land owners and farmers
The event will be particularly relevant to professionals in those sectors linked to the key themes covered in the report.
Register now to secure your place at this event on 20th July! https://www.airmeet.com/e/a384a230-c9ee-11eb-b8a2-eb5d6bc1deff
