Community-led events forum

Essex Activities – www.essex-activities.org.uk - is a free-to-use site built to promote local events and to help people find out what is happening in their area. Uniquely, it’s a website that was initiated by Essex County Council but is owned by local people – the content belongs to local residents and the events are events run by local people as well. It’s all about connecting people to fun, local, relevant things rather than providing lists of services or links to other websites. 

Rather than provide a snapshot of formal services at a moment in time, the site allows people organising events to add their own content and, for people looking for things to do, it provides a range of options in addition to traditional provision.

It is deliberately not targeted at a particular type of ‘service user’, and looks instead to provide a range of regular and one-off activities, focusing on what people enjoy rather than their particular needs – from athletics to community cinema, carpet bowls to messy play, rambling to flower shows - to help create connexions and friendships.

If we can tell more people about the good things that are happening locally, then we’ll consider the site to have been a great success.