Winner of the Families Included Prize announced!

Claire Hawtree, who founded a peer-to-peer support group network ‘Mums and Families UK’ based on her own experience of post-natal depression was announced the winner of the Families Included Prize tonight. After a competitive review of eight final ideas, the …

Counting down to the Families Included Prize winner announcement!

The winner of the £10,000 Families Included Prize has been selected. Join us at the Award Event on 8th February in Chelmsford to find out who it is, contact us to register!

To RSVP to the Award Event …

Finalist’s blog #2: Mums and Families

Claire talks about why she started Mums & Families, her aims for the programme and the benefits of being a finalist in the Families Included Prize. 

There has been a lots of press recently about postnatal depression and how …

Finalist’s blog #2: Moving Together for a Brighter Future

Moving Together for a Brighter Future has been busy building partnerships and bring services to communities.

So much has happened since my last blog. Ill health means that Spurgeons Children’s Centre has been unable to carry on with our …

Finalist’s blog #2: The Dance Network Association

Find out about the Dance Network Association’s pilot, its aims, big life news from the team, piloting successes (and challenges) and what the future holds for the project. 

A reminder, our programme is the delivery of dance classes as …

Finalist’s blog #2: Light

Find out about Light’s aims, volunteer recruitment and lessons learnt. 

Quick recap of my idea

The vision I have is to create a group and community of parents that have special needs children and have been through the process …

Finalist’s blog #2: Fit 4 Mums and Families

Families Included Prize finalists Parents 1st talk about their experience of piloting their idea, how it helped the mums involved and the new skills the Parents 1st team had to learn.   

Well it’s time for the final blog, and …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Hug in a Box

Our journey to sharing our Hug in a Box!

A Hug in a Box…..Sounds like a really nice gift to receive right? And such a simple idea….isn’t it?  We’ve all experienced those times when you just want to send a …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Fit for Mums and Family

Well this is the first time I have attempted to write a blog, so please be kind as I make an attempt to gain your attention and let you know what we have been doing, in preparation to test out …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Moving Together for a Brighter Future

Our hearts skipped a beat when, in August, we heard that we had been nominated for the Families Included Prize. It is our opportunity to find a solution to family isolation, but where do we start?

Together we are Buffy …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Healthy Minds – Happy Families

Volunteering Matters is delighted to be a finalist for the Families Included prize!  We were selected for our idea ‘Healthy Minds – Happy Families’.

Based on our flagship Volunteers Supporting Families (VSF) model, this project specifically targets mums-to-be and new …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Moving on up together

Hi, I am Nic O’Brien, Joint Scheme Manager at Home-Start Chelmsford. We are very excited to be chosen as one of the 10 finalists of the Families First Essex Challenge Prize.

We currently provide home-visiting volunteers and a family group …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Dance and Wellbeing Programme

The Dance Network Association proud finalist in the Families Included Prize 

Hi there, my name is Gemma Wright the Artistic Director of the Dance Network Association, the county organisation for dance delivery in Essex. I am so proud that we …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Mums and Families

Mums and Families

My name is Claire Hawtree and I am the founder of Mums & Families (MAF), together with Heather Collins we are one of ten finalists in the Families Included Challenge Prize.

Four months after the birth …

Finalist’s blog #1 – Light

My name is Nicole Blom and I have been working and teaching within the area of special needs for the past six years. I am passionate about supporting the individual children I teach to reach their full potential and to …

Congratulations to the Families Included Prize Finalists

Ten local ideas shortlisted for £10,000 Essex Families Included Challenge Prize

Ten Essex based innovators have been named finalists in the Families Included Prize – a competition run by Essex County Council in partnership with Nesta, the UKs innovation foundation,  …

Judging the Families Included Prize: We can all do something about loneliness

Emily Jones is an Essex mum of three who knows first-hand how lonely looking after a little one can be and how important opportunities to get to know other parents are. She is also one of the judges for …

Families Included Prize: meet our judges

With the entry period closing in exactly one week’s time (14th July 2016), we’re introducing the Families Included judging panel, who’ll use their real life experience to select our finalists.

There are plenty of people in Essex who …

Families Included: Challenging Essex communities

Essex County Council has launched its first challenge prize, ‘Families Included’, in partnership with Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre.

Families Included is open to Essex communities and encourages them to come up with innovative ideas to help reduce isolation among Essex …