Jennie Read will deliver a FREE ‘Introduction to County Lines’ online event on the 17th June 2025 (9.30 – 13.00 with a break included).

Jennie joined Essex Police in 2003 as a member of Police staff and has worked in various roles. She began her current role as the Force Gangs and Drug Lines Officer focusing on Prevent and Protect strategies and best practice to safeguard victims of exploitation in August 2019. Previously, she has worked within the Child Exploitation Team to safeguard primarily children that were High risk victims of sexual and criminal exploitation. Prior to that she worked within the Domestic Abuse Safeguarding Unit working with High Risk victims of domestic abuse, violence, honour-based abuse and stalking and harassment in order to safeguard them from their perpetrators and further abuse.

She will cover:

• The ‘attractions’, signs and behaviours and the risk related to exploitation
• Understanding the grooming process and the criminal gang structure
• Understanding girls and young women and how exploitation affects them
• What is ‘Cuckooing’, who are targeted and spotting the signs
• Examples of successful disruption cases of criminal gangs and county lines
• Trends and current and national issues impacting our children, young people and vulnerable adults and how to recognise the dangers
• Campaigns
• Signposting and Resources

Please sign on and join if you wish to learn about County Lines or improve your knowledge of the current trends and developments in this area. The training is free, it would be great to see you online.

Book your space

You will receive a link to attend online closer to the event.

Come join us at the The Hamptons Leisure Centre, Chelmsford for an interactive session on mastering the art of bid writing. Whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, this workshop will equip you with the skills needed to craft winning proposals. Learn insider tips, tricks, and strategies to stand out from the competition. Network with like-minded individuals and boost your chances of securing that next big project. Don't miss out on this valuable opportunity to enhance your bid writing skills!

About the Workshop

Active Essex Foundation has developed a Fundraising and Bid Writing Workshop in response to requests for fundraising support from our locally trusted organisations (LTOs) and wider network.

Fundraising has never been more challenging for community and voluntary organisations across Essex. There is huge demand on grant givers like National Lottery Community Fund and Sport England. There are less grants available from local authorities and NHS. Your fundraising plan needs to think of different ways to bring in income, know where to look for available and relevant grants, and make sure your bids and grant applications stand out.

This three hour in-person workshop is aimed at organisations who are using physical activity and sport to deliver their organisation’s vision and outcomes and want to improve their fundraising and bid writing knowledge and confidence to strengthen income generation.

What the Workshop offers

The Active Essex Fundraising and Bid Writing Workshop benefits all levels of fundraising experience who are looking to improve their fundraising knowledge and skills, whether you are looking to write your first application and don’t know where to begin, or you want to look at other ways of fundraising for your organisation. Through the three-hour workshop attendees will:

1. Understand the different types of fundraising.
2. Understand the current trends in fundraising.
3. Understand the different sources of grants for community sport/physical activity.
4. Understand the best approach to writing a small grant application.
5. Understand the best approach to writing a large grant application.

Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/b...

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an internationally recognised training course, designed to teach people how to spot the signs and symptoms of mental ill health and provide help on a first aid basis. This accredited two-day course will allow you to develop practical skills to identify a range of mental health issues and support a young person to get the help they need. Provides an in depth understanding of specific mental health issues and is delivered in four manageable chunks:

• What is mental health?
• Depression and anxiety
• Suicide and psychosis
• Self-harm and eating disorders

It focuses on the issues faced by young people today, such as cyber bullying and substance misuse, and build your knowledge and confidence on how to promote protective factors and offer support.

Completing this course qualifies you as a Youth Mental Health First Aider. In order to complete this course you must attend day 2 on 28th July.

Book your space

Please email [email protected] if you would be interested in attending future sessions.