Business students help raise awareness of charitable Southend Fund with patron Sir Teddy Taylor

A group of three Business students from South East Essex College have been helping local charitable organization, The Southend Fund, raise awareness of the assistance they can give local charities through an event which will see Patron, Sir Teddy Taylor, attend.

Michael Ings, 18, from Billericay, Aaron Parson, 20, from Southend and Michael Swain, 19, from Westcliff-on-Sea have all been working closely with former-mayor Howard Briggs and charity chairman Peter Croysdill, helping organize the awareness-raising event at 1pm on Monday April 2nd, at South East Essex College.

Howard Briggs said: ìI am thrilled that these students have taken an active interest in The Southend Fund and their enthusiasm which is sure to make the event a major success has been very grateful indeed.î

He added: ìWe want the Fund to make a real impact on Southend and raise the community spirit of the townís charitable and cultural groups. Through this event we want to make people aware that local charities can apply for grants as we actively want more groups to do so. Since starting we have given out over 30,000 in grants and want to dish out more but we can only do this by building our fund.î

The event forms part of the studentís Leadership and management course at Southend College, which involves them taking on a charity and offering an event or service that will contribute to the organizational goals of the charity.

Their aim is to make more people, specifically local charities, aware of the Southend Funds existence and how it could be beneficial to their charities needs. They hope to do this through a networking lunch and presentation at the College, where the centerpiece of the event will be a presentation from the Southend Fund about their work, to over 60 delegates from local charities.

BND Business Studies student, Michael Ings, said: ìThis has been a great experience to see how an organization runs on a Directorate level and we have taken the opportunity to attend meetings at KeyMed and met some important figures from around the town.î

He continued: ìWe have also seen how a charity works as a business and learnt that the person in the street with the collection tin and the Director are just as integral to the charities success, as they are both working toward the same goal.î

Southend boasts a very dynamic voluntary sector which consists of around 600 charitable organizations providing support and help to those in need in the community and enriching the arts and culture in the community.

However, as locally based groups which are often known only to those using their services, they can face difficulties in raising the funds needed for their work. They often have to compete for funds with high- profile, nationally known charities.

So, with local people fund-raising and deciding on how the income from the capital fund should be distributed, The Southend Fund is truly Southendís own charitable fund.

The Fund provides grants to charities and voluntary and community groups which are local to the Borough and which help local people.

The presentation will include the history of The Southend Fund, its past work with local charities, its aims and objectives and how the fund can help the local charities that have attended.

For more details about the The Southend Fund please visit: