Celebrating the Heart of Pitsea journey

It is amazing to think that Heart of Pitsea has been running for over 10 years!  During that time, we have provided hundreds of projects in the area and we are incredibly proud of everything that we have achieved, especially creating our ‘Legacy’ – the play area, outdoor gym and benches at the Legacy Park on Chalvedon field and the outdoor gym on Elm Green. We have also created fantastic friendships with the residents within our community and a huge number of local organisations and businesses.

Although Heart of Pitsea will be scaling down at the end of March, we are excited to have created a new charity which will be building and running a Men’s Shed Hub, next to the Chalvedon Community Centre with the help of local resident volunteers.   The Hub will also support the continuation of our existing Walk & Talk group and the Pitsea Pots maintenance group.

Our weekly youth clubs are extremely popular and we are passionate that they continue for our members and as a lasting legacy for Heart of Pitsea.  To this end, we are providing the Basildon Billericay and Wickford Council for Voluntary Service with funding to take over the running of the clubs when Heart of Pitsea Big Local ends at the end of March.  This funding is intended to sustain the clubs for at least 1 year, until the BBW CVS can obtain further funding.

Since 2014 we have funded and organised the popular annual Pitsea Community Christmas event on Northlands pavement, with support from the fabulous guys from the Basildon and Pitsea Carnival Association (BPCA), until last December (2023).  Although that was sadly our last event before our funding from the Big Lottery Community Fund ceases, we don’t want the festive fun to stop!  So we are delighted that the BPCA have agreed to take over the baton to organise The Pitsea Community Christmas event this year, with the help of a Heart of Pitsea grant.