Epping Forest District Partners

BOSP supports children and young adults with complex disabilities or life-limiting conditions, and their families, by providing high-quality, fun, educational activities, respite, peer support and counselling.

We provide Essex residents (excluding Southend-On-Sea and Thurrock) with access to health checks; stop smoking services; weight management courses; and emotional health and wellbeing support. All of our services are free.

We are an independent, parent-led charity, providing specialist and person-centred support to families who have a child or young person with any special educational need or disability (SEND). We can offer:

• Information and advice, and a helpline;
• One to one support including assistance with Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) applications;
• Independent parental support on all educational issues includes assessments, education health care plans and exclusions;
• Support through group activities including a Saturday Activity Club.

We give parents and their children a voice, and help families to navigate the system and access exactly what they are entitled to. We work alongside families, to empower and give confidence. 

“I honestly believe the support and guidance you provide is invaluable. I can’t thank you enough. I felt so supported and understood. When I couldn’t turn to others I could to Families InFocus.”

Our service is free to access, and anyone from Essex who has a child or young person with any SEND can get in touch.

Home-Start Essex aims to give families with at least one child aged under 5 the best possible start in life by supporting parents and caregivers to feel less isolated, to build their confidence in themselves and their parenting and to find ways to manage the challenges they face. We build trusting, helpful relationships with families and deliver a range of flexible support to meet their individual needs, including volunteer-led home visiting, family groups, wellbeing services, school-readiness, and behaviour support programmes.

Kids Inspire is a children’s mental health charity supporting children and young people aged 4-18 from low-income households and their families navigating mental health challenges and trauma. We do this through creative and arts-based trauma informed therapies, mentoring and community-based activities.  

Kooth.com is commissioned to provide an online wellbeing platform which along with text based counselling also includes helpful articles, forums, activity centre, daily journal and messaging. We provide British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy accredited services and Kooth is available to young people aged 11-18 in Essex. 

The service provides a free and non-judgemental place for children and young people to connect with others and know they are not alone. They have instant access to self-help materials, fully moderated discussion forums and tools such as online journals and goal trackers. They can also contribute written pieces of work reflecting their own experiences, as well as accessing drop-in or booked text-based counselling sessions with professional counsellors.

These are online services that offer anonymised support via online counsellors, available 365 days a year, 12pm -10pm on weekdays and 6pm-10pm on weekends. 

Partnering with parents, we support families whose children have additional needs or disabilities by providing compassion, guidance and hope.

Spark is a charity that provides counselling and mentoring services for young people in the Epping Forest and surrounding areas. We also run mental wellbeing workshops in schools, as well as parenting/nurture courses in the community. We believe in building relationships, coming alongside a young person and their family, and inspiring a sense of hope together.

The core aim of the Change Project is to promote personal wellbeing through enabling people to have healthy relationships in families, between individuals, and in the community.

Voluntary Action Epping Forest (VAEF), operational since 1993 is an independent Charity, our mission is to work with the people of Epping Forest District to empower, support and develop voluntary and community activity.

As an umbrella organisation we develop new initiatives to meet community needs and promote cooperation between the voluntary and statutory sectors.

We offer a range of practical support, including advice on funding, help with running a voluntary organisation and provide a comprehensive Volunteer Service to help local people access volunteering opportunities.

We also run a diverse range of community projects for isolated residents in Epping Forest, these include:

Benefits Advice
Befriending
Community Response Hub
Handyman for homeowners
Volunteer Centre
Digital Learning Sessions
Ace Activities supported day activity sessions for people with learning disabilities.