25th Anniversary Blog
Matt King 16th July 2025
Celebrating 25 Years of Trust Links
My first interaction with Trust Links was back in 2003. I was working in a school and care home that supported young sex offenders in Southend with education and therapy. We came over to Growing Together with a small class to develop a food growing plot at the garden. At first it was tough to get the teenage boys to engage with the task in hand, but fairly soon they started digging with gusto, getting flush from the exertion, and real enthusiasm for the activity. It became a highlight of the week coming over to the plot to see what had grown and to spend time in the outdoors in the safe, supportive and welcoming environment that the project created. It was then that I knew Trust Links can transform lives.
Last week we celebrated 25 years since Trust Links started. It was a fantastic opportunity to bring together our founders, staff, volunteers, members, funders and supporters to reflect on and celebrate the charity’s achievements.
Charities are essentially a collection or movement of people and resources, pulling together to make a difference in their communities. Over the years, the lives of literally thousands of people have been touched by Trust Links. The other day I did a talk at a church about our work and on the way out about 70% of people said they had either benefited from Trust Links themselves, a friend or member of their family had engaged with one of our projects, or they had supported us in another way. The ripple effects of this sort of work are immeasurable, although we do of course have to measure the impact of our work!
Our Roots and Growth
We were honoured to be joined by our inspirational founder Cheryl Higgins. Working with local churches, Cheryl identified the need for Trust Links as there were significant gaps in provision for people with mental health problems in Southend in the late 1990s. Fortunately the opportunity arose for funding through the Single Regeneration Budget and the rest, as they say, is history. I will share her talk separately, as it is worth revisiting.
The development of Trust Links has been like the growth of an orchard. Our founders planted a tiny apple tree and quickly saw it flourish. As the tree grew larger and bore fruit, it was clear that one tree was not enough. The gradual expansion to new sites responded to requests from neighbouring areas and clear evidence of need. As the orchard grew, the fruits can be harvested, and we witnessed increased activity and biodiversity. All trees have roots and an amazing underground network of mycorrhizal fungi, feeding and nurturing the trees and connecting them to one another. The community enjoyed the orchard, much like they do with our own St Laurence Orchard with Wassailing to begin the year and Apple Day to celebrate the harvest in the Autumn.
Our Impact in Numbers
Reviewing our headline figures, we can see the impact of our work. Last year services supported 7,395 people, with 3,851 actively engaged in projects. There were 2,848 wellbeing groups and activities delivered through the year. Since our electronic records began in 2017, more than 14,000 individuals have engaged in services. This is the tip of the iceberg of impact, when you think of the thousands of people that have attended events, engaged in our digital work and the family and friends of those touched by our work.
With The Gunny on Canvey Island opening imminently, we now have seven community gardens as well as the historic St Laurence Orchard.
Growing Together
We asked Dr Claire Wicks from the University of Essex to review our Evaluations of Growing Together as part of our 25 Anniversary work. Dr Wicks reports that statistically significant improvements were observed in social loneliness, subjective wellbeing, and nature connection, with the latter surpassing the UK national average. Growing Together specific outcomes such as physical fitness, learning new skills, and feeling part of a community all showed positive trends, with the most notable gains in members feeling they had meaningful structure to their week and reduced dependence on others.
The summary of evaluations over Growing Together’s 25-year history highlights consistent improvements in members’ wellbeing, self-esteem, and social connectedness across multiple sites and time periods. Qualitative findings emphasize the therapeutic value of gardening, the importance of community and autonomy, and the unique benefits of Growing Together compared to traditional mental health services.
Evaluations from 2014 to 2023 show that Growing Together has been especially effective in reducing stigma, fostering belonging, and supporting members through crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall evidence strongly supports Growing Together’s role in enhancing mental health through community gardening, demonstrating clear value for money and a Social Return on Investment. We continue to diversify the offer, with Greening projects in community spaces in Basildon and Southend, dedicated sessions for women through our EmpowHer course and Growing Together for Dementia in partnership with Hamelin.
As our founding project, Growing Together is often synonymous with Trust Links. However, we now run a range of other projects and services that equally have a profound impact on the lives of those that engage with the projects.
Innovating Mental Health Support through REACH
Last year we invited Dr Julie Repper, Director of IMROC which leads on Recovery Colleges nationally, to undertake a peer review of our REACH service. Dr Repper’s report stated:
REACH is a “next generation” Recovery College. Rather than being situated within the NHS… REACH is situated within its communities as a flagship, supporting whole system transformation by bringing together VCSE organisations and statutory services within mainstream community facilities to support people with mental health challenges… REACH is quite remarkable in its commitment to continued improvement and innovative development, the quality of service it provides and the sheer volume of work undertaken by such a small team.
Supporting Children and Young People
Projects for children and young people have always been important to Trust Links. Clearly if we can intervene early and prevent mental health needs from escalating then that is positive for these young people and for society as a whole. Our small Children & Youth Team run a huge range of projects: Families Growing Together (which has recently ended); Learning Together alternative education for children struggling to attend school; Boulding Together in partnership with Indi Rock at Southend Victoria Shopping Centre; Youth Links after school peer support groups; and Dig It Youth positive activities at our Shoeburyness site. The team are in the process of obtaining their Level 3 Forest School Practitioner qualifications and are now delivering fantastic weekly sessions at our sites for young children, those that are home educated and all children in the school holidays. Last year the team delivered a phenomenal 588 sessions across our range of projects, with 3,429 attendances.
Responding to Community Need
The Trust Links projects continue to evolve in response to identified needs and opportunities. The TLC Trust Links Counselling service is well developed, with a bank of qualified and student counsellors offering a low cost counselling service both in person and online. Our Long COVID peer workshops are also well attended and much needed.
Eco Days was set up to inspire people with practical ways that people can reduce their carbon emissions and have a positive environmental impact, in response to the climate crisis and the associated climate anxiety. Workshops are friendly, welcoming and inclusive spaces for people to come together, building community, skills and knowledge in a range of settings.
Real Life Impact
At our anniversary event we were honoured to have some of our members sharing the impact of Trust Links on their lives. We were also sent a couple of other testimonies and they were keen to share these widely.
Bernadette and her family came to our celebration event last week and were keen that this is shared:
My Dear Son Mr Samuel Hodgkinson was a former member of Trust Links. Prior to his passing in April 2024, Trust Links played a big part in Sam’s life.
Trust Links gave Sam hope, stability and focus, meeting new friends, and being part of their community.
Sam’s triplet sister is going to be taking part in a charity run in September in Harwich to raise funds for Trust Links. Our family feel the funds raised will be going to an organisation that was a big part of Sam’s life and will always be remembered by Sam’s Family.
Kind Regards,
Mrs Bernadette Hodgkinson.
One of the users of our Children & Youth Project sent us her experiences:
Me and 2 children, a 13 year old and older, were made homeless during lockdown gaps. We were ‘stuffed’ into filthy Pennine flats from a bungalow with a wildlife full garden. The mental and emotional shock was awful. Everywhere stank of metal, concrete & drugs. Human excrement in the lifts and stairs.
Trust Links at Westcliff was the only lifeline to an outdoor space that wasn’t crusted with dog mess and bolshi dog owners. Fresh air, good company, lovely food and excellent staff all meant I didn’t go on what TRULY felt like a natural killing spree!!! Lovely time there that kept our family going.
Much respect and love to TRUST LINKS
Challenges and Resilience
Running a charity is not without its challenges. Over the years we have had so many hurdles to jump over: issues with our sites including obtaining planning permission, leases, managing break-ins, continual maintenance, negotiating with neighbours; we have seen so many people through their ups and downs and have sadly had a few people pass away – we seek to remember and honour them; it is a continual endeavour to obtain funding from grants, contracts, corporate partnerships, individual donors, events, sponsorship, in fact wherever we can get it! And of course we have had to contend with the disruption of COVID, the cost of living crisis and other huge societal changes over the last 25 years. Generally we learn from these challenges, helping us to be more resilient with what is thrown at us, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier!
Thank you
Our anniversary is an opportunity to thank our wonderful staff both past and present, the army of volunteers (we currently have 160!), our trustees who are ultimately accountable for the charity and keep us in check, and our members without whom none of this would be possible. Shortly after I started I reviewed our roles – those that benefit from the Growing Together project were called ‘volunteers’ and whilst they were indeed volunteering, it did not accurately reflect the fact that they were also beneficiaries of the project. Often called service users, clients, patients or customers, we chose ‘members’ as this captures the way that we want to include and think of those that we work with – they are part of the team, the charity belongs to them, and we are all working together.
I am also so grateful to all of the partner agencies for working with us to develop projects and services. We are part of an ecosystem of services and projects, relying on each other to build a network of support and community. We are all stronger working together, complementing each other’s skills and continually learning and improving as the world changes around us.
None of our work would be possible without our funders – individual donors, supporters, grant making trusts, corporate partners, and commissioners including NHS and Local Authority. We continue to reach out, pursue all appropriate opportunities, and seek to continually demonstrate the value for money that we bring!
The Next Chapter
So what is next for Trust Links?
We are excited to be moving to the completion of our project on Canvey Island. After 8 years of development and a build in the region of £1m, this is one of our biggest capital projects yet and is in the heart of a community that will really benefit from a new community garden and hub.
Our new Wellbeing App also launches this summer, providing some wonderful personalised resources 24/7 to improve wellbeing, and also a way to electronically capture impact and outcome data integrated with our CRM database.
We are delighted to be working with Inclusion and Provide to develop an improved Recovery College offer across Mid and South Essex. It is great to evolve services to meet needs and to collaborate with others and it will be interesting to see how the offer develops.
Over the next few months and years we are going to see significant changes in the public sector in Essex with changes to the ICB, Greater Essex Devolution and Local Government Reform. Restructures and changes like this bring a huge amount of uncertainty and disruption, but they can also bring opportunities. It is important to position ourselves in the Third Sector to respond positively to change and see how we can both support those that may be negatively impacted, as well as maximising any openings that this might bring.
Get Involved in our Silver Anniversary
Our 25 Year Anniversary gives Trust Links an opportunity to highlight and amplify our work through this celebratory year:
- Look out for Trust Links being featured on the big screen by Southend Victoria station in July and August, with a text to donate call to action
- We have identified 25 things that we are asking for sponsorship – a bit like a wedding list, we have some costed asks, so get in touch if you can help!
- Can you complete a 25 fundraising challenge? We are asking supporters to get sponsored to do 25 things – reading 25 books, cooking 25 cakes for a bake sale, and so on
- We have some lovely 25 year celebratory items – bags and pin badges. Our supporters are encouraged to pop in to collect theirs
Why Trust Links Matters More Than Ever
Twenty five years on, and I believe that the need for Trust Links is greater than ever: with growing quantity and severity of people with mental health challenges; waiting times for mental health services getting ever longer; people suffering with the cost of living crisis; the climate crisis starting to impact communities with changes to weather and crop production; loneliness and isolation impacting increasing numbers of people in the UK; and fragmented and divided communities made worse by a negative and combative social and political environment.
Here’s hoping Trust Links will be around for another 25 years to help to address some of these issues as much as we can.
Thank you for your support, it means so much to us all. Let’s continue to work together to build a movement of change, with caring communities where people connect, nurturing one another and our beautiful planet.
