Howard Briggs - THE SOUTHEND FUND
Site Plan  Home      Résumé     Personal     Political     Professional     Family   Interests     Rotary     Choirs     Singing     Rugby     Westcliff HS  Southend Fund     Awards  Articles    Article 1    Article 2    Article 3    Article 4    Article 5    Article 6  Contacts	Every Mayor of Southend-on-Sea has traditionally elected one or two charities for which he/she will raise funds during the mayoral year. This has raised many thousands of pounds over the past hundred years or more. Choosing that charity has always been a difficult choice for every mayor but my main concern for the year 2001/2 was  to relieve some  of the social and cultural deprivation which blights the lives of so many of our fellow citizens. Which group should I choose - there were so many? How could I do more than just scratch the surface of the problem? After much thought I realised that unless I made a large endowment which could drawn upon year by year to help those already working in the field I would feel disappointed with whatever I managed. I am not and was not sufficiently wealthy to simply hand over the money so a large sum needed to be raised. I approached the Essex Community Foundation who were very enthusiastic about my ideas and offered their support. I then approached an old friend, Peter Croysdill, to see if he would help which he did willingly. We approached local companies, trusts and individuals. We ran fund raising events and were able to secure 50% match funding for everything we raised from all sources through a family trust. By the end of my mayoral year we had raised a total of £147,000. Peter and I set up a development panel to continue raising funds and create an endowment which would help the people of Southend for generations. Since then some other mayors have made The Southend Fund their mayoral charity and we are very grateful to Cllrs. Charles Latham, Daphne White and Gwen Horrigan for their wonderful contributions. The fund now stands at about £450,000 and we are able to donate the interest on it to really worthy causes and we continue to raise funds. Prevention of social problems, whether they realise it or not is a major achievement of sports clubs, youth organisations and other social groups. Some of the charities we support get little help from the public because they tend to work in the background fighting deprivation in all its forms. Think of the homeless, the battered women, the drug addicts and the inadequate. They rely on special support groups who do wonderful work and need all the help they can get. This is what the Southend Fund does and will continue to do long after we are all dead. If asked on my deathbed what was the most worthwhile thing I have done with my life, apart from raising my family, my answer will be "The founding of The Southend Fund".
	The Southend Fund Page No Chuckle available on what is for me a very serious topic. Click here to return to the top of the page.