About the Essex Community Tree Network

The Essex Community Tree is a network of partner organisations who provide support for people that are experiencing mental ill-health and/or related problems linked to well-being, debt problems, addictions and many other issues preventing a persons need to lead a healthy, unstressed life.

The aim of this website is to show where to go for help in the area of Essex that you live. It is a website that will grow. Currently there are pages for:

If after looking at the information provided, you are still unsure, then please contact enquiries.essexcommunitytree@outlook.com or go to the Find Help page of this website for more detailed information.

History

In 2011, Audrey Clark (managing director) and Tim Warncken (director) opened a print shop called Brentwood Community Print (BCP). This community interest company’s primary focus was to help people who were in recovery from various mental health and well-being issues, by teaching them new skills, which ultimately built confidence. After some months, but sometimes years, many volunteers went on to find paid work. In March 2020, the print shop closed due to financial constraints.

One of BCP’s greatest attributes was networking. From 2011 onwards, contacts were made throughout the Brentwood area. Like minded mental health organisation's, local businesses, Brentwood Council and Essex County Council, regularly linked up with us.

In 2012, Audrey had an idea to produce a leaflet, so that all the mental health organisations we knew at the time, could be found on a single point of contact. The leaflet was designed in house by the team at BCP and 12 organisations were on it. Brentwood Council printed and delivered the leaflet to every household in Brentwood.

Moving on to 2017 and that initial leaflet of 12 organisations became the first tree. Once the website was launched in 2017, the work to build a network of trees across Essex really began. The following three years saw the network expand to 7 trees and we now have 90 partners and nearly 260 points of contacts, supplying people with the necessary information to find mental health and well-being support throughout large parts of Essex. The points of contact occur because many of the partners cross over from one area to another. All original ideas and graphics, came from the BCP team of volunteers. The website build, the booklet runs and leaflet printing, were funded by Essex Health Watch and Brentwood Borough Council.

Other charities and voluntary services have also contributed over the years.

The challenge of building such a huge network of organisations, was a massive undertaking. It took a number of years to contact, meet, build trust and confidence. All the partners on the website, are like minded people, trying to achieve similar outcomes, by using their own individual techniques and many keep in contact with each other.

In 2021 and after many years of service to BCP and ECTN, Audrey Clark and Tim Warncken have now retired. Without their drive and enthusiasm, both BCP and ECTN would not have existed.

In late 2023, the ECTN received funds from the Health and Inequalities Board. These funds were to rebuild our website and buy the necessary equipment that was needed to conduct the interviews with our partner organisations. The website you are looking at now, went live on July 2nd, 2024. James from Squarehost and Keith from KR designs, have done a fantastic job rebuilding the site and we would like to thank them for their hard work.

In October 2024, the ECTN had the official website launch, which was arranged by Lorraine Jarvis and the team at Chelmsford CVS. And what a great day it was. the turnout was superb and the Lady Mayor and Mayoress kindly attended the ceremony.

As of April 2026, we say a huge thank you to Peter Ferrier who has been central to the smooth running of the ECTN, as he has passed the day to day running of the network over to local charity Trust Links.