December newsletter – Check out our annual stats!

Start celebrating!

In the lead-up to the end of the year, we always take the opportunity to look back over the last 12 months and celebrate all the events and activities we’ve been involved with. And it’s been a privilege to work with so many brilliant partners!

If you’ve been following our social media, you won’t have missed our ‘12 Days of Christmas’ series highlighting the memorable moments from the year. There’s been a lot to reminisce over – from the awesome Revel Puck Circus visit to the Big Lunches, our participation projects, Green Light and of course our Super Fans, amazing volunteers and more!

Get yourself over to our Facebook or Instagram pages to see more!

Meanwhile, we’ve also been going over this year’s stats to see the positive impact our activities have had for everyone across Thurrock. The numbers have made us feel very proud – more people than ever have been able to access creative events, get funding for creative ideas and share new experiences they’ll never forget, which puts us in the perfect position to make 2026 the best year yet!

We’ve put it all together in the handy infographic above – a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s got involved!

Communities getting creative

It’s been a busy month for Creative Community Support (CCS) projects and events!

Firstly, the Creative Wellbeing sessions organised by The Sapphire Employability & Wellbeing Academy have been running weekly since 1st December in Grays. Attendees have been co-creating a vibrant mural as well as personal affirmation artwork that explores identity, mental health and belonging, while meeting local artists and community members.

Their final showcase event is today, Fri 19th December, 4.00-5.30pm! It’ll be well worth going along to check out the work and talk to the Sapphire team about their activities – Unit 29, Grays Shopping Centre.

Also at Grays Shopping Centre yesterday, 18th December, was the Winter Welcome: A Celebration of Cultures for International Migrants Day organised by Together Create. This turned out to be a truly heart- and stomach-warming event, with everyone who went along getting to enjoy the art with local artist Marsha Ashley, sample the sweet treats from the Welcome to the UK Cooking Group and even give their vocal chords a workout singing with members of the Thames Opera Company!

And lastly, tonight is the final night of the Commedia Christmas Carol shows! For the past six days, the Complete Commedia Company has been presenting their family-friendly, comedy re-telling of the classic Dickens story at a different church every night across our communities in Thurrock. This has been quite a feat, with communities letting the Company transform their churches into little theatres for the day!

Tuesday night (16th) we were proud to support an exclusive performance for the CATrust schools at All Saints Church, South Ockendon, with the Company leading fun drama workshops in the schools prior to the show, which was a truly memorable show for everyone concerned.

If you haven’t seen it yet, get yourself along to St. Stephen’s Church, Purfleet-on-Thames this evening, 19th December, at 6:30pm. You won’t regret it!

Projects with care in MIND

Friday 5th December saw the grand unveiling of the community tile mural project at the Thurrock & Brentwood MIND. From 11.00am-1.00pm, visitors were able to help add the finishing touches to this brilliant project – a touching symbol of how everyone can work together to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Over 100 Thurrock residents helped to create this series of murals, each adding their own mark, message or design. The idea was based on the Elements – Water, Air, Earth and Fire – with each one representing a different feeling or experience: calm, movement, growth and strength.

The shared artwork celebrates creativity, resilience and community, as well as Thurrock’s experiences of mental health and wellbeing. The project is a great example of how creative work is a vital channel of communication – both for sharing thoughts and ideas and getting insights into how other people may be feeling.

A big thanks to Well Social CIC for their work with MIND Thurrock & Brentwood and bringing this idea to life! If you’re in the area, do take a look!

More pics below.

Look out for the Green Light 2026 line-up!

Excitement is hotting up in the Start Thurrock office – not just for the Christmas break, but also for the programme for Green Light 2026!

We’ve been studiously working our way through the Tetris-like task of slotting all the events into the venues and dates, and our programme is nearly all ready to go public.

Residents in and around Purfleet-on-Thames, Chadwell St. Mary, South Ockenden, Aveley, East Tilbury, Stanford-le-hope and Corringham will all get a choice of exciting, fun, creative activities to try close to home. So far, we can say events include kids’ theatre, basket weaving, natural dye & acrylics workshops, a pop-up choir and much more!

But that’s enough spoilers for now… There is a lot in store for you all – look out for our announcement at the start of January!

This wraps it up for 2025. Thanks for being on this journey with us and best wishes for 2026!