For people across Essex, giving often means more than a one-off donation – it’s about backing something close to home and seeing exactly what that support achieves. That’s the thinking behind Havens Givers: Inner Circle, a new programme of planned giving launched by Havens Hospices, home to Fair Havens and Little Havens.

Havens Hospices provides expert, compassionate care to babies, children, adults and their families across Essex who are living with incurable conditions. The charity, which receives limited government funding and is not part of the NHS, almost entirely depends on local generosity to keep its doors open and its Community Teams on the road.

Havens Givers: Inner Circle is designed differently to a one-off donation. It’s an ongoing relationship, giving supporters the chance to fund a specific, named area of care and follow its progress year on year, backed by regular updates from the charity, including the families who they’ll be supporting.

This year’s focus: the Little Havens Community Team

The current Inner Circle initiative supports the Little Havens Community Team – nurses and healthcare assistants who travel into the homes of children and young people across Essex. They deliver in-home nursing and respite breaks, hands-on support as a child’s end of life approaches, and emotional support for the whole family, including siblings.

Demand is rising sharply. Last year the team delivered more than 5,500 hours of care, a 25% increase on the year before. This care carries no statutory funding guarantee – it exists only because donors choose to fund it. Havens Hospices is seeking to raise £223,137 this year to sustain and grow the team, so that no family in Essex is turned away for lack of funding.

Zaynab, mother to Zak, describes the difference the team made when they first visited her family: “The emotional support and tasks they did with us when they visited allowed me to actually help myself and Zak in a way I could never have before; I just wasn’t able.”

Inner Circle member Terry, one of the scheme’s first supporters, adds: “It’s great to feel part of something special. I get to meet and chat with like-minded individuals and hear about the latest news around the charity, which my contribution is helping towards.”

How to get involved

For people across Essex considering their next step in giving – whether exploring philanthropy for the first time, planning a lasting legacy, or simply wanting their support to go further than a single donation – Havens Givers: Inner Circle offers a direct, transparent way to invest in the future of hospice care on their own doorstep.

To find out more about joining Havens Givers: Inner Circle, visit havenshospices.org.uk/innercircle, call 01702 220 305, or email Wendy Hogarth, Philanthropy Manager, at whogarth@havenshospices.org.uk for a friendly, no-obligation conversation.

Published 13th August 2026