The Essex and Southend Sports Trust (EASST) provides charitable grants in support of sport and in particular football and cricket. The geographical area in which it operates is strictly limited to Southend-on-sea and the county of Essex .

Grants must be in accordance with the objectives of the charity.

See more detailed guidelines to our activities here.

View the press releases here

2013 Events

EASST was founded in May 2002 and over the last eleven years has approved over 120 charitable grants totalling around £750,000 to Essex and Southend based sports clubs, individuals and community organisations. Successful applications have been made from 14 different sports.

Our charity continues to support the Centre of Excellence for Cricket at Garon Park, Southend and we are delighted that there will again be a Southend Cricket Festival at the venue in mid June 2013. Highlights are two Yorkshire Bank county first team 40 over matches as the Unicorns team representing the Minor Counties returns to Southend to play home games against Glamorgan on Sunday 9th June and the strong Middlesex team on Sunday 23rd June. Garon Park patrons and supporters of the EASST public appeal to raise funds for developments at Garon Park will be attending the Middlesex game for their annual lunch. Another great day out will be on Tuesday 11th June when Essex 2nd XI featured in a double header 20/20 game against Middlesex 2nd XI - yes, two separate 20 over matches between the two teams on the same day. View a full list of 2013 cricket fixtures at Garon Park including the full Southend Cricket festival programme and details of Essex Women's first team county champonship games and many other inter county fixtures at various age levels.

We are once again providing FREE tickets for deserving community groups t attend the two Unicorns matches in June. To apply online go to www.southendcricket.org.uk.

EASST is also supporting an evening with Sir Garfield Sobers to be held at the Culture Centre at the end of Sothend Pier on Friday 24th May 2013. Arguably cricket's greatest ever all rounder will be talking cricket in a very Southend style evening. Tickets cost £30 each and include Van Looey Fish 'n' Chips, Rossi's Southend ice cream and half a bottle of wine per head. Phone Neil Harding on 07778 126 098 for tickets.

Fund raising continues towards the cost of building a Community Cricket Centre at Garon Park that will be available all year round for use by local clubs and community organisations. This will include a meeting room and instruction room which will double as a restaurant and bar on local match days, a fully equipped kitchen and a toilet for the disabled. We are now hoping for completion ready for the 2014 cricket season. Further funding is still required for this project; all donations received will be held in our Restricted Fund and reserved exclusively for developments and maintenance of Garon Park's cricket area.

The standing order form is here and view a list of Garon Park Patrons here. Alternatively gift aid donations of any amount are welcomed in support of this project. The gift aid form is here.

In total we made 15 grants in our financial year ending 30th June 2012 amounting to over £80,000. We supported two programmes run by the award winning Southend United Community and Educational Trust (SUCET), inaugurated a cricket coaching and matchplay event for boys and girls run by the Castle Point and Rochford Schools Partnership and again assisted Southend Rugby Club with their schools rugby programme. Further details are on our grants page.

For any further information please call Joe Sims on 01245 227636 jwh_sims@hotmail.co.uk.