About
About Friends of Evington
Friends of Evington is a local, CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) that is also associative, which means the charity is accountable to its members, making the charity’s Annual General Meeting an important event every year.
Members of the charity are the leaders that manage a local group that helps the charity fulful its community and/or environmental objects.
There are two main aims: enhancing our local community and supporting local environmental improvements. https://evingtonecho.uk/constitution-friends-of-evington/
Friends of Evington have two operations that promote the charity. These are ‘Evington Echo’ and ‘Enjoyably Evington’.
The Evington Echo volunteers organise the bimonthly magazine and the website https://evingtonecho.uk — covering local news, societies, events, local people, and other information that benefits residents. Distributors for the magazine deliver around 6,000 copies door to door and bimonthly. The Editoral Team collect local information for the website and/or the magazine. In 2026, Rob Watson became the Trustee on the Board of Trustees to represent the Evington Echo activities to the Board of Trustees.
Enjoyably Evington ( Note the deliberate uses the adverb ‘enjoyably’ to indicate this is an ongoing activity.) uses the Friends of Evington’s umbrella insurance to help all groups who are accepted as affiliated groups by the charity trustees, to run safely and sucessfully. Most groups have volunteer leaders who are also members of the charity. However there are other groups that are run directly by the charity and employ the leaders under contract.
Our currently insured community groups in 2026 are:
- Evington Social Group
- Scrabble Group
- Rummikub Group
- Friendship Group
- Gentle Exercise Group
- Yoga at Mayflower Church Community Rooms
- History and Heritage Group
On the environmental side, Friends of Evington also support and insure local groups that are involved in gardening. They work with Leicester City Council staff, who register these groups and have accepted the umbrella risk assessment arrangements for them.
Currently insured community and environmental groups 2026 are:
- Sedgebrook Gardeners
- Horton Hill Project
- Friends of Piggy’s Hollow
- Main Street, Evington
- High Street Community Garden
- Garden of Prosperity
Some of these groups choose to register with East Midlands in Bloom as ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ groups.
The groups with paid leaders are:
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- * Zumba style exercises * Yoga for Lymphatic Release and Vitality
These groups are represented on the Board of Trustees by Helen Pettman.
The campaign for a Neighbourhood Centre in Evington has taken many twists and turns. Our preferred venue has always been Evington Park House. In Nov. 2018, the Evington Park House was still not officially recognised as a Neighbourhood Centre but until December 2023 some daytime groups with their own fob access were meeting in Evington Park House.
By January 2023 all the people with access to Evington House were asked to leave, including the Parks Services officers who were managing Evington Park House. The house was deemed to be an underused asset and no longer needed as an operational base. Friends of Evington put in a request for this asset to be transferred into community use. The Council turned down this bid. In 2024, the charity made a partnerships with Best Community Charity and applied again for a business lease. The outcome is not known.
More history
Evington Echo is an independent magazine that started in 1981. The magazine was first published in June 1981 and circulated around the Evington village area. Today (2026) it is circulated by volunteers to 6,000 homes in the Evington area. The content of the magazine is about the charity’s news and local news in and around Evington, clubs and societies in Evington, profiles, opinions, local talent, local history and recording local changes in Evington. Over time these magazines in themselves become an historical record. An on-line website was set up in 2012 and today, the website can be found at evingtonecho.uk
The Evington Echo also works with Decentered Media CIC with the intention of supporting this organisation to set up community reporter training. More local reporters in Evington will help secure the sustainability of this magazine.
The Evington Echo has a wealth of historical information and the Editor is in the process of categorising and uploading the information onto the website so it becomes an archive for this area.
The many groups, clubs, campaigns and people recorded over 45 years build up a changing picture of a suburb on the edge of Leicester. Some early interviews also give first hand reports of earlier times.