About Opportunity Harlow

Opportunity Harlow was a successful business support programme, managed by Haven Gateway Partnership on behalf of Harlow Council and was funded by the UK Governement’s Community Renewal Fund.  It significantly exceeded the targets originally set at the beginning the project but beyond that, it worked to create a sense of community amongst local businesses and encourage local procurement and collaboration and saw opportunities shared, local contracts won and businesses supporting each other.

Programme Results

• 242 businesses welcomed to the network with an onboarding session to find out more about their business
• 61 businesses received a full diagnostic with a growth plan
• 18 events were run between March and October 2022 and a total 388 people attended events excluding the Food and Drink Festival.
• More than 200 introductions to businesses were made including to other support organisations, larger businesses and major projects.
• Over 70% of respondents to the end of project survey were extremely or very satisfied with the Opportunity Harlow project.
• 81% of respondents had used the portal to book events, discover opportunites and find other members.