Shelford and Stapleford Youth Initiative
(Registered Charity Number 1073490)
Annual Report of the Management Committee for the year ended 31[st ] March 2021
Tuesday 25[th] January 2022
Welcome to our SSYI AGM. We have much to thank God for, not least that SSYI has now been able to serve the young people of our Villages for 25 years. That is a remarkable achievement and SSYI has done much good in that time, we pray that it should continue for many years to come, as the need is ever present and growing as the villages become more suburban in character and the population of young and old alike grows with continuing development.
To start my report this evening I wanted to remind us of the original objectives of the Youth Initiative, articulated when we were founded 25 years ago. This is set out in our mission statement:
“To bring together Christians and those sympathetic to Christian thinking to work as a team to plan and provide a meeting place in the area for the teenagers and young people aged 13-18. To express Christ’s love for each individual in practical ways, to teenagers and to the community as a whole. To provide a safe place for the social contact between young people and to help them to discover positive channels for their energy, creativity and frustrations with the world. To offer an alternative to discourage drug and alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour, encouraging personal development, physically, spiritually, and in use of talents and gifts, especially in service to others. The facilities should be open to all, and provided for the community regardless of race, religious belief, gender and ability”.
I am pleased to say that during the last financial year, and with God’s help, we have been able to continue this work in the Villages even as the Covid pandemic began to impact our face to face work. We have continued, when Covid regulations permitted, to operate the Friday night clubs in Great Shelford as our prime service to the Villages and have run other events during the year for the Young People, such as residential trips, other one day trips and Zac covered these in his Youth Worker report. When we were unable to operate the Friday Club or other face to face events due to Covid restrictions, we used social media and the telephone to keep in touch with the young people who, due to the lock down, faced many new challenges. The Social Media engagement included daily videos posted on our Facebook and Web pages to encourage and motivate the young people in our villages. In addition, when Social distancing rules permitted, outdoor events were held both in Great Shelford and Stapleford and Sawston and one-to-one outdoor support sessions were held.
Zac has stepped successfully into the Youth Worker leadership role and has worked hard to lead new initiatives. He has continued to work with the Youth Worker team and has helped to develop new strategies for engagement with the Young people of the Villages, particularly during the Covid lock-downs. Jon Sanders from Romsey Mill has continued to support Zac, the Youth Worker team and the Trustees as Youth Work manager. I want to thank Zac, Tina and Charlie for taking the work of SSYI forward successfully for another year and for their continued passion, enthusiasm and innovation for our work even during difficult Covid times which has meant SSYI continues to touch the lives of more and more young people across our villages.
The collaboration between Romsey Mill and SSYI continues to be important to SSYI and has worked very well again this year. Under Zac’s leadership we have continued to have residential events (as permitted by Covid restrictions) for SSYI during the financial year, which have been a great innovation with a dramatic impact on the Young People who attend, and we have also developed new opportunities and more outreach work outside the Club itself.
We have also continued to involve young people in as many community events as possible, including fund-raising events that were still permitted to proceed under Covid restrictions. We plan to grow this community involvement over the coming years, once the Covid-19 crisis is over, as it enables us to meet more young people, parents and other adult residents of the villages and raises our profile. We firmly believe that involving young people in the community is key to a community’s future. Hence our continued enthusiastic support for the Copse Project and Playscape in Great Shelford. Let Zac, Tina or Charlie know when there are Community events, fund raisers or projects and we will endeavour to bring young people to help with the event.
When able to proceed the Friday night youth club continud to offer a safe alternative to any risk-taking activities which young people who gather on the Great and Little Shelford and Stapleford recreation grounds may be involved in. We have had many new young people join this year and many young people move on to the next stage in their lives; this means that we are reaching approximately 45-55 young people each week through the Friday club or through social media engagement, a similar number to last year. We are working with the Young People who attend (and those that don’t) to make sure the Friday club stays relevant to their needs. When we are appropriately staffed our Youth Workers and Volunteers will also engage to do more outreach work with the Young people who gather on the recreation ground but who do not come into the club. We are grateful to Great Shelford Parish Council for facilitating the transfer of the Social Club room to become and permanent home for SSYI and providing additional funds to help with the outreach work. Zac will cover more about these activities in his report, but SSYI having a permanent home will provide a platform and base for much more activity. After school facilities for teenagers is just one of the options being considered. During the year we signed the final lease on the club room. We are also looking to refurbish the club room to make it more attractive to the Young People who are also helping with its refurbishment. We are applying for grants to facilitate this and Great Shelford Parish Council has been particularly supportive and responsive to the challenge of the refurbishment. We hope the refurbishment will begin on April 2021 and be complete by August 2021.
Staff Update
Apart from Zac’s leadership which I mention above, our female Youth workers, Tina Mogg and Charlie Trueblood have continued to make a significant contribution all through the year, except for periods during full lockdown when unfortunately they had to be placed on the furlough scheme. We thank Tina and Charlie immensely for their contribution and for the great relationships they foster with our young people, particularly our female young people. Zac Britton took on more responsibilities during the financial year and during the year Zac transferred from a 50:50 job share with St Andrews Stapleford to a full time role with SSYI. We thank St Andrews for their continued support and partnership and for releasing Zac so that he could take up the fill time role during the year.
We have worked very successfully for another year with our strategic partners at Romsey Mill, a Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire based Christian Charity with a similar mission as SSYI’s. They continue to support us with management time and also through access to good practice policies and procedures and also with the Churches across the Villages. This has facilitated many combined activities including running Youth Alpha during the year at the Social Club which was a great success.
We have discovered that collaboration, though adding some complexity to the paperwork, does allow our resources to stretch further and to enable us all to further our own work successfully. It has been encouraging to work with St Andrew’s, Great Shelford Free Church and All Saints Little Shelford Youth Staff and of course with Romsey Mill. The Romsey Mill Youth workers divide their time between Romsey Mill and SSYI. When working for SSYI they focus on SSYI activities and effectively act as our employee during this time. We are grateful to Neil Perry, the Romsey Mill CEO, for helping us create this Partnership so quickly nearly 6 years ago and to its continuing success and also Jon Sanders who has acted as Zac’s “line manager” at Romsey Mill. We see great advantage from the Romsey Mill relationship both in terms of more efficient use of our funds for staffing, leveraging each other’s resources and experience and in making sure SSYI is fully compliant with all appropriate regulations when working with young people. Do have a look at the Romsey Mill web site to see their activities and why they are such a good strategic Partner for SSYI (http://www.romseymill.org/). There advice and guidance was particularly useful this year as they shared with us all the Covid regulations and
updates that enabled us to carry out activities in accordance with the regulations at any point in time and outside of the full and complete lock down.
We expect the relationship with Romsey Mill to continue to flourish in 2021-2022 and to lead to new initiatives in working with the Young People across the Villages. Particularly as we work to create a bridge between our open Friday Youth Club and the Youth work being performed in our local churches. Zac mentions, in his report, for example, the “Deeper Residential” initiative and Youth Alpha. We hope more SSYI Young People will want to join this kind of event during the coming year, which gives them a chance to explore Christianity in more depth.
Many thanks to our volunteer youth workers
The Volunteers who supported Tina, Zac and Charlie on Friday and at other events make a huge impact and we are very grateful for their continuing support. The effort they put in keeps our core activities running and enables our professional youth workers to achieve much more, we thank them enormously. Most of our volunteers are members of our local Churches, they have a key role in ensuring the Churches are up to date with SSYI developments but, when possible, have conversations with the Young People about our Christian mission. This happens surprisingly often and we pray is also sowing seeds that at some point in the Young People’s lives, whether now or in their adult life, which will lead to a rich harvest for Christ.
Local Parish and District Council and Police Support
Zac and the team have also continued to extend our relationship with the local police and particularly the PCSO. We are very grateful for the support our local PCSO gives to SSYI when needed and I believe the relationships that are developing between our Young People and the PCSO will be of considerable benefit going forward. SSYI is also well known with our Village Parish Councillors and District Councillors. Many of them have visited the Friday club to meet the Young People and also to meet the Youth Workers and volunteers to see how a committed and united group, driven by Christian witness, can come together to deliver youth work successfully even in times of stringent austerity in council funding and more recently the challenge of Covid-19. The collaboration of Great Shelford Parish Council over the last 12 months has been particularly appreciated. They have supported the transfer of the Social Club to our sole control but have also stepped up their level of funding to help specifically with refurbishment of the Youth Centre and to help fund outreach work to those young people who chose not to come into the Youth Club and in reality, need even more of our support.
We have done all our work since our founding to glorify God’s name and hope that our work will encourage Churches around Cambridgeshire to go forward in faith and organise similar Youth Focused groups where none currently exist.
Thanks for ongoing Support for our Villages and our Individual Supporters
All of our work would not be possible without the interest and backing of the local community. We would like to thank all those in the Villages who have individually supported us and for the significant contributions from Great Shelford, Little Shelford and Stapleford Parish Council and the local Churches. The continued strong financial support from the Churches, Councils and private individuals is a great encouragement to us and has meant we have not been significantly impacted by cuts in County or Government funding over the last few years. John, our Treasurer, mentions in his financial report other gifts and grants we have received, and we offer our grateful thanks for them. We are also aware that much prayer is offered for the work we do by our local Churches we are thankful to God for his care and protection in it.
The Committee
Our Committee has met six times since the last AGM and I am most grateful for their hard work throughout the year. In particular, Polly, our secretary and Joan our Vice Chair who have continued to serve us excellently through the year and Chris Cooper deserves a special mention also, a committee member and stalwart of our Friday night volunteers, running the food and drink provision with great efficiency and organising volunteer rotas and supporting many of our Community engagement activities. While John our Treasurer, has also made a fantastic contribution and has worked extremely hard to keep our financial records straight and to support the whole team in fund raising activities and grant funding applications and the relationship with the Great Shelford Parish Council. John’s work in fund raising and helping to expand our work has been particularly important to the steps taken to successfully set up and refurbish the Youth Centre.
As John’s report indicates there have been issues with funding our work but he is cautiously optimistic about future funding despite the many challenges we face but as in the past year with Covid, we go forward in faith, trusting that the funds will become available to enable SSYI to continue and expand further.
Our committee represents all the Churches in our Villages as well as Romsey Mill however, as we continue to expand our work, other new members are also welcome!
Our plans for 2021-2022 and the continued impact of Covid-19
As we came to the end of the Financial Year to 31[st ] March 2021, we saw the severity of impact of the second wave of the Covid-19 crisis and this clearly had a significant impact on our plans for the year. During the year we had to furlough some of our team members and are grateful to the financial support provided by the Government. We also had to cancel the annual Big Breakfast, but our virtual Big Breakfast met with some success. As the Covid crisis developed we had to start adapting our services as the challenges faced by our young people became even greater. I have been most impressed with the adaptability and innovation shown by our Youth Workers and volunteers and during the most severe periods of lock-down we have been able to maintain services virtually and during periods of easing of restrictions we have held face to face meetings in accordance with Government Guidance.
Our focus for this coming year will be to develop our services to the Young People of the three villages and build our strategic relationship with Romsey Mill, the Churches and Sawston Village College where many of our teenagers attend school. The major development will be the the refurbishment and modernisation of the Youth Centre. Covid-19 will have some impact on our plans but we believe we will, God willing, emerge from the crises stronger than ever before.
We would also like to see more cross engagement with the Churches in the Villages and over time, some joint activities. To this end we will also be appealing to the Churches again to offer up more volunteers to either sit on the committee or to help with the Friday evening volunteer rota. The more volunteers we have the easier it is for Zac to make sure we are properly staffed at the club, a key feature of health and safety and the more Christian volunteers we have the better placed we are to have conversations with young people about our faith when the time is right. We have also established an annual service of thanksgiving for SSYI and we hope over time this will become a well-attended annual event.
These short and longer terms initiatives will be significant steps, but we think this is worthwhile and will enable us to take forward our mission and will help us to meet our objectives. With God’s help, we are sure the Villages will support us in these initiatives and help us raise the required funds to continue to fulfil our mission for the next decade. There is no doubt the need is as great as ever and growing, particularly with the impact of Covid. We give thanks to God for those who had the vision to start the SSYI, the impact it has had on hundreds of Young People’s lives in our Villages over those years and the enduring support of all of the Churches and Parish Councils in the three Villages. Pray that God blesses our work for 2021-22 and beyond and give him great thanks for enabling us to achieve so much to the glory of his name during the year ended 31[st ] March 2021.
David JH Jones Chairman, SSYI, 25[th] January 2022
ANNUAL REPORT of the HON. TREASURER 2020 - 2021
STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS
The summary accounts for the Shelford and Stapleford Youth Initiative for the year from 1[st] April 2020 to 31[st] March 2021 have been approved by independent reviewer Alistair Cooper, and are provided on the following pages. In overview:
| s. In overview: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Accumulated Fund at Start of Year | £32,370.19 | |
| Total Income | £89,326.03 | |
| Total Expenditure | (£55,275.73) | |
| Net Surplus/(Deficit) for Year | £34,050.30 | |
| Accumulated Fund at year end | £65562.81 |
The year saw a further significant increase in income of £32,681.82 vs the previous year. This was mainly due to success with competitive grants, income received for the youth centre refurbishment (but largely not yet spent by year end), and the government COVID support schemes. Expenditure also grew, with more professional youth worker resource, increased support from Romsey Mill, and the Copse2 project. Overall this resulted in a Net Surplus of £34,050.30 (previous year’s surplus of £15,037.69).
SUMMARY
At the end of the year SSYI has sufficient funds for ongoing work, with 6 mths of total free reserves .
Apart from the ongoing regular activities, the main projects and events in the year were the Copse2 project and the ongoing Youth Centre refurbishment. All expenses and the majority of income is now allocated to specific projects and tracked against budgets for each one, alongside the measured outcomes.
Income 2021 – 22 has continued to grow, with further grants for general costs, and for COVID support. The is being offset by the main spend on the refurbishment happening in 2021-22. However the overall financial situation remains healthy.
Individual and our regular institutional donations have held up well in spite of the challenges of the pandemic, for which we thank God, and those donors. SSYI work has grown with more 1:1s, detached work, outside group activities, support sessions for vulnerable young people indoors, as well as “virtual” interactions and regular on-line communications via website and Instagram. The newly refurbished youth centre is being used increasingly for different groups through the week as COVID constraints relax, and trips have once again become feasible.
EXPENDITURE
The salaries of our youth workers made up 73% of the total. These are Zac Britton, Tina Mogg, Charlie Trueblood and “cover” resources from Romsey Mill when needed. The other major cost elements were Copse2 (8%), and the initial part of the Youth Centre Refurbishment (6%)
INCOME
The largest sources of income were from grants (53%) and local councils (22%). We particularly thank Great Shelford Parish Council for their generosity, as part of the mutual desire to make maximum use of the Youth Centre during the week for an expanded range of groups and projects. Individual donations remained steady (now 13% of the total), with 22 regular donors. Grants from churches remained constant, and Sawston Village College funded agreed 1:1 referrals (£1,330). Fundraising events were not possible.
We received grants from SCDC (£10,000), UK Government Furlough (£9,281), John Huntingdon Charity (£4,500), UK Youth (£3000), Little Shelford Ents (£200), and All Saints Coffee Morning (£105). HMRC gift aid tax refunds provided £2458.
We continue to be grateful for financial support from the village parish councils, four local churches, and individual supporters. A breakdown of the income and expenditure is shown in the graphics overleaf, and in detail in the appendices
Income and Expenditure
NEXT YEAR 2021 – 2022
SSYI’s financial position enables us to complete the youth centre refurbishment and deliver our core plans for 2021-2022. This also gives us the opportunity to expand activities, with needs and requests from surrounding villages, and new grants promised. We are already established in Sawston with 1:1, detached, targeted groups, and open access activities. However growth will only be possible with increased youth worker resources, as well as effective maternity cover for the absences of Tina and Charlie. As many grants are for “one-off” projects or fixed periods (12mths), replenishment income and fund-raising efforts are essential. The Big Breakfast (Oct 2021) and Christmas Drive-In carols (Dec 2021) have already occurred.
The 2021–2022 budget anticipates Income of £75,000 and expenditure of £80,106 (including £16,000 for the remaining Youth Centre Refurbishment work).
Appendix 1: Income and Expenditure – Details
| 2020-21 2019-20 |
2018-19 | 2017 - 2018 |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 3415 5766.96 5853.96 10792.86 14762.25 976.35 1126.98 0.00 3185.64 430.16 524.75 |
||||
| Residential | included in events |
|||
| Gifts | Churches | 6143.96 | 6439.96 | |
| Private donations | 10099.91 | 10199.9 | ||
| Appeals / collection tins | 297.32 | 164.61 | ||
| SSYI Events | 15108.11 | 3953.4 | ||
| Shelford Feast(and/or other villages events) | 250 | 500 | ||
| Total | 17966.33 28868.58 19800.00 18850 2511.38 1330.00 9280.66 7681.00 12892.20 17805.50 3510.55 |
31899.30 | 21257.87 | |
| Grants | Parish Councils | 4650 | 4400 | |
| Others | 892.72 | 2845.04 | ||
| Sawston Village College | ||||
| Furlough Scheme | ||||
| Copse 2project | ||||
| Youth Centre Refurbishment | ||||
| Competitive Grants | 4700 | 2613.5 | ||
| Total | 68789.36 24871.93 3.33 13.48 2458.24 2817.33 55.43 108.77 17.46 |
10242.72 | 9858.54 | |
| Other Income | Bank Interest | 14.53 | 1.28 | |
| Gift Aid refunds | 2249.7 | 1804.72 | ||
| Surplus from club nights | 499.5 | 0 | ||
| Givingscheme bonuses | 229.45 | 141.24 | ||
| Total | 2570.34 2903.70 |
2993.18 | 1947.24 | |
| TOTAL INCOME | 89326.03 56644.21 |
45135.20 | 33063.65 | |
| 0.00 32377.9 27140.14 4879.72 3295.29 1531.2 1091.15 7751.35 |
||||
| Capital Expenditure | ||||
| Total | 0.00 | 0.00 | ||
| Staff Salaries | Salary | 27254.28 | 31596.1 | |
| Tax and National Insurance | 3413.44 | 4032.69 | ||
| Pension contribution | 707.96 | 251.28 | ||
| RomseyMill | ||||
| Bike to Work | 0 | |||
| Total | 46540.17 31526.58 130 757.26 369.58 0 1285.24 2552.44 903.04 882.09 275.46 427.49 200 200 2490.91 3528.44 0 926.58 2154.75 2214.17 |
31375.68 | 35880.07 | |
| Other Expenditure | (Trips)Events,Parties | 5810.25 | 2977.74 | |
| Games and IT Equipment | 166.6 | 0 | ||
| Youth Centre Refurbishment | ||||
| Administration | 0 | |||
| Food | 0 | |||
| Insurance | 451.85 | 582.68 | ||
| Affiliation Subscriptions(incl IT) | 312.36 | 330.12 | ||
| BT Broadband - internet access | 0 | |||
| Training | 0 | |||
| Depreciation | 0 | |||
| Audit Honorarium | 200 | 200 | ||
| Copse 2project | ||||
| Otherprojects(incl residential) | 3092.61 | 3074.6 | ||
| Residential 2020 | ||||
| Breakages | 0 | |||
| Advertising | 0 | |||
| Youth Centre Runningcosts | ||||
| Travel and other expenses | 878.47 | |||
| Total | 8735.56 10561.89 0 953.48 |
10033.67 | 8043.61 | |
| Hall and Room Hire | Memorial Hall and Social Club | 1320 | 2010 | |
| Scout Hut | ||||
| Lt. Shelford Village Hall / NB | ||||
| Total | 0.00 953.48 |
1320.00 | 2010.00 | |
| TOTAL EXPENDITURE | 55275.73 43041.95 |
42729.35 | 45933.68 | |
| Excess of Income over expenditure | 34050.30 13602.26 |
2405.85 | -12870.03 | |
Appendix 2: Balance Sheet – Details
| 2020 - 2021 | **2019 -2020 ** | **2018 - 2019 ** | 2017 - 2018 | 2016 - 2017 | 2016 - 2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed Assets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Prepayments | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 441.29 | Insurance for the next year | ||
| Debtors (recoverable Tax) | 1,959.65 2,817.33 |
2249.7 | 1978.38 | 1804.72 | See Note 1 below | |||
| Debtors | 1930.00 2,378.69 |
|||||||
| Bank | Current Account | 54647.83 | 21265.26 | 11,151.02 | 9098.24 | 22956.58 | ||
| Savings Account | 7312.00 | 7308.67 | 7295.19 | 7280.66 | 7275.75 | |||
| Petty Cash | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Creditors | -580.26 | -1,399.76 | -3,430.41 | -3663.57 | -5,900.74 | See Note 3 below | ||
| Deferred income | 0 | 0 | £0.00 | See Note 4 below | ||||
| Net Assets | 65269.22 | 32370.19 | 17265.50 | **14693.71 ** | 26577.60 | |||
| CORRECTED Accumulated Fund Brought Forward | 32,370.19 17265.5 |
14693.71 | 26577.6 | 31486.56 | See Note 5 below | |||
| Excess of Income over Expenditure | 33,192.62 15037.69 |
2405.85 | -12213.34 | -4066.36 | ||||
| Accumulated Fund carried forward | 65562.81 | 32303.19 | 17099.56 | **14364.26 ** | 27420.20 | |||
| Correction amount | 293.59 -67.00 -165.94 -329.45 842.60 |
|||||||
| Notes to 2020 - 2021 Accounts | ||||||||
| 1 | From 2020-21 this c | overs known Debtors(income for theyear)notyet visible in bank accounts atyear end | ||||||
| 2 | Tuck shop stocks at the year end if less than £50 in value are treated as immaterial and not valued as stock. | |||||||
| 3 | Creditors (additional expenditure) in the year NOT yet visible in bank accounts at year end | |||||||
| 4 | Net Adjustment (additional income-costs) in the year visible in bank accounts, but accounted for in following year | |||||||
| 5 | Corrected Accumulated Fund brought forward from end 2019-20 adjusts for creditors and debtors at the start of the year |
John Greaves Hon. Treasurer SSYI
Alistair Cooper ACA
1 Marconi Way St Albans AL4 0JG
alistair.j.cooper@gmail.com
16[th] September 2021
Examination of SSYI accounts for the year ended 31[st] March 2021
Dear John
I have examined the Shelford & Stapleford Youth Initiative (SSYI) income and expenditure account, balance sheet and movements in reserves for the year ended 31[st] March 2021, which are the responsibility of the Treasurer and Committee members.
I confirm that they are in accordance with the books and records of the Shelford & Stapleford Youth Initiative.
Yours Sincerely
Alistair Cooper Chartered Accountant Honorary Accounts Reviewer