2021-03-31-accounts - Street Talk

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Trustees’ Annual Report

For the period from 01.04.2020 to 31.03.2021

Charity registration number: 1117555

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Objectives

Street Talk’s mission is to provide professional, specialised mental health care of the highest quality to women trapped in street prostitution, women who have been the victims of trafficking, or any vulnerable woman, to listen to each woman’s personal story, to enable each woman to overcome those obstacles which keep her trapped in a life of exploitation and to enable her to live in safety and with dignity.

Activities

This year Street Talk has provided the following services:

Individual psychotherapy, remotely
Individual art therapy, remotely
Telephone helpline
Advocacy
Mentoring
Practical support
Campaigning

These activities have been delivered either in partnership with one of a number of other organisations, or independently via direct referral.

Quantification of Street Talk’s services is complex due to the nature of the women’s engagement, which, according to the needs of each individual, may be chaotic in the early stages, and in the long-term may be sporadic.

Over the course of the period, 125 women engaged with Street Talk. Over 1800 contacts were logged, including more than 1000 hours of therapy delivered.

In setting our objectives and planning our activities our Governors have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance.

Covid-19 Response

In late March 2020, Street Talk responded to the national lockdown by expanding its telephone therapy service, already offered to the WISER Project, to include Hibiscus Women’s Centre and the five hostels in Lambeth, Camden and Waltham Forest where we usually work, and by introducing a new telephone helpline service that would be made available to all the women in those hostels.

In May, Street Talk was asked whether we would extend the telephone helpline service to a further fourteen hostels, as well as two ‘Covid Protect’ hotels (temporary accommodation for rough sleepers in Camden).

By June, the reputation of the telephone helpline and therapy service had spread, by word of mouth, beyond the hostels to women living alone in extremely difficult situations. Isolated and desperate for help, these were mostly women with no recourse to public funds, who were living in hiding for fear of arrest on immigration offences. From the summer until now, the most vulnerable women we have worked with continue to make contact.

The uptake of the telephone service has been very good and attendance overall has been better than for the face-to-face services. Women have told us that they appreciate the anonymity as well as the convenience of a telephone service, with no travelling required. Those women with children appreciated not having to find child care while they had their appointment. Street Talk will continue to provide telephone counselling to those women who prefer that over working face-to-face with a therapist.

Street Talk’s group activities -- art therapy groups and a photography group -- were not able to continue while restrictions were in place so these services were suspended with the intention of resuming later in 2021. However, Street Talk was able to offer one-to-one telephone therapy to all the women who were taking part in these groups, and some women did take up that offer.

Partnerships

Street Talk currently works in partnership with the following organisations providing the following services.

Chrysalis Project (St. Mungo’s Broadway)

Two hostels exclusively for women involved in street prostitution in the London Borough of Lambeth.

A weekly art therapy group was suspended due to the pandemic, but Street Talk continued to support hostel residents via a telephone helpline that was put in place over periods of lockdown, and by taking direct referrals for one-to-one remote therapy.

St Mungo’s Safer Space

Enhanced support for women involved in street prostitution across three hostels and one drop-in centre in the London Borough of Camden.

Weekly art therapy groups and in-person psychotherapy sessions were suspended due to the pandemic, but Street Talk continued to support Safer Space residents via a telephone helpline that was put in place over periods of lockdown and which saw particularly good uptake from these hostels.

Medaille

Hostel for women who have escaped from traffickers in East London.

Street Talk takes referrals from the hostel for psychotherapy and remote one-to-one art therapy.

Hibiscus Women’s Centre

Day centre for vulnerable women, including women involved in street prostitution, women in the criminal justice system, women who have been trafficked, asylum seekers and those who have no recourse to public funds in the London Borough of Islington.

A Street Talk psychotherapist works with referrals from Hibiscus, offering long term one-to-one work which was able to continue remotely during lock-down periods.

Solace Women’s Aid / The WiSER Project

Service for “hard to reach” women who are extremely vulnerable but not able to access other women’s services, sometimes because they are from a culture where asking for help is not permitted.

A Street Talk psychotherapist provides long term, one-to-one work. Work takes place over the phone with those women who are unable to attend in person, and this work continued totally remotely during lock-down periods.

HMP Bronzefield

Women’s prison in Ashfield, Middlesex.

An in-person support group for women who have a background in street sex work or who have been trafficked was suspended due to the pandemic but Street Talk has continued to support prisoners known to the charity.

Resource for London

Resource centre for charities in the London Borough of Islington.

Resource for London provides Street Talk with office space in their building on Holloway Road, Islington

HERA

Programme designed to equip women with the business skills to start a career or launch a business.

Street Talk refers women to HERA’s entrepreneurship programme.

Events

Fewer events than expected took place over the period due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CSJ Awards 2020

The CSJ Awards is an annual, high profile award ceremony that honours the best grassroot, poverty-fighting charities and social enterprises across Britain. In September the 2020 edition was held and Street Talk was selected as the winner of the Maxie Richards Addiction Award, in recognition of the charity’s work with women in recovery.

Fundraising Talks by James Willis

Online art history lectures in September and December, given by artist and art historian James Willis, with all proceeds going to Street Talk.

Case Studies

Mary

Mary’s background was that she had been sold from a brothel in Nigeria to a brothel in London by her step-father. After she escaped from the brothel in London she was eventually taken to an immigration detention centre where she was held for nine months during which time she made four attempts on her own life. She described life in the immigration detention centre, hearing the sounds when the women in the cell next to her succeeded in killing herself, never knowing whether a knock on the cell door meant she would be put on a plane out of the country or released. Her mental health deteriorated catastrophically while she was in the detention centre.

She was extremely unwell when she started work with her Street Talk therapist and indeed made a further attempt on her own life shortly after she started the therapy. In spite of feelings of despair she persevered with the therapy and made exceptional progress over the course of the last year. She is beginning to manage the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, and to understand how to keep herself safe from further exploitation. She feels well much of the time, is able to make plans for the future and has rediscovered hope. Alongside the therapy, Street Talk supported Mary’s asylum appeal, writing reports for the court. Mary received practical support from Street Talk, including being provided with a laptop and supermarket vouchers. Mary continues to receive weekly psychotherapy from Street Talk.

Amina

Amina, a Nigerian woman in her sixties, had been held in modern day slavery by people who knew that she had overstayed her visa many years ago. They gave her a room in a shared house, a few pounds a week in return for her labour cleaning shops, threatening that they would report her to the immigration authorities to keep her in fear of them and compliant. When the lockdown came shops closed and her captors who had no use for her put her on the street.

Amina was found sleeping in a church doorway by a catholic priest who put her in contact with Street Talk. The first action was to get her accommodated in a hostel for people with no recourse to public funds, provide supermarket vouchers so she could buy essentials and to put her in contact with an immigration lawyer who works pro bono. She is currently applying for asylum with the help of the asylum lawyer. Until she made contact with Street

Talk Amina had lived in hiding, in domestic slavery for almost twenty years. She had no sense that she had any rights.

Sammy

Sammy was referred by one of Street Talk’s partner hostels. She engaged well with her Street Talk therapist but some months into the therapy there was an incident at the hostel which resulted in Sammy being evicted. Sammy had a dog and there was no other accommodation where she could keep the dog with her available in the borough of Camden, so Sammy lived in a tent on Euston Road for four months. During this period she kept up her sessions with her Street Talk therapist, who raised their concerns for Sammy’s safety with other agencies, eventually leading to her being accommodated in a hostel in a different borough. Street Talk also encouraged Sammy, who has cancer, to maintain contact with her GP to ensure that she got the vital treatment she needed.

Over the next six months, Sammy was moved from one temporary accommodation to another four times, each one in a different borough. The importance of the work with Street Talk was that the work was able to continue throughout this period despite all that change. Sammy continues to engage with Street Talk and now that her accommodation is more stable she and her therapist are working on Sammy keeping herself safe and free from exploitation as well as beginning to understand the trauma which she is living with after a lifetime of abuse.

Income & Expenditure Inome £200,008 • Grants Major Donors • Avmrds & Partnerships • Donatlons & Fundralslng 7.2% 9.5% 11.0% Expenditure £140,985 • staff (full-tlme & sesslonal) • Pradical Support & Grants 5.0% Charty Admin • Volunteertstaff Expenses & Tralnlng 91.8%

Structure, Governance and Management

Street Talk is a registered charity. The governing document is the Constitution. Trustees are elected by the Board.

Trustee Name	Ofce (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Charlotte Littlewood
Colleen Rhodes
Keran Burris
Rebecca Hammond	Treasurer
Sophie Jones

Declarations

The trustees declare that they have approved the above report.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature

Full Name Rebecca Hammand

Position Treasurer

Date 25/8/2021

Charity Name No (if any) Street Talk 1117588 Receipts and payments accounts For the period Period start date To from 4/1/2020

Period end date 3/31/2021

CC16a

Section A Receipts and payments

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Donations + Fundraising 14,409 - - 14,409 18,316
National Lottery Community Fund - Covid Response 30,000 14,035 - 44,035 -
Segleman Trust - 20,000 - 20,000 20,000
Major Donor - 15,000 - 15,000 -
London Community Foundation - 15,150 - 15,150 3,000
Dodds vis LCF - 7,000 - 7,000 6,000
Major Donor - 7,000 - 7,000 2,551
Rosa - Covid Response - 5,000 - 5,000 -
CSJ Award Prize 10,000 - - 10,000 -
London Community Response Fund - Wave 3 Covid Response - 9,700 - 9,700 -
Smallwood Trust - 13,486 - 13,486 -
London Quaker Service Trust - 5,000 - 5,000 5,000
Family Action - 15,578 - 15,578 -
Solace - 9,000 - 9,000 5,520
St Martin-in-the-Fields - 150 - 150 -
Euromonitor 7,500 - - 7,500 -
Bancroft Trust - 1,000 - 1,000 1,000
Sewell Trust - 1,000 1,000 -
Deutsche Bank - - - - 8,176
Comic Relief - - - - 3,250
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 61,909 138,099 - 200,008 72,813
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total receipts 61,909 138,099 - 200,008 72,813
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
A3 Payments
Employee + Sessional Staff Costs - 129,479 - 129,479 78,756
Grants Given - 2,801 - 2,801 -
Staff Expenses 607 1,012 - 1,619 6,236
Practical Support - 4,192 - 4,192 2,374
Postage + Printing 55 987 - 1,042 674
Volunteer Expenses 25 - - 25 617
Fees + Membership 96 431 - 527 497
Website, Phone + IT 419 289 - 708 455
Training - 75 - 75 241
Art Materials - 80 - 80 297
Meetings - 2 - 2 296
Insurance - 117 - 117 117
Events 80 - - 80 33
Marketing + Publicity 238 - - 238 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total 1,520 139,465 - 140,985 90,593
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total payments 1,520 139,465 - 140,985 90,593
Net of receipts/(payments) 60,389 - 1,366 - 59,023 - 17,780
A5 Transfers between funds - 73,000 73,000 - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 48,866 63,634 - 112,500 -
Cash funds this year end 36,255 135,268 - 171,523 - 17,780
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

				Unrestricted		Restricted	Endowment
	Categories	Details		funds		funds	funds
B1	Cash funds		*Total cash funds*	to nearest £ - - - 36,255		to nearest £ - - - 135,268	to nearest £ - - - -
		(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))		OK	OK		OK
				Unrestricted		Restricted	Endowment
				funds		funds	funds
B2	Other monetary assets	Details		to nearest £ - - - - - -		to nearest £ - - - - - -	to nearest £ - - - - - -
B3	Investment assets	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - -		- - - - - Current value (optional)
B4	Assets retained for the charity’s own use	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - - -		- - - - - - Current value (optional)

B5 Liabilities

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Fund to which Amount due When due Details liability relates (optional) (optional) - - - - - Date of Signature Print Name approval Rebecca Hammond 12/14/2021

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