2021-12-31-accounts

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Newham YOUTH FOR CHRIST 2021 Annual Report & Finances Registered charity number 1145371

THE TEAM

Simeon Burnett Kwaku Gyamerah TRUSTEES Centre Director Youth Worker (until end December 2021)

Eric Boateng Keith Dixon Church Liaison/Asst Youth Worker Administration (until end March 2021) & Finance Officer

ORGANISATION DETAILS

Nigel Weekes (chair from June 2021) Rev Dave Chesney (Treasurer) Rev Jeremy Fraser (chair until end May 2021)

Trustees

(Pictured to the right)

Christine Bollans

Annette Gordon Chinedu Udonsi

Council of Reference

Jayne Bazeley Andy Campbell Sally Mann Matthew Porter Peter Ngugi Jennifer Essu

Full Time Staff Part Time Staff

Simeon Burnett

Kwaku Gyamerah (until end of December 2021) Eric Boateng (until end of March 2021) Keith Dixon

Voluntary Staff

Bank

CAF Bank

Newham Youth for Christ Memorial Community Church 395 Barking Road, Plaistow, London, E13 8AL

(NOTE: from June 2021)

Telephone Email Website

020 8534 2000 info@newham.yfc.co.uk newham.yfc.co.uk

Facebook NewhamYFC Twitter newham_yfc Instagram newhamyfc

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Page 2 The Team & Organisation details

Page 3 Contents
Page 3 Visions and values of the organisation Page 4 Report from the Chair Page 5 Report from the Treasurer Page 6 Report from the Centre Director Page 7-18 Projects
Page 19 Development Strategy
Page 19 Strategy, Governance and Management Page 20 Statement of Benefit to the Community Page 21 - 25 Finances

VISIONS AND VALUES OF THE ORGANISATION

Newham Youth for Christ seeks to help young people to discover and deepen Christian faith and equip local churches across Newham to develop sustainable, effective youth ministry

In line with this and due to the national rebranding project undertaken by British Youth for Christ in 2018, our DNA and values as an organisation have been reimagined. Everything we do as Newham Youth for Christ endeavours to be reflective of these values. It is our hope and drive to ensure Newham Youth for Christ operates always with a Christ-like character. In doing this we hope to be:

Courageous - Taking steps of faith, striving for growth - we want to operate with courage, not out of fear. We want to encourage young people to take bold steps for Jesus and step out in their potential

Helpful - reliable, supportive and nurturing

Relational we want to actively seek out partnerships and work together with Newham’s churches and groups

Innovative - we want to be creative, pioneering and explore new ways of introducing young people to Jesus and to be supportive of churches working in their communities

Spiritual committed to seeing young people grow in their faith, supporting them and their churches in youth ministry. We are committed to prayer and to evangelism.

Together - united in our mission and partnerships with all who wish to work with us across denominations and across ministries all over Newham.

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REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

Having been on the board of Trustees for several years it was my privilege to take over as Chair of Trustees during this year, a year which has been another very challenging year for the whole of the Newham Youth for Christ team, with having to continue navigating ongoing COVID 19 lockdown and social distancing restrictions playing a massive part of that challenge. But I’m proud to say that the team pulled together and made the most of the resources available in what we all know were very trying times.

Having begun 2021 positively and creatively utilising Zoom and social media platforms etc, whilst fully observing and following meeting restrictions, isolations and the like the team endeavoured to be creative and push the boundaries of their working comfort zones. This was exemplified by partnering with Faith in Schools to run a new project in 3 of our local Newham secondary schools over 10 weeks aimed at tackling knife crime and its effects. This was completed with positive feedback from all the schools taking part. Also, taking advantage of the relaxing of social distancing rules in the summer, running twice weekly outdoor youth summer activities which saw 40+ new youth contacts made. And then in the Autumn/Winter term we were able to host some of our open borough-wide live events with ACCESS, probably our flagship event taking place in September and November along with a BIG QUESTIONS in October.

With COVID restrictions in place for more than 18 months we lost funding from some long-term grant awards which was obviously beyond our control but it did put further financial pressure upon the team and our work. However, with a successful appeal to local individuals and churches and a lot of hard work pursuing and securing some new grant funding, as I look back on 2021 I am so proud of our team in so many ways with everything they do being driven by their desire to share the Gospel and the good news of Jesus with the wonderful young people of Newham. And as I look forward to 2022 I know this will be a year of changes and new initiatives.

Nigel Weekes - Chair of Newham Youth for Christ Trustees

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REPORT FROM THE TREASURER

‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.’ James 1:17

These words from James are as relevant now as they ever were. We are living in a season of great change and uncertainty. However, in all of this we give thanks to the Father of lights who provides every good and perfect gift. It is also the light that cannot be extinguished by the changing world.

The challenge of COVID-19 continued into 2021, and we were thankful for the availability of the Job Retention Scheme which enabled us, through the times of isolation, to support our staff for part of the year. Another tough year for all concerned and we are thankful for the continued financial support throughout, particularly from individual donors, where we witnessed a slight increase in income.

Whilst our cash position has understandably reduced slightly, thanks to the generosity of all those who support our work, we move into 2022 with renewed hope as we journey out of many of the restrictions of the pandemic.

As always, I want to extend my personal thanks to the efforts of Keith Dixon, who has provided consistent and exemplary support throughout what was another challenging year.

Rev Dave Chesney - Newham Youth for Christ Treasurer

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REPORT FROM THE CENTRE DIRECTOR

Let me begin by expressing my heartfelt gratitude towards the individuals and churches who have continued to support us financially throughout another year of a global pandemic. We began the year by sending out an appeal, highlighting our urgent need for financial support as we faced potential closure by the end of April if we did not take some action. The response from our supporters and local churches was incredible and since then, with some hard and focused work, we have also secured a number of grants, some of which extend over a three year period, giving our work a more secure financial foundation for the coming year. What an answer to prayer!

If I were to describe our work throughout 2021 in two words, they would be “adaptation” and “innovation”. We were able to adapt three of our regular, face-toface projects for online participation and developed five new projects / resources in response to the pandemic. One of the resources we are particularly proud of is an educational video series for churches, parents and schools that raises awareness around Autism. We also continued to upload weekly videos on social media that contained a variety of encouragements, reflections, lessons and practical advice for young people as another response to COVID-19 and the various social distancing measures in place for most of the year. It was also a year of developing new partnerships with other charities, churches and organisations, while building on the strength of those we already have. Whilst all of our work is important, one project of particular significance to our borough has been our work in schools tackling knife crime. Local residents voted for our project to receive council funding, following a joint bid we submitted with our long standing partner charity, Faith in Schools . This project has brought the entire community together in service of young people, including Newham Council, schools, the Metropolitan Police, churches, numerous charities and local residents.

A major disappointment and challenge for us as a team this year has been the departure of Eric Boateng (Church Partnership Lead). Unfortunately, the effects of the pandemic, both financially and practically, were such that we had to make Eric redundant at the end of March. His leaving was a blow and extremely sad for all of us. This year also proved to be Kwaku Gyamorah’s (Youth Worker) last with us, as he looks to pursue a career in IT having been offered a full-time role from the beginning of 2022 meaning Kwaku stepped down on December 31st. He has been integral to our delivery of youth work over the past two years and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours. Our challenge in the New Year will be finding his replacement.

I am extremely proud of the staff team for their resilience and determination throughout what has been another very challenging year, which also included relocating to new offices and all of the logistical issues that entails. Looking back, it’s astonishing what we have been able to achieve. Of course none of this would have been possible without our amazing team of volunteers which has miraculously grown throughout the pandemic. To our trustees, council of reference, intercessory prayer group, staff, volunteers and supporters, “Thank you and well done! To God be the glory.”

Simeon Burnett - Newham Youth for Christ Centre Director

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PROJECTS

Introduction

Obviously, with regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of our work, 2021 picked up from where 2020 ended. Like everyone else, our projects had been totally impacted by the ensuing lockdowns and social distancing restrictions. With what started out as another difficult and challenging year with regards to effectively delivering projects and keeping in contact with our young people eventually started to ease until by the start of the 2021/22 academic year in September we felt we could once again start carefully and strategically opening up some of our projects and events for the young people to attend ‘in person’ again as they were originally designed to operate.

So, from January to September we had to continue to ‘think on our feet’ and to come up with new and different ideas of what we could do to continue to connect with our young people, which including refreshing and reimagining some of our existing online projects while for other projects it frustratingly meant they were put on hold or indeed for some of them remaining on hold for another year for totally practical reasons.

Because of the loosening of social distancing restrictions as the year progressed for this report a number of our specific project reports may be split into two sections as we were able to move from the online versions back into ‘in person’ attended events

We will also report on some brand new projects and events as well as an exciting updated and re-launched programme that, in partnership with another local organisation, we took into local schools.

Finally, to give a full overview of our total full ‘normal’ vision and work, we will also list and briefly describe those projects that have had to remain dormant during 2021 but that we fully hope and intend to re-visit as soon as it is possible and practical .

Lockdown and social distancing restrictions

To save repetition when outlining details of our projects please note that all online and project activities and eventual ‘in person’ attended events were done with strict adherence to any and all social distancing restrictions that were in place at the time of live broadcast, recording, attendance etc

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ACCESS

ACCESS is our flagship youth worship event for young people aged 11 to 18. It’s contemporary, it’s relevant, it’s real and it’s fun! A typical ACCESS consists of an opening icebreaker game, a local youth leader sharing a story about God’s work in their life, a time of contemporary sung worship led by the ACCESS band, followed by a gospel/Bible based talk delivered by a guest speaker. The talk is then followed by a time of reflection and optional response (receiving prayer) and further sung worship. Then its social time which includes plenty of games and food!

We host ACCESS at different churches across the borough making it more accessible to a wider range of young people who otherwise do not feel comfortable travelling outside of their postcode in the evenings.

Due to the pandemic it had been 19 months since we had run our last Access in person, having run numerous online ACCESS themed events during lockdown and times of social distancing (see ACCESS MEETS ALPHA- ONLINE section below). However, with restrictions lifting we were able to return in person in September 2021 at Highway Church in Stratford, E15. Having had such a long period of hosting this event online, we were unsure as to who was going to attend, but to our surprise almost 40 young people from 8 different churches came along. Thanks to our invaluable team of helpers and volunteers we had a brilliant evening of worship, prayer, sharing, games, food and some much needed social time.

In November we hosted another ACCESS in person, this time at Ascension Church, Custom House, E16. Across both events over 50 different young people attended, many of which had been before (pre-lockdown!) but a number of them were attending for the first time. The young people were extremely vocal about how much they had missed ACCESS and how impactful it is for them. Young people across both events sought prayer with our prayer team in response to the talks that were given. We also had 25 adults volunteers across the two events from churches and charities around the borough. We have worked extremely hard to keep in contact with our regular volunteers throughout the pandemic, and that hard work paid off. We were also very excited to see a number of new volunteers getting involved in this event.

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ALPHA YOUTH ONLINE

ALPHA YOUTH is a 9-week programme that serves as an introduction to the Christian faith which we had run several times in various churches across Newham. Along with a great social time and sharing a meal together to start each weekly session the teaching material is very engaging and makes the message relevant for young people. It is a good environment and opportunity for non-Christians with questions to freely explore what Christianity is all about and also ideal for young Christians wanting to lay the foundations of their faith.

It was with anticipation and admittedly some uncertainty that we decided to begin the year by trialling one of our annual projects online for the first time. Each week for ALPHA YOUTH ONLINE the young people came together on Zoom and watched a short video about the topic for that week, along with questions to consider. We would then break out into small groups and discuss what we had watched in a safe and nonjudgemental environment, before coming back to the larger group to feedback our thoughts. Meeting on Zoom came with obvious challenges. Without the lure of food and the natural bonding that takes place over a meal, we had to find alternative ways of creating a welcoming environment where the young people felt comfortable to ask questions and be honest. We established two groups from the beginning and made sure we began each session with an icebreaker. We also ensured we kept each session to one hour in length and no longer, so that “Zoom fatigue” would not kick in.

Despite the challenges, we think ALPHA YOUTH ONLINE was a huge success! 29 Young people attended throughout the course, with a consistent attendance of 10-15 each week. The feedback from the young people was overwhelmingly positive, with 100% of them stating they learnt something new and that they’d bring a non-Christian friend along if we did it again online. The success of this annual project is owed to our partnerships with local churches, and this year things were no different. Volunteers from 6 different local churches and denominations helped facilitate this project and we are extremely grateful to them.

ACCESS MEETS ALPHA - ONLINE

Throughout 2020 as previously stated (see ACCESS section above) we hosted ACCESS ONLINE, a stripped back version of our flagship youth worship event, utilising live streams on various platforms including Facebook and Instagram. We also uploaded recordings onto our YouTube channel for those who could not watch it live. This year we wanted to try something different. Utilising the existing group that was meeting regularly on Zoom for ALPHA YOUTH ONLINE, we decided to incorporate ACCESS into one of these meetings which we did in March. We included the usual elements of sung worship, a bible talk and opportunities to ask for prayer.

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BIG QUESTIONS ONLINE

BIG QUESTIONS offers young people aged 11-18 the opportunity to anonymously ask a panel (usually church leaders and youth leaders / workers from the wide range of churches and denominations in Newham) any questions that they have about God, faith, the Bible, Christianity and all aspects of life.

In a ‘normal’ year we aim to stage a BIG QUESTIONS evening once a term (3 times a year). Because of the pandemic we had adapted it for online participation and throughout 2020 we had streamed our discussions online for young people to watch from home. However, given the

success of meeting on Zoom for Alpha Youth Online, and the momentum we had gained, in April we ran a BIG QUESTIONS ONLINE which served as a great follow up from Alpha Youth Online, as it meant some of the young people who attended Alpha could ask the burning questions they had as a result of doing the course.

We thought it was a good opportunity to facilitate the evening live on Zoom as the focus of BIG QUESTIONS is letting young people know that they can feel free to ask their questions without facing judgement or condemnation, and that such questioning is essential for growth. We gave the young people a chance to discuss the questions they have amongst themselves, before hearing responses from our panel of three local, trusted youth workers/church leaders. One young person brought their non-Christian friend along who had a ton of questions answered and was extremely positive about her experience. The evening was so successful that we planned to use the same format we adapted for online usage for when we first met again in person for a BIG QUESTIONS event …

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BIG QUESTIONS

… and that happened in October! We were able to run our first live borough-wide BIG QUESTIONS evening since March 2020 (which was our very last live event before the first lockdown occurred!) and we had 20 young people attend from 5 different churches. Our panel of local church and youth leaders had a great time talking with the young people and answering their brilliant and thoughtful questions across a wide range of subjects included creation, science, faith, other religions, baptism and sexuality to name but a few.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

WHAT’S THE POINT? is a 10 week programme originally created by the youth charity Oxygen in response to a stabbing that took place in Richmond, Surrey where they are based. The course seeks to educate and empower young people to change the culture of youth violence. It is extremely engaging and adaptable to different contexts, which is why we chose to run it here in Newham where knife crime is a big issue. To fund the project we applied for community funding from Newham Council, which required local residents to vote for the projects they want funding to go towards, ensuring those being funded are projects the community needs. We were successful in our bid which meant we could run this amazing programme in 6 Newham schools, 3 Secondary during the 2021 Autumn/ Winter term and 3 Primary to follow in Spring 2022, all in partnership with our long standing partners Faith in Schools .

The project is self selecting meaning the students have to volunteer to participate. This is a deliberate choice to make sure we are empowering and equipping those with a genuine desire to be change makers in this area. The course content is extremely varied and engaging and involves discussions,

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videos, role plays, guest speakers and a trip to the Ben Kinsella Trust. The visits were extremely impactful, with each school receiving a visit from ex-gang members who have done jail time, local police officers and finally someone who had lost a family member due to knife crime. These visits, along with the trip, which for many was also the most significant moment on the programme, gave the young people a much broader understanding and appreciation of the issues, helps build bridges and equipped them with life changing skills. To mark the end of the programme, the students then deliver an interactive assembly to their year group sharing all they have learnt and inspiring them to make a change in their generation. Sadly due to Covid restrictions the assemblies were postponed at the end of the year, for the schools to pick up at the start of the Spring 2022 term. We did however record the students giving interviews as to what they have learnt and the message they want to send to their peers, which will be shown in virtual assemblies. In 2021 we delivered the programme to 30 students in 3 secondary schools: Eastlea, Rokeby and Royal Docks. In 2022 we will deliver the programme to 30 students in 3 Primary Schools.

The response from the students, teachers and local community has been resoundingly positive. The Head of Year 10 at Royal Docks, Andrew Wallace, was interviewed and urged other schools in the borough to do the course with their students. Local police sergeant Rob Sewell informed us that he has been advocating for the project in Newham Council meetings. Throughout the project so far we have engaged 11 community partners on the delivery of the course, not including ourselves, Faith in Schools, Newham Council and the Schools involved. This has been a great example of taking a community approach to projects that benefit young people.

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New projects: EXPLORING EASTER : Video series

As in 2020, in the first half of the year we wanted to carry on equipping local churches with online resources that we had specifically created. To celebrate Easter we produced five videos which we released on all our social media platforms throughout the course of Holy Week. We delivered teaching on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. These videos featured Simeon, Kwaku and Eric as well as contributions from a local Christian leader and a young person! Each video used a different form of teaching methods including games, costumes, food, artwork, music and poetry. The benefit of releasing the material on our social media platforms meant that whether young people belonged

to a church youth group or not, they could access the videos from our page and could potentially experience and explore the Easter story for the first time. These videos are still available on our YouTube channel

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS WEEK : Video series

Inclusivity and accessibility are very important parts of our ethos. We believe every young person matters and has a place and a unique voice. Over the years we have worked with young people with a wide range of needs and abilities, including young people with autism.

We decided to participate in World Autism Awareness week by producing educational videos for online use. We did this with the help of one of our former young people, Jack Baynes. Jack, who was a regular at many of our projects over the years, is autistic and shared his thoughts and insights from his own experiences growing up. Using footage from an interview we filmed with Jack we created a 7 part series of short videos, each focussing on a different topic/area of life which were aimed at different audiences include young people, teachers, parents and places of worship.

This is a valuable resource for raising awareness of autism that we hope will continue to be utilised by local schools, churches and families. All of the videos were shared across our social media sites and are still available on our YouTube channel. They can also be accessed via our website were you can also download a number of accompanying group worksheets (for schools and churches). A big thank you for Jack and all of his hard work and invaluable input into this project.

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HALF-TERM MULTI-SPORTS

To combat isolation and the on-going detrimental effects lockdown was having on young people’s physical, mental and emotional health we decided to run a sports day in a local park during the June half-term holiday. We had a full afternoon of different games ranging from classic team sports like football and rounders to crazy relay races included egg and spoon races using tennis rackets and multiple eggs.

The young people enjoyed the occasion so much that one of them asked us, “Will you be doing this again tomorrow?” Sadly the answer to this question was “no” this time, but this gave us an idea for what programmes we could possibly run during the summer holidays. And…

SUMMER HANG OUTS

… inspired by the response at the HALF-TERM MULTI-SPORTS (see above) we arranged for throughout the whole of August that we spent every Thursday and Friday afternoon in a local park (East Ham Central Park) that was well known and with good transport links, providing constructive activities for young people to partake in. We wanted to be out in the community, visible for all to see and meeting young people where they were at. We offered a range of activities including sports, board games and fun team games as well as the space to just chill out together, read etc.

With many families unable to afford a family holiday or childcare, it was important for us to step into the gap and give young people safe spaces to have fun throughout the holidays. This programme was great for young people’s physical health as well as helping them build positive relationships with other young people and our youth workers.

Over the four weeks, 51 different young people took part in our activities. Of those 51 young people, 50 of them were attending our projects for the first time. 7 volunteers helped run the project from a range of local churches and charities including Faith in Schools and Young Life Stratford.

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PRAISE FEST

Hosted and organised by the National Intercessory Prayer Network of Jamaica (NIPNOJ) , young people from 14 countries, across 4 continents came together for an event to worship God together on a global scale for a full day using online sites and platforms. Across 24 hours children, young people and various church youth groups from across the globe took turns to lead worship and over 3,000 people, young and old, tuned in throughout the day to worship God together. It was truly special to see young people of all ages in different countries and situations lifting up the name of Jesus!

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Upper-Room Four Square Chapel
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River Church
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We were contacted by NIPNOJ through mutual contacts here in Newham, and were invited to host a 1 hour slot as representatives of the United Kingdom. After putting the call out to our local church youth groups, River Church in Canning Town and Upper-Room Four Square Chapel in Plaistow responded and were eager to take part. Their brilliant young people did an amazing job with each group leading us in worship for 30 minutes. It was a enlightening, surreal and amazing experience to be a part of this global on-line event featuring young Christians from all around the world. There are several ‘highlights’ videos of the day still available on YouTube.

Participating countries included: Belize, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, Uganda, USA and UK.

INSTAGRAM PROJECTS through social restrictions

While social restrictions remained in place we knew we would have to continue investing a lot of time regularly creating and posting new material to maintain contact with our young people. In addition to ‘one-off’ posts we devised and posted regular ‘projects’ such as Mad Monday’s : the team recording themselves playing a short and often very silly game. As well as providing entertainment with our team making complete fools of themselves, it also gave young people ideas for fun games they could play with their families throughout the lockdown and Thought for the Week : focussed on spiritual development and encouragement and would often include a short reflection on a bible passage.

We tried to keep the videos engaging and relevant through the use of other different social media platforms, such as Tik Tok, and editing software.

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YOUTHWORKS

Our YouthWorks Network covers an array of projects and programmes all designed to offer support to youth workers and volunteers working for, and attached to, churches in Newham. This area of our work obviously continued to be deeply impacted by the pandemic, even after the easing of social distancing

Youth Workers Barbecue

In the summertime we made the most of the ability to meet outdoors according to government guidelines on meeting safely during the pandemic. To mark what felt like a historic occasion of meeting in person again, we hosted a barbecue for local youth leaders in the borough. 14 Youth leaders attended the event from 9 different churches and youth charities. The day consisted of food, sung worship and a time of reflection. The aim of the gathering was to begin to reconnect, network and to refresh the youth workers after the difficult season we had all been through.

Youth Workers Christmas

We normally host a Christmas lunch for all of our youth worker contacts to thank them for the valuable work they do but unfortunately a number of the youth workers invited to our Christmas event (including our very own Kwaku!) had either tested positive for COVID or where isolating due to someone in their household testing positive. We still went ahead but unfortunately the numbers of those able (and comfortable) to attend were totally decimated!

Training Churches

Whilst we were not able to host any formal training events or groups in person due to the pandemic, we directly supported 25 Newham churches with their youth work through our youth works gatherings, training days, consultation and delivering youth sessions for church youth groups via their Zoom groups etc.

It was also one of our priorities to stay up to date with all the government guidance on group gatherings, social distancing etc and to pass this on to all of our networks working with young people.

And when we were able to start to carefully gather together again in small gatherings, Simeon and Kwaku were invited to create and present a youth working session at a locally staged Christian youth and children’s work resourcing day

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Dormant/Paused projects:

As stated on page 7, ‘Dormant/Paused Projects’ are projects that we have regularly run (pre-COVID) but that normally rely heavily on one-to-one and group contact in person. We deemed them impossible or implausible to try and run during lockdown and under social restrictions. As things currently stand, we fully intend to re-visit these projects once restrictions are fully lifted and the opportunities present themselves so we thought it important to include them in this report to give you a full and clear view of all our potential work and vision in working with young people and Churches in Newham.

BIG TOPIC

BIG TOPIC is a ‘spin off’ from Big Questions. The format is exactly the same but we devote the evening to just one topic so we can delve deeper into it and explore it in more depth. The topics are selected

mainly based on the number of questions the young people submit at Big Questions about a particular subject/topic. Previous BIG TOPICs have included such subjects as ‘Christianity and other religions’ and ‘God and relationships’

Again, as with Big Questions, in a normal year we would stage a BIG TOPIC evening once a term but during the restrictions any ‘Big’ themed events have been Big Questions based as we wanted the young people taking part to ask as wide a range of questions they wanted on a wide range of possible topics and concerns during these strange times.

LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

LEADERSHIP ACADEMY is an eight month long project which seeks to grow leadership potential in

Newham’s young people. We want to see the participants equipped, supported and encouraged to develop and release their gifting and talents and achieve their God given potential as future leaders. Our own youth worker Kwaku was part of the very first year of LEADERSHIP ACADEMY and he cites this as a very important part of his own development and future decisions

We usually try and restrict churches to nominating only one young person per LEADERSHIP ACADEMY so that the young people have to grow relationships with new people from other churches and learn how to work together in a team. It’s always encouraging to see participants grow in their friendships with each other as they become more comfortable sharing and working with one another and to see their personal development in our monthly one-to-one mentoring sessions with each member of LEADERSHIP ACADEMY.

Lockdown and social restrictions and how people (especially our young people and their parents) were generally feeling and the fact that a big and important part of the course is meeting up together in both group and mentoring sessions and developing friendships and social/sharing skills meant that we reluctantly decided with heavy hearts not to run LEADERSHIP ACADEMY again for the 2021/22 academic year - the second year we have felt the need to postpone.

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INTER-CHURCH RESIDENTIAL CAMPS

Each year at Newham Youth for Christ we usually try and organise inter-church residential camps, offering young people from Newham the opportunity to go to Christian youth festivals and camps together. These camps offer our young people the opportunity to connect with young people from other churches from all over the UK and from a wide variety of backgrounds. It is also the only opportunity for any kind of holiday or time away from Newham that some of our young people get to have during the year

Pic: Our last residential camp - 2019 Soul Survivor. 38 young people, 16 boys and 22 girls, from 10 of Newham churches

These residential trips provide a great time for the young people to grow together as a group. With our camps being self-catering the times of cooking and tidying up really help build team values and relationships and gave the young people a sense of value with the work they were doing as well as having some great fun together in the process. Organising these trips particularly supports smaller churches with only a few young people that otherwise cannot organise such trips themselves.

Obviously, with social restrictions only being eased in September there was no way we could look at organising a camp for summer 2021

CHEMISTRY CLUB

An adaptation of the nationwide Romance Academy programme we normally run CHEMISTRY CLUB for church youth groups at the invitation of a church. After discussions

with a church’s youth ministry team we adapt the programme to fit their church group allowing the youth group to open up new discussions. We hope to be able to offer to work with local churches again next year to run CHEMISTRY CLUB again and help them to develop a healthy conversation with their young people around values and attitudes that underpin successful relationships and personal development. We feel this programme must be done in person!

LOCAL COMMUNITY MISSION (Love Stratford)

We started a local annual 3 day mission in 2015 working with local churches. This brings young people together empowering them to serve the community on various projects, enabling them to practically show God’s love to people. On the last mission we ran (in 2019) we had a fantastic team approximately 50 young people volunteering and working on the team.

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DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Our vision and values shapes all the work we do as Newham Youth for Christ. They help evaluate our work and enable us to think through how we can develop and grow new areas of our ministry.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Newham Youth for Christ is a charitable organisation established in 2012. The charity is organised and governed under its constitution dated 1st November 2011 which sets out the objects and powers of the charity.

The charity is managed by its trustees, who in partnership with the Centre Director are responsible for the overall vision, finance and running of the charity.

RECRUITMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES

The trustees of Newham Youth for Christ are responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charity. The trustees give their time freely and receive no remuneration or other financial benefits. The trustees seek to ensure that the needs of work are appropriately reflected through the diversity of the trustee body and seek to identify potential new trustees through the work they are doing.

INDUCTION OF TRUSTEES

Potential new trustees meet with the Newham Youth for Christ Centre Director and/or the Chair of Trustees. An overview of the charities work and the rights and responsibilities of being a trustee are provided at this meeting. The potential trustee is then invited to attend a number of Trustees meetings as an observer. After this, the existing trustees formally vote on the suitability of each candidate as a trustee and once accepted can thereafter function on the committee as trustees.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The trustees have overseen a review of the major risks to which the charity is exposed. The trustees have assessed the charity’s main risk as a reduction in funding from all sources and a strategic plan has been put into place to deal with this issue. All other risks are reviewed regularly and procedures put in place to mitigate the risk to the charity. In addition to the above all prospective employees and volunteers undertake a DBS check (Disclosure Barring Service check)

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The trustees meet together 4-6 times a year and are responsible for the strategic direction of Newham Youth for Christ and the activities undertaken by the charity. The day-to-day management of Newham Youth for Christ is delegated to the Centre Director who is also responsible for ensuring that the team continues to develop skills and working practices in line with best practice. This is monitored through regular supervision meetings and annual appraisals which are carried out for staff at every level in the organisation. The organisation also has a Council of Reference from whom the Centre Director and Trustees seek advice on vision, strategy and day-to-day matters.

Newham Youth for Christ is almost completely dependent on our many supporters, partners and partner churches for funding and prayer support. We also rely on our large team of volunteers and associates who work alongside our dedicated staff to help us deliver high quality youth events.

We are very thankful to everyone who has contributed time, prayers and money to the work of Newham Youth for Christ over the past year. In doing so you have enabled hundreds of young people the opportunity to respond to the Gospel.

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STATEMENT OF BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY

As a registered charity, and in line with the requirements of Section 4 of the Charities Act 2006, the staff and trustees of Newham Youth for Christ acknowledge that:

★
★
★ These benefits are not the cause of any detriment or harm.
★ The aims are appropriate to the beneficiaries and vice-versa.
★
★ The opportunity to benefit from our work is not unreasonably restricted to geographical restrictions, or by the ability to pay any fees charged.
★ People in poverty are not excluded from benefiting from our work.

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FINANCIAL REVIEW

2021 has been another year of financial change. Our desire and plans to push on in trying for a greater reliance on funding from individual givers and churches, aiming for a more stable financial plan, was totally impacted and hindered by COVID 19 and the ensuing lockdowns and restrictions. Despite this, we saw our reliance on funding from grants and trusts fall slightly on the previous year to 36.2% of our total income in 2021.

Whilst acknowledging our on-going reliance on the generous funding we receive from our various grant and trust partners and also the payments received from the government’s furlough/JRS payment scheme until its closure in September (18.4% of our total income in 2021) we aim to continue to strive to work towards a growing support and investment in the work and aims of Newham Youth for Christ from individuals and churches on a local level.

PRINCIPLE FUNDING SOURCES

Newham Youth for Christ is funded through a combination of both one-off and regular donations from individuals and churches as well as grants from charitable funds.

In 2021 we received £22,756.14 from individuals and churches through donations and regular and/or one-off gifts.

We received grant based funding of £10,000 from Joseph Rank Trust, £2,000 from Ashton Mansfield Trust Group, £5,000 from Garfield Weston Trust, £400 from Synergy and £4,500 from Newham Council (specifically for the “What’s The Point?” project core costs and expenses)

We are immensely thankful to all of these partners for their financial support and assistance.

INVESTMENT POLICY

The charity has no long term investments. All our money, including any reserves (see below), is kept in our bank accounts held with CAF.

RESERVES POLICY

In 2015 Newham Youth for Christ started a reserves account where currently £200 is deposited on a monthly basis as we build towards having enough in reserve to cover 3 months basic running costs (currently estimated at approx £21,000). On 31st December 2021, Newham Youth for Christ held £10,741.83 in unrestricted reserves in an account with CAF Bank.

PLANS FOR FUTURE PERIODS

The charity plans to continue the activities outlined in this document in the forthcoming years subject to satisfactory funding arrangements. The trustees intend to continue focussing on developing additional sources of funding and maintaining the charity’s links with its partners and major grant donors, ensuring that the charity’s standard of service is maintained and improved to meet its beneficiaries and its donor’s requirements.

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Independent Examiner’s Report

To the trustees of Newham Youth for Christ.

Respective Responsibilities of Trustees and Examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of financial statements. You consider that the audit requirement of Section 43(2) Charities Act 1993 (the Act) does not apply. It is my responsibility to state, on the basis of procedures specified in the general Directions given by the Charity Commissioners under Section 43(7)(b) of the Act, whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of Independent Examiner’s Report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the financial statements presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements, and the seeking of explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and, consequently, I do not express an audit opinion on the view given by the financial statements.

Independent Examiner’s Statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:

to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 41 of the Act; and
to prepare financial statements which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the Act have not been met;

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached

Prepared by: L H Ray-Mathur, A.A.T.

7th March 2022

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Final Accounts for the Year ended 31 December 2021

Final Accounts for the Year ended 31 December 2021
Opening Balance Total Income received - January 2021 to December 2021 LESS: Expenses incurred to 31 December 2021 Excess of Income over Expenses at Year-End Represented by: Cash at Bank: CAF Statement Sheet as at 31 December 2021 PLUS: CAF - Gold Account (Reserves) as at 31 December 2021 PLUS: Aggregate of Unpresented Cheques CASH Balance at year end	£ 27,980.96 £ 60,515.48 £ (67,704.05)
	£ 20,792.39
	£ 10,050.56 £ 10,741.83 £ 0.00
	£ 20,792.39

(To be carried over into the new Financial Year)

I confirm that the attached is a true and accurate record of the transactions that make up the accounts for Newham Youth For Christ for the financial year ended 31 December 2021