OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-12-31-accounts

Report & Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2021

Page 1

THRIVE YOUTH MINISTRIES

for the year 1st January - 31st December 2021

Reference and Administration Details

Registered charity number
1145794
Charity’s registered address
119 Cubbington Road
Leamington Spa
Warwickshire
CV32 7AP
Charity’s offce address Thrive Youth Ministries Offce
Whitnash Methodist Church
Murcott Road East
Leamington Spa CV31 2JJ
Trustees Andrew Fulcher Chair
Simon Archer Treasurer
Susannah Solt Secretary
Samuel Davis Safeguarding Lead
Lindsey Selley Appointed 15/07/21
Ian Derbyshire Appointed 12/10/21
Andrew Owen Resigned 23/03/21
Chief Executive Andrew Castle
Staff members Fiona Stutton
Claire Shepherd (left 28/05/2021)
Dara Sousa (started 06/09/2021)
James Yates (started 06/09/2021)
Ryan McNair (started 06/09/2021)
Independent Examiner Andrew Rice
54 St Andrew’s Road
Leamington Spa
Warwickshire
CV32 7EX
Bankers CAF Bank Ltd
25 Kings Hill Avenue
Kings Hill
West Malling
Kent
ME19 4JQ

Page 2

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing document Deed of Trust adopted on 14th November 2011

How the charity is constituted Trust

Governance/Structure

The Board of Trustees meet six times per year for business meetings. The day to day running of the charity is handled by the Chief Executive.

In 2021, the Board established four sub-committees (teams) to assist the CEO with the oversight and development of the charity. These teams are:

The Board of Trustees have given their approval to policies, procedures and guidelines, which are applied within Thrive Youth Ministries’ (more commonly referred to in this report as Thrive) daily activities.

The charity has the following policies in place:

Regular meetings of the Board of Trustees allow all Trustees to keep up to date with the development of the charity and in between meetings, any matters arising are shared by email or phone conversation, or at a fortnightly prayer meeting.

A minimum of three meetings per year are scheduled with an additional annual vision and prayer day, where possible. In 2021, Trustees met six times formally, plus a vision & prayer day with the staff on Saturday 10th July. Each of the sub-committees met at least once.

Page 3

Our core values are:

An Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is obtained prior to commencement of employment or trusteeship, with a renewal after every three years. We also ensure that all volunteers working with Thrive have a current DBS check in place.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits.

Thrive Youth Ministries is a local mission partner of Scripture Union.

Recruitment of Trustees

New Trustees are identified through connections made with individuals in the course of Thrive’s activities. Exploratory conversations occur and if the time/skills of the individual and the needs of the Board align, the person considering a trustee role is invited to meet other trustees at a meeting, where they have the opportunity to ask further questions and introduce themselves. If a synergy is identified, the person is invited to become a Trustee based upon the voting of existing Trustees.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Objects of the charity To advance the Christian faith among young people in England, as set out in our Deed of Trust.

Summary of Main Activities Undertaken for the Public Benefit in Relation to These Objects

In planning the activities of Thrive, the Trustees have given consideration to the guidance on public benefit issued by the Charity Commission in September 2013. Thrive aims to fulfil its vision as shown above and in so doing, serve the local and wider communities who connect with Thrive.

Thrive’s vision is to see every church within its area of operation with a thriving youth ministry of some kind. Our area is defined as Warwickshire and Coventry. With our office in Leamington Spa, it means we can reach anywhere within an approximate drive of 30 minutes, therefore keeping our work local.

Page 4

We recognised that for Thrive’s vision to be realised, Thrive also needs to help churches with their children’s ministry as if this is weak, it is much harder for there to be the possibility of a strong youth ministry. As a result, we work with churches to develop all ministries reaching under 18s.

Our primary means for fulfilling our objectives are by:

1. Mentoring

We provide regular one-to-one mentoring for youth and children’s leaders, both volunteers and employed staff. This helps leaders to feel valued, understood and supported in their ministry. It enables them to grow and develop as leaders as well as in their ministries. We believe mentoring is an essential element for a leader if they are to be resilient and have longevity in their position.

2. Consultancy

We offer to walk alongside churches as they look to develop their youth and children’s work. We offer resources to help them review their attitudes to young people as well as offering advice on how to improve their delivery of youth work.

3. Training

We hold both open training events and closed events, specifically at the request of a particular church. Training enables people to come together and to discuss new ideas and encourages greater creativity and dependence on God.

4. Investing in area wide youth ministry

Thrive only wants to do what the local church on its own is unable to deliver. So we run leadership courses for Christian young people, enabling individual churches to each send one or two young people to participate. We also oversee area-wide youth and children’s events.

5. Website

Our website is an effective means of communicating with a lot of people in one go. Our leadership blog is popular, as is our increasing bank of useful web links. The website is used by a large number of people regularly.

In 2021 we created an additional step:

6. Thrive’s Manifesto for 21st Century Youthwork

We have developed a step by step process to help churches create a youth ministry fit for the new century, and with a hands-on approach from Thrive. We have recruited Mission Enablers to provide churches with the expertise and knowledge to lead them through the process.

Page 5

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Last year we had better adjusted to the reality and challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic had brought on us. We knew that what had been much of our staple work would not be able to take place, and so we made a decision to keep our focus on investing, supporting and encouraging key people in local churches with what they were doing to disciple children and young people: namely the leaders.

In January 2021 we launched a weekly podcast, ‘The Heart of a Youth Leader’. This podcast is a short 8-10 minute episode, focusing on encouraging leaders to keep their eyes on God amidst the uncertainty of the times, and to find time each week to pause, refocus and reprioritise what they are doing. It has been available to watch each week on YouTube or to listen to on most podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google. Each episode gets about 25-30 listens on average, which, whilst not vast numbers is far more leaders than we would usually connect with in any one week.

We have received very encouraging feedback from youth and children’s leaders on the podcast, with some saying how they like to start the week listening to it, and how they have used it to encourage others in their teams.

“This is a podcast that always has something that speaks to me and I can feel God’s grace and love here. Definitely a crucial podcast for any youth leader!”

Charles, Youthworker, King’s Church, Coventry

“On a Monday morning, when the work to-do list is great…I enjoy this 10 minutes to be still and learn.”

Lisa, Youth Enabler, St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Finham

“Heart of a Youth Leader is encouraging, challenging and makes me want to press on and do better, and reminds me of why I do Youthwork and who it’s really for.” Ruth, Youth & Children’s Worker, Foleshill Baptist Church

Our regular Youth and Children’s Networks have continued to meet regularly, on average each occurring once per half term, and have proved to be an important support for leaders. These meetings have continued to take place on Zoom and have given a safe space for leaders to share their struggles, ask questions of fellow-leaders, and to pray for one another.

Out of these networks, we felt we needed to help leaders think about what might emerge from the restrictions and frustrations of the pandemic. Even before the pandemic hit the country, it had been clear for many of us that the model that most churches use for youth ministry no longer worked. When the pandemic struck, it highlighted the strengths and weaknesses in our Youthwork.

The Phoenix project (for youth workers) and the Aspire project (for children and family workers) were established to help leaders to explore what a fresher model of ministry needs to look like going forward. The aim was to use the pandemic as a springboard to launch into something new and not to go back to a broken model.

Page 6

The projects met for six hour meetings online, with each session exploring a different aspect of ministry and a passage of Scripture to meditate on.

At the end of each project, time was given for each youth worker to present to the group what they had learnt from the time together, and how their thinking had developed.

“It was great to think Biblically about my Youthwork and then gather together to share and pray for what we are hoping to do in the future.”

“I liked having time to reflect on what we are doing and think about ways forward. It was helpful to talk through this with other Youthworkers too. This has meant that I have a clearer way forward than I would have done without the project.”

“It has proved so useful for me - I would love to incorporate the same themes with the children’s volunteers that I work with, to see how they respond to the challenges and questions that you have set us during the sessions!”

“For me, Covid has been like a reset button and a chance to change and evolve into something new - I think I have grasped the idea of change in a positive way, and I’ve certainly felt this during the sessions, not in specific plans but just the idea - that waiting and listening for God’s movements, is as important as the next big event!”

Thanks to a grant from Tesco Bags of Help Scheme, Thrive were able to launch the Thrive Puppet Team in the summer. As the team grew (consisting of six young people and four adults, coming from five different local churches) they became more confident with their technique and lip synchronisation, resulting in them being able to give their first performances at Christmas.

Our team worked up a routine to the song, ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ and it was wonderful to see a team come together, having never done puppetry before.

In September, the staff team grew as Ryan McNair and James Yates joined our team as Youth Mission Enablers, and Dara Sousa took on the role of Operations Assistant.

These are all new roles and are helping Thrive to build on and expand our existing support for churches. Our Youth Mission Enablers are a key part in enabling us to deliver our brand new ‘Manifesto for 21st Century Youthwork’, a process that helps a church to rethink its existing Youthwork and look for new ways of reaching and discipling the next generation.

The process is built around a model that has one of our team being ‘hands-on’ with the local church, helping them with any existing activities, whilst facilitating discussions about new ways and approaches to try. These come out of following a simple format that revolves around ‘Review, Recce, Receive’, before putting together a strategy and helping a church to work towards fulfilling it.

For more details on the Manifesto watch the short video at: www.thriveym.org.uk/manifesto

As a result of the team expanding, we have been able to work with five more churches, in this new method of being present at their activities and starting to lead them in this process of moving forward. It is early days, but in each of these five churches we have seen new youth or children’s work being created.

Page 7

At Thrive we always want to invest in, and grow, Christian young people in their gifting and skills. Over the course of the summer term we were able to run an online course that would help them learn how to preach and give an engaging talk.

The course was only open to young people who had been on one of our previous Youth Growing Leaders courses. Six people, coming from six different local churches across Leamington, Warwick and Coventry, took part in the five-session course.

Using the Loud & Clear video training series from Soul Survivor, we gathered on Zoom each month for 90 minutes. We watched the videos, chatted about what we were learning and split into two’s and three’s to discuss further, and to pray for each other.

The course was four sessions long, with the option of a final fifth session where the young people were given the opportunity to deliver a talk, no longer than ten minutes in duration, and to then receive feedback from the group.

One of the (many) frustrations of the restrictions has been that we have not been able to invest directly in young people as much as we would have liked. We have not been able to run our Youth Growing Leaders course, which usually takes place each year. Our youth and children’s worship event and weekends have, of course, stopped.

Our hope is that these will start again soon and so this course was part of our preparation. In the past, we have had worship led by young people. Young people have helped to host our events, and now we want to enable young people to also give the teaching.

The participants were excellent and, despite some pre-talk nerves, each one who spoke preached God’s truth in a way that was engaging, deep and inspiring.

Our Children’s work support has continued to grow and deepen thanks to the fantastic work of Fiona Stutton, our Children’s Ministry Adviser. She has worked with several churches to develop their Messy Church events, and helped them to reestablish themselves once churches were able to meet together again in the latter half of the year. We are seeing this as a real opportunity for many churches at the moment, and look forward to more churches reaching out and serving their local communities into the next year.

As we look back at the end of the year, it is clear that it has been a challenging time but it is wonderful to see all that God has enabled to happen and for how Thrive has been able to offer critical support for many churches in an unprecedented time. We are immensely grateful for the wide support we have received and the privilege of being able to speak into the lives of so many different people, and to hopefully be a blessing and encouragement to local churches.

Page 8

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The detailed finances of Thrive Youth Ministries are reflected in the financial statements which follow on later pages with the associated notes. This review serves as a summary.

Total receipts for the year were £135,936, an increase of almost 40% from last year (£97,444). This is substantially due to the generous support received for the Youth Mission Enabler programme which has been launched this year and despite a reduced number of events and courses. Receipts from donations and grants were £135,873, an increase of 43% from last year (£94,932). These gifts, which represent the generosity of both individuals and local churches, have where possible, been further supported by Gift Aid. Donations were supplemented this year with grant funding from the Hinchley Trust and Tesco Groundworks UK. We are grateful to the Hinchley Trust for their support of the Youth Mission Enabler programme and to Tesco for the funding of equipment for a new Puppet Team. For all the gifts both large and small the trustees extend their gratitude both to the givers and to our God the provider.

In the pursuit of the vision set out above Thrive Youth Ministries has expended £112,566 this year an increase of £8,177 from 2020. At £108,307 (£88,868), the cost of salaries, pensions, national insurance and expenses were the majority of this expenditure. Maternity payments continued in the early part of the year but as this member of staff chose not to return following maternity leave the role was re-evaluated and successfully recruited. Development of the Youth Mission Enablers programme also saw two further new members of staff join the team which has significantly increased salary costs. The trustees continue to believe that they should seek to be as generous as possible in the remuneration of staff to reflect the generosity of God’s grace to Thrive Youth Ministries and have approved increases to long standing staff salaries in line with inflation.

Page 9

In previous years the cost of running courses has been another major portion of the Thrive Youth Ministries expenditure. However, due to COVID restrictions, no events or courses have been run this year and hence theses costs are nil in 2021.

The net result for the year 2021 was a surplus of receipts over payments of £23,370 which the trustees believe, particularly in light of the deficit in 2020, is a testament to God’s provision for the Youth Mission Enabler programme. When the 2021 surplus is added to bank and deposit balances brought forward from 2020 the balance carried forward at the end of December 2021 totalled £53,277. If outstanding receipts and liabilities are included the balance is adjusted to £51,906.

As Thrive Youth Ministries has celebrated its 10[th] birthday with this healthy balance the trustees must continue to look to God as the sole provider for Thrive and for His leading of the ministry into 2022 and beyond. The basic budget set for 2022, excluding course costs and fees, requires receipts of c.£179,000 to deliver nil deficit in the year, so the trustees and staff again step out in faith that He will continue to support the work. The trustees continue to be aware of the need to further extend a regular giving donor base and to make applications for grant funding when appropriate, the development of the fundraising strategy for Thrive Youth Ministries remains focused on these.

Page 10

Reserves Policy

It is the policy of Thrive Youth Ministries to maintain a balance of funds which equates to at least three months payments, in 2022 this is c. £45,000 and the balance held at the end 2021 exceeds this target. It is also the policy of Thrive Youth Ministries that if the cash balance at the end of any month reduces below £20,000 the Treasurer informs all trustees.

Risk Statement

The Trustees and Chief Executive have reviewed the risks to which a small charity operating with few employees and and a larger volunteer base is exposed. Appropriate general and public liability insurance has been obtained. Operational risks associated with the ministry activities and the holding of events have been reviewed and appropriate guidelines and policies agreed to ensure that any risk is minimised.

Approval

This report was approved by the Trustees on 17th March 2022 and signed on their behalf by:

Andrew Fulcher - Chair of Trustees

Page 11

Thrive Youth Ministries

Financial Statements for year ending 31 December 2021

Unrestricted Funds Restricted Total Total
Undesig. Desig. Funds 2021 2020
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT
Receipts
Donations, Legacies & Grants
Local Churches 4. 28,741 - - 28,741 25,500
Grants 5. 2,705 - 11,000 13,705 1,000
Individuals (gift aided) 64,199 - 2,070 66,269 46,694
Individuals (non-gift aided) 9,957 - 209 10,166 12,772
Income Tax Recovered 16,487 - 505 16,992 8,546
Local Fundraising 6. - - - 420
Total Donations, Legacies & Grants 4. 122,089 - 13,784 135,873 94,932
Course Fees 11. - - - - 2,454
Interest Received 4 - - 4 15
Other 59 - - 59 43
Total Receipts 122,152 - 13,784 135,936 97,444
Payments
Ministry Payments
Ministry - Salaries and NI 46,376 - 49,207 95,583 77,212
Ministry - Pension Contributions 3,952 - 4,031 7,983 6,712
Ministry - Expenses 3,082 - 1,659 4,741 4,944
Total Ministry Payments 7. 53,410 - 54,897 108,307 88,868
Administration Payments
Office Overheads 540 - - 540 540
Post & Stationery 1,017 - 104 1,121 742
Publicity & Website (VM) 1,032 - - 1,032 928
Insurance 356 - - 356 355
Scripture Union 8. - - - - 1,500
Other Fees 9. 493 - 59 552 715
Total Administration Payments 3,438 - 163 3,601 4,780
Equipment Purchase 122 - 536 658 53
Courses - Venues, Travel, etc. 11. - - - - 10,688
Total Payments 56,970 - 55,596 112,566 104,389
Net of Receipts/(Payments) 65,182 - (41,812) 23,370 (6,945)
Transfers between funds (44,000) - 44,000 - -
21,182 - 2,188 23,370 (6,945)
Cash at bank & in hand on 31 Dec 2020 29,662 245 29,907 36,852
Cash at bank & in hand on 31 Dec 2021 10. 50,844 - 2,433 53,277 29,907
STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
Cash Funds
Current account (CAF & Pay Pal) 5,842 - 2,433 8,275 6,907
Deposit account (CAF Gold) 45,002 - - 45,002 23,000
50,844 - 2,433 53,277 29,907
Other Monetary Funds
Income tax recoverable (due Jan 2022) 3,668 - - 3,668 4,093
3,668 - - 3,668 4,093
Investment Assets 2. - - - - -
Assets retained for use 3. - - - - -
Liabilities
Scripture Union voluntary contribution (due Jan 1,500 - - 1,500 -
PAYE and National Insurance (due Jan 2022) 3,539 - - 3,539 1,131
5,039 - - 5,039 1,131

The accounts and statement of assets and liabilities set out above, with the notes on the following page, relating to the year ending 31 December 2021 are as approved by the Trustees.

Andrew Fulcher, Chair

Date

Simon Archer, Treasurer Date

Page 12

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS

Report to the Trustees of Thrive Youth Ministries, charity number 1145794.

On accounts for the year ended 31st December 2021, set out on page 12.

Respective Responsibilities of Trustees and Examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

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

_________

Date:_______

Andrew Rice 54 St Andrew’s Road Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 7EX

Page 13

Financial Statements for year ending 31st December 2021

Notes

  1. These accounts have been prepared on a 'receipts and payments' basis in accordance with Section 133 of the Charities Act 2011.

  2. Thrive Youth Ministries has no investment assets other than a short term CAF Gold account.

  3. Thrive Youth Ministries has no fixed assets retained for use other than low value IT equipment.

  4. Donations from local churches have grown from £25,500 in 2020 to £28,741 in 2021, and yet again exceeding the maximum figure from previous years. Similarly, giving by individuals has grown from £59,566 in 2020 to £76,435 in 2021. The Gift Aid recovered in 2021 was for the final quarter of 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021. This is greater than the Gift Aid recovered in 2020, which was for the first three quarters of that year. The total General Fund giving has grown from £94,932 in 2020 to £122,594, an increase of 29%.

  5. Grants have been received from the organisations below in 2021. That received from the Hinchley Trust was provided to support the launch of the Youth Mission Enablers Programme. That for Tesco was to provide equipment for a local youth puppet team set up by Thrive Youth Ministries.

The Hinchley Trust £10,000 one off gift

Tesco Groundwork UK £1,000 one off gift

  1. A fundraising event with ‘Andy Kind’ was held in Autumn 2021, as this was organised and run by Holy Trinity Leamington Spa the income has been captured under Local Churches.

  2. Due to financial constraints in late 2020 and early 2021 ministry payments were not increased in line with inflation. Maternity payments continued in the early part of the year but as this member of staff chose not to return following maternity leave the role was reevaluated. Development of the Youth Mission Enablers programme also saw two new members of staff join the team.

  3. A voluntary contribution to Scripture Union was budgeted in 2021, but the payment of £1,500 was made in January 2022.

  4. Fees include banking and insurance costs along with other subscriptions.

  5. Analysis of movements in fund balances is given on the next page.

Page 14

Undesignated
General Fund
Events Fund
Restricted
Children's Worker Fund
Youth Mission Enabler Fund
Puppet Team Fund		 Balance
B/fwd.
Receipts
Payments
Transfer
Balance
C/fwd.
26,959
122,152
56,970
(44,000)
48,141
2,703
-
-
-
2,703
29,662
122,152
56,970
(44,000)
50,844
245
-
34,813
36,000
1,432

-
12,784
20,247
8,000
537
-
1,000
536
-
464
245
13,784
55,596
44,000
2,433

The Events Fund represents accumulated fee receipts for attendance on residential retreats, courses and youth events which are used, in the first instance, to cover the costs of these events. No events have been run in 2021, due to COVID restrictions, so this fund has seen no change.

The Children's Worker Fund, Youth Mission Enabler Fund and Puppet Team Fund respectively capture the costs of our Children’s Worker, our two Mission Enablers and of puppet team equipment. As restricted grant funding for these initiatives is expended a positive balance is maintained by supplementing from the General Fund.

  1. The Thrive Youth Weekend “Basecamp” did not go ahead in either January 2021 or January 2022 and hence no separate analysis is given.

Page 15