Report of the Trustees For the year ending 31 March 2023
Information produced for this report has been generated in line with the monthly charity operations updates and reports.
Objectives and Activities
The charity’s purposes are set out in the objects contained in the company’s Articles of Association. The activities of the charity are that of youth mentoring . We continued to operate fully within our objectives.
Achievements and Performance
During the financial year ending 31 March 2023, Journeyman Mentoring Network Ltd continued to deliver existing projects across different communities, which consisted of both online and in person workshops and events for mentors, guardians and adults working with teenage boys.
Local Groups
In relation to our local Journeyman Groups (JGroups), we supported our Bristol, Frome and Stroud groups to meet regularly with mentors and boys. We continued to mentor, guide and support our Hereford group towards becoming certified in line with our Social Franchise model, which was achieved on the 12th March 2023. Across the year, monthly support forums were made available as well as ongoing and regular communications/mentoring. In January, we also reviewed the next phase of our pilot model for the Bristol group through the recruitment of a paid local coordinator.
Continued Support
We have offered personal and professional development support to our young mentors and boys. We have also been supporting young men who have gone through our programmes to join us as apprentice mentors (or Journeymen) themselves. We continue to feed existing mentors into our brother / sister charities Mankind Project and A Band of Brothers, where they can get their own support and local facilitation training, which tends to increase their skills and capacity to mentor when / if they return to Journeyman events. We continue to write references for mentors in their 20s and 30s, often helping them get their first teaching and youth work jobs, promotions in these lines of work, and sometimes teacher training at university. We also support the young men with job references, and offer opportunities and support as they launch into early adulthood.
Central Coordination
The Central Coordination Team during this period was Luke Harney, Ianto Doyle and Mena Kirmani. Operational activities are delivered and reported in monthly operational reporting.The Coordination Team are paid and often donate further time.
Improvements were made across the year to strengthen the core coordination function in the charity, with the aim of improving efficacy, professionalisation, impact and reporting. We were also able to continue having a consistent staff team with regular external pro-bono coaching/mentoring, from: Emily Caruso Co-Director of the Global Diversity Foundation, Ned Skelton a retired business coach and trainer, and links to other organisations and individuals working in our field.
Community Engagement
We continued with our community engagement and different projects in line with our wider strategic objectives. Across the year, we delivered three ‘Inner Mentor Training’ weekends, continued to provide 1-to-1 Crisis Mentoring, and delivered PSHE sessions with a Bristol-based Homeschooling provider using the Journeyman approach. For the first time since the lockdown period, we delivered our annual Rites of Passage Adventure (RoPA) Weekend in September (RoPA 2022) successfully with 19 boys participating and 40 staff. The Outdoor Education project that we began in 2020 with our collaborators continued as a year-long monthly program for younger boys, who have been feeding into the local Frome JGroup as a result. This was led by Frome mentors with Luke Harney guiding and helping delivery.
Trustees and Governance
In terms of community governance, we continued to have strong involvement and support from our Trustees who met monthly across the year, often volunteering more time. We also held a full day ‘Strategy Day’ to develop our governance and strategic approach, and an AGM in July. Former Trustees Bruno Sabin, Peter Frearson and Anita Cheung stepped down. Louise Shipway, Richard Shaw, Nick Doherty, Kieran Maass were voted in as new Trustees.
Unit A3 Mountbatten Business Park Jackson Close Portsmouth Hampshire PO6 1US
Independent Examination Report
9[th] November 2023
Dear Sir
I have undertaken a review of the accounts and records of Journeyman Mentoring Network Limited, a registered charity (Number 1149581), for the year ended March 31[st] 2023. The Charity is also a Company, limited by guarantee (Number 07519889); neither charity nor company is required to be audited under the provisions of Charity and Corporate Governance statute, therefore for the purposes of this examination, Charity Commission Guidance CC32 has been utilised.
During this review approximately 65% of the transactions were reviewed and assessed; the data was then reconciled with their existing records. Additionally, I examined and reconciled bank statements and details for the accounts held in the name of Journeyman Mentoring Network Limited. I raised questions with the current Honorary Treasurer and also with the third-party Bookkeeper, which were handled in an open and timely manner, with full disclosure.
The year in review showed donations having been received from external and unrelated organisations; Journeyman Mentoring Network Limited (henceforth JMNL) confirmed that the source of the funds had been verified in accordance with Anti-money Laundering regulations, that receipts had been issued and, that the funds were recorded as either Reserved or Unreserved, subject to the terms of the original donation.
The Charity has demonstrated diligent and transparent management of the finances within the period under review; subsequent to the closure of the previous period, the Trustees retained the services of a new Bookkeeper and implemented use of a third-party proprietary software package (Quickbooks Online) to further improve financial management and control, which has been demonstrated within the current year under review.
The engagement of the Trustees has been demonstrated with the position of Treasurer active in the internal management of JMNL. The charity’s Board of Trustees has demonstrated on-going internal process improvements in line with Charity Commission guidelines and regulations.
Registered as a Limited Company in England and Wales, number 7646453; VAT number 128 5552 05 ICB Membership Number: 346038; ICB Practice Licence Number: 13056
Unit A3 Mountbatten Business Park Jackson Close Portsmouth Hampshire PO6 1US
I have no concerns and, have not identified any matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a full and proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. There are no recommendations arising.
No liability or legal responsibility is accepted for the state of the financial statements as this assessment relates to an examination of best practice only and is not an audit. Therefore, no comment on the content of the statements is made or implied.
NOTE – This report contains two (2) pages in total and may not be utilised, read or accepted unless as a whole.
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Kemp BA(Hons), MBCS, MICB
Registered as a Limited Company in England and Wales, number 7646453; VAT number 128 5552 05 ICB Membership Number: 346038; ICB Practice Licence Number: 13056